Leakers now prepare to taint HSC

No sooner had the SSC exams finished than the question leakers were tempting the HSC examinees on social media.

“Next mission HSC. Those who need HSC questions message me. I will not take any money unless I give you the questions before anyone else does. And no advance [payment] needed…. But you will have to prove that you are a real student,” reads the status of a Facebook group titled Buzz Out.

Another user, Huntinter Ayon wrote, “We provided SSC question papers earlier than anyone else. We will do that during HSC too.”

The self proclaimed leakers, who often deactivate old accounts, open new ones or change user names, assure students that their question papers would be authentic.

Dozens from around the country commented, saying they were looking for the question papers. In some cases the leakers asked those who were interested to get added in secret groups.

The Higher Secondary Certificate exam is scheduled to start on April 2.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Friday said strict measures to prevent questions leaks would be taken during the upcoming HSC exams.

All questions papers of this year's SSC exams had been leaked and shared on social media and messaging apps hours before the exams started, making it arguably the largest-ever reported SSC question leaking.

Contacted, Alimuzzaman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Cyber Crime Unit, said his team was trying to track the SSC question leakers down.

“We will keep monitoring during the upcoming HSC exams,” he said.

As part of its effort to stop leakers, the ministry had shut down all coaching centres a week before the exams started and made it mandatory for SSC examinees to enter exam halls 30 minutes ahead of the exams.

The education minister even announced a reward of Tk 5 lakh for whoever would lead to the arrest of the leakers.

At one point, the government decided to virtually block all internet access for two and a half hours ahead of every exam. But it had to backtrack amid public outrage.

Arrests were made almost regularly and cases were filed, but the real culprits behind the leaks remained at large.

Terming question leaks a big challenge facing his ministry, the education minister on Friday said his officials were yet to dig deep and find the root cause.

The 11-member inter-ministerial committee formed to look into the allegations of SSC exam question paper leaks, has found only one paper to be “fully” identical to the leaked one and some others to be “partially” similar.

The committee will hold a meeting today and submit its findings and recommendations tomorrow.