When 56,000 scripts of a public examination show changed marks and grades, it undeniably reveals serious scams in our evaluation system. Whatever we do or say, it raises questions about the acceptability of public exam results.
I have witnessed the shams and scams in public examination results since 1991, when I first became an examiner at the Dhaka Education Board. The problems unfold every year in new areas and forms, even though many parts of result preparation are done using machines and newer devices.
I remember attending all the meetings before distributing the board examination scripts, but I saw that many teachers did not attend to learn the collective decisions for checking the scripts, and many did not even bother to review the written directions for checking the examination scripts.
I used to share the problems I witnessed as an examiner and question setter of education boards in different forums and have produced numerous articles in Bengali and English dailies to draw the attention of the relevant authorities, but to little or no effect at all, as I see the problems have rather multiplied.
These problems are not the kind that can be solved overnight. Nor can we expect to see the problems solved by delivering an excited speech or threatening the teachers. Rather, it calls for huge and genuine research, a well-designed plan, and the implementation of new ideas and innovative work to bring about change.
Nevertheless, who will think of doing it? We listen to decision makers talk about their big plans and projects without addressing the root causes of the problems.
Teachers, boards, the evaluation system, and even the entire education management have sunk into serious problems. Instead, we talk about utopian ideas while avoiding the real causes, which go beyond pragmatic scenarios.
In 1991, we learnt in a board meeting that a student scored 82 in mathematics, but an examiner changed it to 28; the student’s family filed a case in court, and the board was bound to recheck it and found the number had been changed.
During that period, such things happened at a minimal level, but in this age of computers, they have started increasing in several areas, even though we have digital facilities.
Through newspaper reports, we learn that this year 4 lakh 2 thousand 52 students applied for rechecking their results, and the boards accordingly rechecked 10 lakh 56 thousand scripts, in which grade changes occurred for 27 thousand 836 students, and a total of 56 thousand 251 scripts had changed marks.
Why does it happen? Teachers are usually asked to check the scripts in a short period of time. Moreover, teachers’ inefficiency, negligence, and corruption in the board’s computer section, as some newspapers have unearthed, are also responsible. We can remember that the ministers and the people concerned with education under the fallen regime used to express their satisfaction and pleasure at publishing the results in less than two months instead of three months or more.
I used to write that it was not a credit, as the scripts had huge problems. We are gradually becoming dependent on machines, but our humanistic qualities are declining. During our time, our teachers used to examine scripts by hand and prepare results manually, but mistakes were minimal.
Now, computers and modern devices do most of the work, but mistakes are multiplying. This year, rechecking exam scripts shows the highest number of GPA-5 holders moving from fail to pass, grade changes, and the most scripts showing changes. For these reasons, the students who have been undergoing mental trauma since August 10 have been released from it. However, is it expected? Who will take responsibility?
It is a sad reality that teachers at many famous educational institutions don’t want to evaluate board examination scripts because of low honoraria. They forget that this is one of teachers’ significant responsibilities. To become familiar with the faults and problems students create, they can become real and professional teachers by checking board scripts.
They cannot master the ins and outs of teaching and learning activities if they don’t examine the board scripts, where they can see the presentations of students from various types and areas. If they do not take the scripts from the boards, what can the government do? Any punitive action against them means a slur on the entire teaching community. So, teachers should come forward to do this activity on their own, considering it their solemn responsibility.
For these reasons, board authorities are compelled to give scripts to some teachers who do not deserve them. Some teachers are inexperienced and demotivated, but they examine scripts just for money, and they establish an almost illegal connection with corrupt people in education boards, particularly with the PAs of controllers.
These people can never give us the expected and honest results. Many teachers do not even spend their time checking scripts themselves; they have their wives, children, or students do it. This kind of teacher was available in our time too, but its rate has increased alarmingly in this modern period. I also saw some of my colleagues’ irregularity in checking scripts during that period.
Some teachers check the scripts three or four times after submitting their allotted scripts. They do it just for money, and it never ensures sound checking. In this regard, I remember that during my work at Cumilla Cadet College, after submitting my exam scripts, the controller used to call me to take more scripts again because they had to get it done within a short period of time. Moreover, they believed that cadet college teachers examine scripts sincerely. However, I never brought scripts more than once.
To minimise the problems and complexities of public examination irregularities that surface every year, education boards should appoint only time-tested, responsible teachers as examiners. It would be better if examiners could be invited to the education board for 3-7 days to check the scripts together.
The examiners’ remuneration should be handsome. Whether together or separately, whatever way the scripts are checked, there must be a second examiner to check the same script. If done, the results will be more genuine and acceptable to all. Higher educational institutions can then consider the grades students obtain in public examinations for admission.
Questions must be set in several sets, and we should avoid preparing the same types of questions every year. Questions must be innovative to test students’ real merits, not the traditional types we see every year.
Usually, those who come into educational administration don’t prove themselves as good and effective teachers or efficient administrators. As a result, we hardly see any innovative ideas or change in this area of education. Really good teachers do not want to take these positions because they have experience managing so-called student leaders who never taught them sound administration.
To address these issues, strong and real teacher cum administrators are necessary in these positions. However, it is regrettable that these positions are occupied by people who are experts at building liaisons with political authorities, so they depend on political gurus for decisions, even though education boards are autonomous bodies.
Another grim reality is that teachers lose interest in classroom teaching as students show utter reluctance to study, take exams, and learn anything new, which clearly loses teachers’ interest. So, some teachers try to escape this situation.
When they occupy important administrative positions, they can show neither academic acumen nor administrative efficiency. It is a hard nut to crack. If the government is sincere enough to remove the problems, education boards will be able to show us something new. However, teachers must come first to initiate any positive change.
I request all controllers, chairpersons, and other education board administrators to take new initiatives of their own, without always depending on political decisions. You know the problems much better than those who come to the government. You know how students can perform better.
But if you show an administrator’s attitude rather than a teacher’s, the problem will recur. Several years ago, the NCTB held a meeting where all the controllers of education boards were invited. Luckily, I was also invited to say something about the problems of questions in different boards, and I expressed my opinions and suggestions, giving some practical examples.
Hearing my speech, several controllers just talked like this ‘’ Questions are prepared by teachers; they also do moderation. If problems still exist, what can we do as controllers? I just told them that, as a controller, you cannot avoid this responsibility.
If they think they are no longer teachers, just administrators, the problems will happen repeatedly, as things must be viewed with the eyes of a genuine teacher.
About the Author
Masum Billah works as the President of the English Teachers' Association of Bangladesh (ETAB), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He previously worked as an Education Specialist at BRAC, an international NGO in Bangladesh.