Editorial
Postponement of BCS exams
Leak or rumour, how does it matter?
After days of rumours flying around regarding the leak of the 33rd Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exams, the exams have been postponed. The Public Service Commission (PSC) claims it is not due to the leak -- which is yet to be confirmed -- but to relieve the candidates of confusion that the exams have been put off. The position of the PSC on the subject is puzzling, to say the least. If, as has been alleged, the leaked question papers were in fact being sold in the last few weeks, and if in fact the PSC slept over it, then the PSC's position is indefensible. If the leaked papers are fake, as the PSC has also claimed as a possibility, then again, why is the PSC signalling a denial mode and a reluctance to plug the holes in the system? Either way, days into such allegations being made, why has no action been taken?
So far, all the PSC has been able to say is that neither student wings of the ruling party -- who had in the past been responsible for such leaks -- nor PSC staff are involved in the alleged question paper leak. Whereas the Commission is unable to confirm the leak itself, how can it be so sure of the lack of involvement of the above mentioned parties?
To be fair, if the BCS exam questions had not been leaked in the past four years as claimed, then it was a trend we were hoping would be maintained by the present PSC. If this is to be ensured, proper security precautions will have to be put in place from the time of setting question papers to that of its eventual distribution. Letting real or fake question papers be sold on the market without confronting the rumours is not the way to go about it. We hope the authorities will take the matter up with urgency and seriousness, and conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations and bring the culprits to book. This is the only way to preserve the sanctity of the examination through which the nation's highest-ranking officers qualify.
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