Despite initiatives from the government to stop the leaking of question papers, the integrity of the question sets of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations could not be ensured. The question were leaked before the exams, something that experts say has a negative impact on the students’ state of mind as they feel cheated. Students have told this correspondent that when they hear about question paper leaks before an exam, they lose confidence and the will to study. The government’s offer of Tk500,000 in cash for information on question paper leakers and a ban on using mobile phones by teachers or officers have not yielded results yet. Allegations of leaking questions have surfaced in the news media as well as social media since the exams began on February 1. It seems that there is no remedy to the malaise. The English Paper II exam was held countrywide on Wednesday while the examinees and their parents alleged that different sets of original copies of questions had been leaked an hour before the exam began. “The question leak has now become a regular incident. It seems that studying hard throughout the year is meaningless as questions can be found before the exam. We cannot concentrate on studies when we know questions are available on social media,” said Rakib Ahmed, an examinee. The Dhaka Tribune found “Ka” and “Kha” sets of question papers were available on Facebook nearly an hour before the test, and it was later found to be exactly the same as the question paper on which the test was held. Md Mashiur Rahman, father of an examinee from the New Model Bohumukhi High School, said: “When I was heading towards the exam centre in the morning, I saw some guardians and students were checking the leaked question paper on mobile phone nearly an hour before the test. My son became sad seeing this.” Another guardian Azhar Ali said: “Because of question leak the students are losing confidence in public examinations. The government has completely failed to tackle the problem.” After the English Paper II exam, many examinees claimed that they had got the question paper on social media before entering exam centers and found the leaked question paper matched with the original one. An examinee from Holy Cross Girls’ High School, seeking anonymity, said: “We are concerned about our education. Questions are being leaked before every exam and the students and guardians are checking them in front of law enforcing agencies at the exam center. This must be stopped.” Tapan Kumar Sarkar, the exam controller at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, said: “We have heard about today’s [Wednesday] question leak but it is yet to be confirmed.” He further said that the posting of question papers on social media is a crime and they asked law enforcers to look into the matter. “We got the news of question leak around 9:30am. But the students were already in the exam halls at that time. Still we have asked the law enforcement agencies to verify the matter,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.