The primary and mass education ministry yesterday formed a high-powered probe committee to investigate allegations that question papers of the primary terminal examinations were leaked.
The committee, headed by an additional secretary of the ministry, was asked to submit its report within seven working days, a press release said on Saturday.
“Action will be taken if proof is found,” said the press release, signed by Additional Secretary Ashraful Islam.
The grade-5 nationwide examinations began last Wednesday, amid allegations that question papers were leaked.
On Tuesday night, many guardians told the Dhaka Tribune that they heard that question papers for the mathematics examination were leaked.
On Wednesday at 10 am, just an hour before the math exam started, Shyamal Kanti Ghosh of the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) told the Dhaka Tribune that they did not find any truth to the rumour, and decided to go ahead and hold the exam.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that he had given strict instructions to the relevant officials to look into the matter so that children were not affected.
Nahid added that he would sit with the officials today to discuss the issue.
“First of all, we need to find out if the question papers were really leaked. If so, we need to find who are involved behind this and whether students were affected because of this. To know this, we need to investigate the whole incident. So the committee was formed,” he said.
However, rumours continued yesterday that questions papers for today’s English examination were also leaked. A guardian, whose daughter is taking the exams from Viqarunnisa Noon School in the capital, said a neighbour who works in the DPE offered to get him a copy of the English question paper for Tk5,000.
“He told me that if I give him Tk5,000, I can manage the original question for my child,” the guardian, who did not want to be identified, told this correspondent yesterday.
Meanwhile, police in Dinajpur arrested Masud Rana, a coaching centre director, in connection with the alleged question leaks, while four others were detained in Satkhira following reports in some newspapers.
About 2,950,000 fifth-graders are taking the examinations under the national curriculum this year. The exams will end on November 28.
