In a shocking turn of events, an investigation done by a team of journalists for six years has shown that more than 30 government jobs and academic board exams in Bangladesh including question papers of the nation's most competitive exams like Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) have been leaked for over "a decade". These incidents of paper leaks are spreading like a contagious epidemic in Southeast Asia's education system.
Paper leaks where exam question papers are disclosed before the scheduled date have become a common phenomenon that disrupts the integrity of individual academic assessments. Historically, these leaks used to be isolated incidents but in recent times they have become a widespread problem that impacts millions of kids and undermines the quality of education.
If one carefully assesses these paper leak incidents in countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan there will be many uncanny similarities both in the procedure and the pattern of the crime. In the case of Bangladesh, the first recorded case of exam paper leak happened back in 1979.Since then it has become a persistentcase paper leak which can be foundat the academic board exams like SSC and HSC. Several incidents were also reported periodically at the competitive admission tests of public universities, and medical-dental colleges.
Recently, there has been a new shift where the lucrative government exams also fell into the trap of paper leaks. On July 7th an investigative TV news reporter found the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) officials are directly connected with the BCS question paper leak. Since 2019, there have been at least 65 major exam leaks reported across 19 states in India. On June 4th, the results for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG were released. This MBBS admission test was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), an autonomous body.
In a surprising act of fortune,a record number of 67 students got the topper position with a perfect score of 720 which is next to impossible. At first, Bihar police arrested five people in the paper leak then recently The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the accused mastermind of this paper leak scandal.
In a surprising act of fortune,a record number of 67 students got the
topper position with a perfect score of 720 which is next to impossible.
At first, Bihar police arrested five people in the paper leak then
recently The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the accused
mastermind of this paper leak scandal.
In Pakistan, there is also the same incident of paper leaks that occurred in the academic board exams, and recently the officials of the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) were arrested over the SST (secondary school teacher) selection paper leak scandal. There are some common factors behind this paper's leaks irrespective of the difference in taking exams in respective nations. These can be categorized into four main points. First and foremost, corruption plays an inevitable reason in every paper leak, and most of the time the prime suspects are the corrupt authorities.
For both cases of NEET and BCS paper leaks it has been found the administration authorities namely NTA and PSC were connected to the scandals. They exploited the loopholes in the system and maintained a chain of syndicates from the high-level directors to the printing press employees or "a mere driver". Secondly, the higher graduate unemployment rate is present in all the mentioned countries.For example, in India, according to a report by ILO, the jobless rate for graduates was 29.1%, almost nine times higher than the 3.4% for those who can't read or write. This makes candidates desperate to take extreme measures resulting in a demanding market for paper leak syndicates.
Thirdly, there is a sense of paranoia among students about getting a certain position in a limited number of seats where hundreds are fighting for one seat in the top universities. This unhealthy competitiveness creates an ideal environment for those culprits to weaponize their dreams. Lastly, the use of non-traceable technology like end-to-end encryption systems in Telegram and WhatsApp keeps hidden the identity of the culprit and side by side circulates the exam paper at an overwhelming rate.
There are long-term effects and consequences for a nation regarding the impact of paper leaks. Trust and credibility of the education system start to erode as both students and parents lose faith in the fairness of the outcome. Incompetent people are selected which undermines the true value of one's merit and hard work. This failure of recognition becomes one of the prominent causes of "brain drain". A survey done by the World Economic Forum states that almost 82% of young people between the ages of 15 and 29 said they wanted to leave the nation and settle there. In the rate of brain drain India ranks the top in South Asia followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan, for developing countries like them it is unfortunate to lose their best minds which will affect their future.
The writer is a third-year International Relations student at the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
