Anxiety gripped 226 Alim examinees and their guardians in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district, as the Madrasah Board students were apparently provided the wrong question paper during their English Paper I exam by invigilators at the exam centre.
Further complicating matters, the major error on the part of the exam centre authorities only came to light after the students had finished sitting for the exam, with no one having voiced any questions during the exam.
This was only made possible by the fact that the question paper provided to them was not from an entirely different subject or year - but rather one for 'irregular students' sitting the same exam, i.e. English Paper I.
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Attendance was high on the day, with 226 out of 234 eligible students attending Sunday’s examination at the upazila’s lone examination centre: the Dhumaitari Siddikia Fazil (Degree) Madrasa.
The students describe an almost benign, nondescript day. Once there, the centre authorities provided them with the question paper and they proceeded to answer them. By all accounts, the exam passed without any overt incident, and relatively quietly. No alarms were raised at the centre itself.
Later in the day, they came to know that they had been provided the question paper meant for the irregular students.
"We were forced to answer the wrong question paper, with no chance of knowing," one of them said.
Expressing concern over their overall result being possibly held up over this, Abdul Aziz, another of the students, said: “We don’t know how the matter happened but the invigilators gave us the wrong question papers.”
The exam centre secretary has overall authority for the conduct of examinations at each centre. That job was being filled by KYM Abdullah, the principal of the Dhumaitari Siddikia Fazil (Degree) Madrasa.
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To make matters worse, he has been non-cooperative since the incident came to light. He could not be reached over phone for his comments despite several attempts over two days.
Md Zafor Ahmed Laskar, who was serving as one of the invigilators and is an official of the upazila’s Young Development, said no one informed them, or raised any such issue during the exam.
Despite that, he did point the finger of blame at Abdullah as the centre secretary. "Only he can be held responsible for such a catastrophic error."
Laskar acknowledged that the students and guardians now face more prolonged suffering.
Upazila Secondary Education officer Abdul Momin Mondal said, “It is not right to take the exam with the wrong question papers. If the board allows us to oversee the answer sheets with the answered question papers, the students will get results.
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Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Nur-E-Alam said, “Entire responsibility goes upon the center secretary. No meeting has happened with him yet and I asked him to meet soon to make it clear.”
Terming the incident 'unfair', Prof Kaisar Ahmed remained firm in his conviction that the centre secretary should be the one held responsible and ordered the UNO to dig into his details.
Expressing deep regret over the farcical incident, the board chairman said measures will be taken in this regard.