No one has taken responsibility for the oversight, seemingly satisfied that the students eventually did sit for the right exam.
As in the rest of the country, the SSC exams for 2020 commenced on Monday with 620 students in Nilphamari sitting for their Bangla Paper I at the Rabeya Balika Bidya Niketon exam center – just one of them an irregular student who was supposed to receive a different question paper from the rest, which on this occasion happened to be the 2018 Bangla I question paper.
“120 questions papers were received for the solitary student who gave the exam under 2018’s syllabus and 1,020 question papers were allocated for the 619 regular examinees,” said Mohafizur Rahman Khan, the head teacher of Rabeya Balika Bidya Niketon and also secretary of the exam center.
“Question papers according to the 2018 syllabus were supplied to 98 students by mistake in rooms 8 and 5 of the exam center,” he added.
After one hour had elapsed, an examinee called Selim Reza of Nilphamari Collectorate Public School & College realized the error and notified the invigilator.
Mohafizur Rahman Khan tried to downplay the incident and said the question papers were taken back from the 98 examinees immediately, although verification of how many students in which rooms had been affected by the gaffe must have taken some time and disrupted the exam experience for everyone.
Those who were directly affected told UNB that additional answer sheets on which they answered the 2020 question were attached to those that are to be scotched.
“The secretary of the exam center cancelled the answers given on 2018’s syllabus with red ink. Due to this, we are apprehensive about our result,” they said.
At this stage the gaffe is being attributed to the center secretary and invigilators’ oversight at the Rabeya Balika Bidya Niketon, who has downplayed the disruption faced by the students.
In Chowgaccha of Jashore however, 5 teachers of an exam centre committee including its secretary, have been relieved of their duties for the exact same error.
There, the Bangladesh Rural Development Board official Anisur Rahman has been given the responsibility of new Centre Secretary of the Chowgachha Government Shahadat Pilot High School, where the gaffe took place, confirmed Upazila Nirbahi Officer Zahidul Islam.
Practically the only difference between the two incidents is that in Nilphamari, the gaffe was noted an hour into the exam, that too by a student, while in Jashore it wasn’t before the end of the exam.
Those relieved are the Chowgachha Government Shahadat Pilot High School’s Headmaster Azizur Rahman, who was the secretary of the exam centre committee, and committee members Abdul Jalil, Salma Khatun, Lucky Akhter and Rabiul Islam – all of them teachers at the school.
The relieved centre secretary and Headmaster of the school Azizur Rahman said following the examination on Monday it was found that 19 regular students from three different schools had given the exam according to the 2018 question paper provided to them, while 2 irregular students who were supposed to get the 2018 questions had answered the 2020 questions, having received the 2020 questions.
“After coming to know of the incident, I immediately informed the Jashore Board Controller of Examinations, Chowgachha Upazila Nirbahi Officer and the centre’s officer in-charge. Later, their written examination was taken with the right question paper,” Azizur said.
“The incident was totally a mistake. After talking with the Controller of Examination of the Board, it was confirmed that it would have no impact on the results of the examinees,” he insisted.
However, sitting two exams in effect back-to-back cannot be pleasant for any student, not to mention their preparations for tomorrow’s exam surely being affected as well.