Preventive measures may remove unethical practices in exams

Bangladesh has been providing huge facilities for education of the students. Some good efforts of the government towards building educated nation are initiatives like supplying free books to primary and secondary level students, ensuring free education for girls, implementing free and compulsory primary education, supporting poor primary children by giving stipend, providing stipend for girls up to graduation level, ensuring education for underprivileged, never enrolled and dropped-out children etc.  Despite providing remarkable support in education sector, some dishonest persons are trying to make government's efforts unsuccessful. The country is facing a crucial challenge now-a-days. Talk of the nation is about the issue of question paper leakage in the public examinations. A group of dishonest people are responsible for provoking students, parents, guardians, educationists and even the government for their unethical activities of question paper leakage or publishing fake/part/whole of real questions through facebook or other ways.  This is an urgent task of the government  to address the challenge through taking stunning action and not hiding the real situation. All concerned with the public examinations, admission tests and examinations for appointment in jobs need to identify the roots of the problem for addressing it permanently rather than showing the tendency of avoiding the problem. The problem might be affected epidemically in future if all concerned take it lightly. This is the high time we took strong punitive action against concerned dishonest people as a preventive measure for removing the issue for ever. Otherwise our future generation will be destroyed for corruption and immoral activities that definitely tend to confront them to the vicious cycle of corruption. Vicious cycle of corruption means that students, when they adopt unfair means during student life, definitely expect such easy  way of passing examinations in the next stages and even in the admission tests and selection procedures of getting jobs.
The issue of leaking questions may happen mainly for two reasons. One is for earning more money by dishonest coaching centre owners with a view to showing publicly their superior performance in the public examinations over other coaching centres as ill competition.  The reason is people never heard the news of question leakage incidents in case of Ebtedayee Madrasha Completion Examination, Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC), Alim, Fadil, Kamil examinations etc as there are no coaching centres for madrasha students. On the other hand, some people may have the bad intention of compelling government to false and embarrassing  position because they are publishing fake or suggestion like questions or part of real questions in the facebook or twitter for spreading it publicly in lieu of taking ill advantages of question leakage individually or institutionally.
So, the government and all concerned badly need to take following steps to address the crisis for the betterment of education sector with a view to building effective country friendly skilled future generation as well as to free the country from the curse of confronting vicious cycle of corruption.
* During public examinations, admission tests and examinations for appointment in jobs, SMS services of mobile phone companies and face book/twitter facilities need to be suspended temporarily.
* Use of mobile and digital sophisticated camera, pen, wristwatch and headphone etc might be prohibited in examination centres by examinees and in case of using these punitive actions against concerned examinees should be taken spontaneously through mobile court.
* Panic should be created by taking quick legal actions against concerned teachers, parents, students etc if they are responsible for occurrences of any kind of unethical activities related to examination in and outside examination centres.
*  There should be a mobile court in each and every examination centre for taking quick punitive actions for committing unethical and illegal activities during examination. Before entering into the centre, examinees and teachers should be checked by members of law enforcing agencies whether they bring mobile, tab, digital camera, pen, headphone etc and accused should be punished by mobile court.
* Coaching centres should be closed by making law.
* Advertisement of educational institutions/coaching centres in the forms of bill board, banner, poster, wall writing should be banned. Rather educational institutions may have brochure to introduce the institution to parents.
* Development of questions/test items and procedure of receipt of question papers by examinees in the centres might be digitalised. Skilled but honest, sincere and expertise teachers/officials should be involved in developing and distribution of questions.
* Question papers may be sent to the centres through e-mail one hour before examinations start and there should be significant number of photocopy machines in the centres. Examination centres should be Upazila head quarter based. But considering communication facilities additional centres outside head quarter might be arranged only for JSC/JDC and PSC examinations.
* Region wise question papers may be developed for dispelling the problem of postponing nationwide examinations if any undue occurrence of leakage of question paper happens in any place.
* MCQ types of questions may be  reduced in the objective portion of questions rather Fill in the Gaps, Matching, True-False, short questions etc might be kept at larger number. Marks in the objective portion  may be given according to proportionate rate of examinee's received marks in the subjective portion if received marks by the examinee vary significantly in the objective and subjective part of a particular subject. This method may apply in the subjects that have practical examinations.
    Email: auparbayazidkhan@gmail.com