Masum Billah
For the last several years the problem of leaking questions of public examinations of all levels has cropped up and the government has denied terming it a baseless claim which is tantamount to encouraging the perpetrators to continue their evil business. Thanks to the media and law enforcing agencies to identify a strong syndicate of question leakage. The worst thing and most shocking part of it is a group of teachers are actively involved in this nefarious design.
The question is being leaked over Facebook just after handing it over to teachers on the exam day, the education minister told reporters at a human chain organized by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in front of the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka. “When the authorities safely hand over the question papers to the concerned teachers, those are being shared over social media,” the minister alleged. He continued “We are in such a condition that we can neither disclose everything nor accept. But we will not tolerate these further. The authorities are bound to provide question papers two hours before the examination.” We don’t understand why the education minister himself has exposed so much helplessness? If the teachers and their ‘syndicate’ are identified, there is no point trying to save their skin. The moment teachers have stooped so low to adopt the illegal means to furthering their personal interests, they have committed the gravest crime. If the education system in the country cannot set an example in the area of integrity and accountability, we can forget our future generations displaying similar virtues in the governance of this country. The country needs to understand that achieving developed and high-income nation status by 2020 means nothing if good governance and virtues are sacrificed in the name of performance.
A group of people every year spread the message of leaking questions of public examinations, any admission test and even the questions of BCS examinations. This is likely to happen due to the dishonesty of some BG press people and some people were nabbed two or three years back. This time the judges of conscience, the guardians of the society themselves have committed this heinous crime casting a slur on the whole teaching community. These people are not actually teachers. They are corrupt, seriously corrupt businessmen. It is the responsibility of the society and state to choose the honest, deserving and qualified people to give employment as teachers. We have miserably failed to do this job. We did not give any importance to the matter and that has been revealed now. Swindling money or other official or social crime does not break the backbone of a nation but when morally debased teachers take recourse to this kind of devious practice, the rot starts taking its toll on the education system.
We know that the admission test questions of BUET has never been disclosed. We can seek their suggestions and advices. We can learn from ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level examinations where we don’t have the proof of question leakage though these examinations are conducted across the globe. No question is repeated in this kind of examination and matter of creativity gets more importance. Whereas we have public examination’s questions copied from guide books of the market. There lies every possibility of making a suggestion, non-creative practice and question leakage.
Our education and the way of its delivery hardly talks about or helps teach the moral values of the learners. Neither have they got the opportunity to broaden their mind as very limited questions and some ‘touch and pass’ method help them produce hybrid results. To manage a job they need to manage just a certificate, what they have learnt is not enough or important. We have developed the practice of evaluating this certificate, necessarily people become hungry enough to get a certificate with a so-called good grade. By fair means or foul students try to manage it. It has given rise to private coaching, coaching centers, question leakage, not t attending classes. Attending classes, participating in the teaching learning process give them original education that they don’t need it. They need a certificate which encourages them to receive private coaching and any other unethical means. We have lots of brighter learners who remain neglected because of this traditional assessment system. Formative assessment actually tells the gradual and individual development of the learners that is not practice in our education system. We need to give importance to formative assessment. Of course, it should be done objectively so that personal or individual impression of teachers cannot influence the assessment. Quiz competition, public speaking, poem recitation, debate, indoor and outdoor games, songs, dance, impromptu speech, set speech, psychometric test, attendance in the class, modest conduct and behaviour, club based activities, project works, social works must be included in the assessment system as these are the practical phenomena of life. These activities should be awarded marks when participants will perform before a board of judgments. When these things will be judged, people will not be interested in only academic activities and interested to leak questions which now gets the highest importance.
Students who are passing their exams by help of leaked question papers are cheating themselves as well as the nation. It seriously discourages regular study of the students and creates between regular and irregular students. Even, in the job markets the people coming through a false system are given perforce by virtue of their heavy certificate. This thing must be changed now. What this inefficient workforce will give to the country? Our authorities take pride in the number of golden GPA’s in PSC, JSC, SSC and HSC examinations. Things have been leaked that the examiners are directly or indirectly forced to give higher grades to the students without looking at their scripts. This is basically for political reason. We never think how funny game we play or serious crime we commit through this practice. For whose benefit or for whose destruction are we doing this thing? Public assessment system must be absolutely pure, time tested and of global standard if we really want to produce patriotic and honest citizens who will be fit for facing global challenges.
(The writer works for BRAC Education Program as a specialist who served in Cadet Colleges and Rjauk College. Email: masumbillah65@gmail.com)
