September 17, Colombo (LNW): Six teachers, including a school principal, have been detained by the Department of Examinations in Sri Lanka following allegations of leaking the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination paper.
This incident has sparked concerns over the integrity of the examination process, which is a crucial academic milestone for young students.
One of the teachers, who was assigned to examination duty, allegedly took photographs of the first question paper just ten minutes before the exam commenced on Sunday, 15th September, a report by Lankadeepa newspaper disclosed.
These images were then reportedly forwarded to several other teachers, indicating a potential breach of the examination’s security protocols.
The implicated teachers, who are employed at schools in the Anuradhapura and Nochchiyagama regions, have been taken into custody by the Examinations Department.
Authorities have also seized their mobile devices as part of the ongoing investigation.
In addition to questioning the detained individuals, officials are conducting a broader inquiry to ascertain whether the exam paper was circulated on social media before the examination began.
This aspect of the investigation aims to determine the extent of the leak and whether it had a wider impact on the fairness of the test.
If the paper was indeed distributed online, it could imply a larger network of individuals involved in the malpractice, raising serious concerns about the safeguards currently in place to protect examination integrity.
