Educational rot is spreading fast  

There seems to be a collective suicidal attempt -- one that corresponds to the Japanese word harakiri -- to destroy the country's education system. Question leak in public examinations at the secondary and higher secondary levels, university and medical college admission tests have long vitiated the educational atmosphere. After the authority's vehement denial of question paper leak and refusal to hold a fresh admission test, a probe into the scandalous matter involving Dhaka University has come up with details of the crime and a few criminals involved in it have been taken into custody. There is no guarantee that the ringleaders of the criminal gangs have all been apprehended.

However, there has been a strange reaction from the authorities concerned. In most cases, there is the proverbial ostrich-like denial. In some cases, there is even a pre-emptive attempt to counter any probable leak of question papers. Warning is issued against anyone spreading the rumour of question paper leak. That it is not rumour but real leak gets hushed up in the process unless of course, a few get caught red-handed with modern devices at the time of distributing leaked questions or using devices to help candidates get hold of such question papers.

Even such stark evidence would not make the authorities swallow the bitter pill and admit that they have failed to contain the rot. For years this has been happening and lo and behold how the gangrene is fast spreading up to the tender parts of the body called education! Not even the lowest grades of students are spared of the cancerous growth. Reports have it that question papers of school final examinations for class-I to IV have been duly leaked and parents and guardians have also joined in the fray to procure those in exchange for a fat amount of money. In Betagi upazila, under Barguna, class II school final examinations had to be postponed on account of question paper leak. The same happened in a few other places.

It is a familiar pattern. When such leaks occurred at the secondary and higher secondary levels, the authorities used to postpone examinations or had different sets of question papers reserved for replacing the leaked set. At least there was an attempt to look for a remedy but now it seems that the authorities have resigned to the fact because it is beyond their power to stop the question papers from leaking out. At primary level, question paper leaks have been reported for the first time and the authorities have tried to save the day for the innocent kids who are not supposed to know about such malpractices. A section of villains and parasites within the system of administration in collaboration with parents have taken the loathsome step to initiate the tiny tots to the aberration.

Now that this has come into practice, repeats of it are just on the cards. If it continues to plague the country, the authorities will take recourse to the denial mode and tactic. Thus there is the ominous spectre of presiding over the funeral of education in this land, courtesy of enemies of the people and the country. What is so appalling is the fact that parents could introduce their innocent children to this villainous practice. The ethical rot is complete. Surely, there were parents who looked in disbelief that their peers could stoop so low as to procure leaked question papers for their young ones. They felt outrageous and cursed the system, maybe, but had no way of registering their protests. The majority had no qualms about making compromise with the value they once prized.

If the question leaks have shaken the core of the system, the kind of reaction it should have generated is simply missing. As if this was not enough, another chilling report carried in a Bangla contemporary says that money now buys GPA-5 in the public examinations held for class-V students. Tempering of marks and thereby change in grade point average (GPA) of as many as 1,200 have been detected. This has been happening for the past three years. Involved here are a few syndicates who in collusion with a section of education officials from the Directorate of Primary Education (DPI), upazila education officers entice guardians to have their children's grades changed.

At least one such thana education officer of the capital has been served a show-cause notice. She has also responded to it. But the report mentions that all who have allegedly been involved in mark or grade tempering can go scot-free because of the support they enjoy from their influential mentors. Results of a number of government primary schools were tempered with. The report is categorical that just one school in the capital was given 52 GPA-5 in 2014, 92 GPA-5 in 2015 and 52 GPA-5 in 2016 illegally.

This ill practice is unlikely to be confined only to the capital. Now that teachers are no longer allowed to set questions for the school final examinations of classes of primary schools in many areas, the administrative involvement and supervision have robbed teachers of the respect and prestige. Question papers are set by the administration at the upazila level to hold examinations for all the primary schools there simultaneously. If education is fraught with such low esteem and lack of trust in teachers' integrity and aptitude, the rot in education will be exposed all over.

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