The education minister is trying to make sense of nonsense, and fool us once again. After the publishing of the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations of 2014, Nurul Islam Nahid claimed that the reported leakage of question papers had no effect on the success rates. How was he so sure of it?
He has, I guess, good reason to make such arguments. Firstly, he knows none of the beneficiaries of the leakage would come out and say: “Hey, I did it.” Secondly, what we don’t know is whether the minister had applied his power and authority to “customise” the results sheets.
He actually wants to justify the question paper leakage (which was confirmed even by his ministry’s probe body) by showing an El Dorado in the results. Please see one sample of the hidden truth – examinees under the Dhaka board scored 92.59% in English this year compared to last year’s 82.30%. And the minister still advised us to believe his words.
His comrades might say he has ensured equal opportunities for both – the culprits and the innocents who could now compete in the race for higher education. He is backed by the prime minister who criticised those questioning the results and the knowledge of our children.
Yes, it’s not a bad idea to appease the young generation by offering something very cheap, if you can forget the ultimate cost of overall decline in quality.
This political approach reminds us of the record of “mass success” in the Secondary School Certificate examinations in 1972, thanks to unfair means to the extent of open book examinations at many centres.
What a gift to the youngsters in a newly independent country. Many of them later lost their academic track during their college days or ended up beleaguered in their professional lives.
Why don’t we recall the so-called “Tofail BCS”? In 1973, candidates of civil service examinations were selected following recommendations from Tofail Ahmed.
As a result, many unqualified persons were presented with high positions in the public service, while some bright officers belonging to that batch had never been able to shed the stigma.
Need I repeat, a wrong horse of history can guide us nowhere but anarchy.
In our boyhood, we came in close touch with an enlightened Fazlul Karim, a teacher who migrated from Dhaka to rural areas in Tangail to establish schools and mentor helpless students.
He often gave “sermons” to youths: “Why do you think of adopting unfair means in examinations? You can’t copy or imitate in any real-life competition, be it creative work or sports.” Regrettably, I found very few people who understood his words properly.
The malpractice in education has triggered corruption in different sectors – leakage of safety net benefits, manipulation of tenders, violence and moneymaking in recruitment tests, pilferage of judicial documents, food adulteration, cheating with crests, and forgery with votes.
The education minister once said it was difficult to maintain secrecy of question papers in this age of information technology, when questions are stored in PCs. His statement prompts me to say that his government should have either stopped computerisation or cancelled the system of examinations for good. He finishes his duty by providing books to the students at the beginning of the year – a show which has nothing to do with quality of learning.
And why will the students read if there is no value in reading? So much is our complacency that we don’t need to compete at the international academic levels.
We don’t have the target of producing scientists, creative people, and writers who would be capable of winning the Nobel Prize. Thus, building human resources stands to be mere political rhetoric.
Here is some proof: Bangladesh ranks 25th in education, 23rd in information and communications technology, and 27th in invention and knowledge-based economy among 28 countries in South Asia and the Pacific as revealed in a study by the Asian Development Bank.
So, under this education regime, the question of quality is not an issue, and accordingly, question paper leakage is not any major crime.
The minister has just announced that the government would soon enact laws featuring imprisonment and fines for those spreading rumours to create confusion over question paper leaks.
This means the people, including media professionals, would be discouraged to speak out or lodge complaints about the process of question paper leakage. It’s a hurrah for the culprits who will easily save themselves from the formal legal process.
