HSC exams see smooth beginning

The first HSC examination of this year was held without any allegation of question leak.

The exam of Bangla first paper began at 10:00am yesterday in 2,541 test centres across the country amid fears of question leak.

Although some Facebook groups for the last couple of days were alluring people with leaked questions to collect money, no incident of question leak was reported yesterday.

The government this time took several measures to prevent the menace following widespread allegations of leaks in the SSC examinations.

As many as 1,092,607 examinees have registered to sit for the HSC exams under eight general education boards, 1,00,127 under the madrasa board and 117,754 under the technical education board from 8,943 education institutions.

Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion detained seven people from different parts of the country in the last three days for their alleged involvement in trying to cheat students and guardians through social media.

In yesterday's exams, 89 candidates and seven invigilators were expelled.

Of the expelled students, 40 were from madrasa board, 32 from technical education board, seven from Dhaka, six from Barisal, two from Dinajpur and one each from Jessore and Sylhet boards, according to a report of inter-education board coordination subcommittee.

Of the expelled invigilators, four were from Sylhet board and the rest from technical education board.

Moreover, 13,718 examinees were absent yesterday, the report said.

After visiting the HSC exam centre at Siddheswari Girls' College in the capital, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told reporters that the government took every possible measure so that no question paper could be leaked.

“New problems are arising every day. We have taken all humanly possible preventive measures based on our experience and information," he said.

Talking about the measures, the minister said the government developed some innovative systems, including introduction of lottery to choose question sets and special security envelopes, to tackle the leak.

He hoped that the new system could prevent the attempts of question leak in the HSC exams.

"QUESTION LEAKERS ARE ALSO TERRORISTS"

Rab Director General Benazir Ahmed yesterday said, "Those who leak question papers or collect money cheating people by doing such work are also terrorists. We must wipe out the question leak terrorists like militants."

He said they freed some examinees of the recently concluded SSC exams and their guardians despite their involvement in the leaks.

“But this time, if we recover any question, whether it is original or fake, from any examinee or guardian before an exam, we will take legal action against them. We did not do so last year considering their careers, but this year the students and their guardians will be held responsible for this,” he said.

Regarding the arrest of seven, the Rab chief said no question paper was recovered from them. "Actually, they are trying to collect money by cheating people,” he said.

In Gazipur, the examinees sitting for the test at Pear Ali College centre alleged that they got MCQ questions 15 minutes later.

Principal of the college Abul Khayer denied the allegation, while Deputy Commissioner Humayun Kabir of Gazipur said they would investigate the matter.