The country’s SSC and equivalent public examinations will begin on 21 April, the first of its kind since the new government assumed office. The minister for education who has been well known for taking stern action against adopting unfair means in the public examinations during his office as state minister for education some nineteen years back (BNP’s previous period 2001-06) which saw a great success to almost banish unfair means in the exam that he had to do going against the tide the nation experienced then which we think must be a bold and challenging step.
So, the demand of people in the education field for him to take responsibility for the Ministry of Education was taken into cognisance by the present government.
It must be an acid test for him when the entire education system is beset by serious ills and diseases, and everyone wants to reach the top without learning anything, passing automatically, getting a job, and earning money without any diligence or industry.
The minister has already given his directions to conduct the public examinations smoothly and fairly, warning that wrongdoers will be brought to stern punishment.
A series of steps, he declared, includes identifying risky examination centres, installing CC cameras there, and frequent, sudden visits to the halls, along with a ‘helicopter mission’ he conducted during his previous office. Students’ bodies will be thoroughly searched before they enter the public examinations halls, and toilets will be checked and rechecked.
If any student is found using unfair means, stern action will be taken against him/her, and, in this regard, the law regarding unfair means will be amended. The draft paper of the Public Examinations Offences Amendment Act has been approved. Through it, the law introduced in 1980 has been made tougher to impose stern punishment on wrongdoers, including cheaters.
All concerned, including the teachers and invigilators, will be brought to book, ensuring they remain alert and busy, and they will try their level best to stop unfair means in the public examinations. As the disease is chronic and rampant, this kind of stern action is necessary.
Teachers lacked the courage to take any action against the wrongdoers, out of fear, even for their lives. Nobody except the hall secretary will be allowed to use a mobile phone. Teachers at the school where the public examinations centres are located will not be allowed in.
Teachers who give extra or lenient marks to students will also be punished, which also sounds good, as the previous practice encouraged teachers to award marks with a lavish hand that went absolutely beyond the norms of assessment. This is not the right place to show compassion or leniency.
All these have been open and rampant for so many years, resulting in students with higher grades and fattened pass rates, but with very poor skills and competencies, as students need not do anything of their own.
All concerns were with the authorities to ensure they passed and helped cross the exam ladder, raising the pass rate and leading the nation towards a `zero merit’ situation. Because of this phenomenon, institutional teaching is of little or no value.
Question papers have been brought in foil packs, placed in security envelopes, and can be opened only once. That means that once opened, it cannot be resealed. Even if it is done, things can easily be detected. One tag officer will take questions from the treasury, and 15-20 will be taken before the public examinations.
The tag officer, police officer, and centre secretary will open the packet and affix their respective signatures. Venue centres that mean sub-centres have been removed, which is a good move, as these were the most likely and easiest sources of leaked questions. The ministry has already cancelled 292 venue centres.
However, only `Nikli’ and `Austagram’ still see venue centres due to the lack of alternatives. The centres that see invalid CC cameras are asked to make them operational. All the pictures must be preserved properly. According to board directives, the questions preserved at the treasury or police station will be rechecked three days before the public examinations in the presence of the treasury officer.
If public examinations are taken in a leakproof, trustworthy way, other by-products of mismanaged education will automatically disappear or become weaker. It is interesting that our education people and the authorities, without putting water in the proper place, are seen spending time talking about by-products such as vanishing coaching centres, notes and guide books, and private tuition, etc.
All these are by-products of weak educational management. In previous years, there was a competition among the education boards to increase the pass percentage and the number of so-called GPA-5 holders, without any real meaning.
Nobody could make any sense of the results. Do higher grades mean students’ spontaneous describing capacity about their text and the topic they read? Can they describe any chapter of their books by themselves? Can they write anything of their own? Can they describe anything critically? Nothing!
These results did not build anyone’s trust, so that no one could evaluate any student based on them. Still, the boards vied with one another to raise the pass percentage. Students, fake students, and students who have no connection to books, classes, tutorials, or assignments would get a GPA of 5. What the hell?
People in education used to bleed internally at the sight of this sad situation in the field. Things must change, and from somewhere and by somebody, things must start. We think the initiatives taken by the new education minister and his legacy may bring some positive changes here.
Along with conducting public examinations fairly and assessing students’ scripts and performances reasonably, this promise brings some positive changes.
We know that in this small country, all our education boards used to make questions separately, which creates another discrepancy: students who enrol in higher educational institutions following the same syllabus curriculum get different results because of their different education boards.
The new minister has already announced that the same questions will be introduced for all students across all boards, beginning with the upcoming HSC public examinations. This is another positive gesture. He has also declared that he will complete the public examinations by 31 December every year, without delaying them till March or April next year. It will also save students’ valuable time. However, lessening the subjects might not be a good decision.
It is a very timely decision that we have clamoured for years not to award marks to the student`on mercy’ and to award marks without going through the contents and scripts of the students. During the reign of previous governments, I wrote many times to change this situation, but who bothered, who cared?
At least, the announcement by this government not to grant any grace or compassionate marks to students and teachers will also make them answerable if undue marks are awarded to students, thereby definitely retaining a high level of merit. All declarations and decisions deserve praise.
The successful implementation of these decisions will drive students to attend class, strengthening the state of institutional education. It will make them serious in studies, leaving the ‘mob-culture’ and other unlawful activities they resort to now.
Guardians will also be serious, and a social change will appear. Students will read books, try to understand something by reading or talking to the teachers—all of this means the quality education we have long expected. We all need to stand by the minister and salute his honest intention!
About the Author
Masum Billah works as a 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.