Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yet again has blamed teachers for leaking question papers right before public examinations.
Answering a supplementary question from MP Shamim Osman on Sunday, Nahid told the parliament, “Some teachers are tarnishing the image of their colleagues and causing problems for the government. They open the envelopes containing the question papers in the morning before the exams and then leak them. They also earn a lot of money through this while trying to push the government into a tight spot.”
Terming question leak a longstanding problem for the country, the minister said they have been working to tackle the crisis. “BG Press was a problem before. But we took care of that and now there is no chance of questions leaking from there. The distribution process has also been secured,” he added.
“But the problem is these teachers who are leaking the questions on the morning of the exams.”
During another parliament session on November 16 last year, the education minister had also held teachers responsible for the question leak spree.
“Some teachers set-up the whole scam. As soon as those teachers receive question papers in the morning, they pass those on to their students. This is why we are focusing more on instilling morality among the teachers,” he had said.
Nahid, however, on Sunday assured again that the government was taking stern measures to prevent question leaks and punish those who are responsible.
In this regard, the minister went on informing the parliament about the preventive and punitive steps taken surrounding the upcoming Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams, which includes immediate expulsion of teachers and students found with phones during the tests.
Also, the examinees will have to enter their respective exam halls at least 30 minutes before the exams begin, and no excuse will be accepted in this regard. “After they take their seats, the envelopes containing the questions will be opened. We have formed mobile teams to monitor the entire process,” Nahid told the parliament.
He also somewhat blamed the developments in technology for not being able to stop question leaks. “They (criminals) always find a new technology to leak questions every time we come up with something to stop their current method.
“This is the problem with development. But we are also trying to tackle this head-on,” he said.
Meanwhile, Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman on Sunday also told the parliament that the dropout rate in the country’s primary education sector was 18.8% according to the Annual Primary School Census 2017.
Replying to a query from lawmaker Israfil Alam, the minister said the reasons behind the dropout were poverty, lack of awareness, child labour, distance and illiteracy.
Mostafizur also said that different government programs were already underway at the field level to decrease the rate of dropout.
Responding to a starred question from MP Didarul Alam, the minister said till October 2017, a total of 20,847 head teacher posts were vacant in the primary schools across Bangladesh.
He also added that 898 candidates from the batch of 34th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) were recommended for appointment in those posts.