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Why no charges yet against UPSR exam leak culprits, asks parents group

Fix education by raising teaching standards, stopping wastage, Putrajaya told

More than a month after the UPSR exam papers leaked, a parent’s group representative today wanted to know what the outcome of the police investigation was.

Parents Action Group for Education (Page) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the leaks in the UPSR exams last month resulted in more than 470,000 Primary Six pupils having to resit four of the papers but to date no one has been brought to book for it.

"Those who were detained are on police bail and have not been charged. Why are the authorities taking so long?” she asked.

She said this when commenting on a law suit by a dyslexic boy who is suing the government over the UPSR exam papers leak.

Ananda said in his negligence suit against the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate and Putrajaya that he suffered from emotional and mental stress as a result of the examination fiasco.

Noor Azimah said that she sympathised with the plight of the boy, who would have been traumatised by the experience of having to resit the leaked exam papers.

"This is happening because people are getting anxious and suspicious over the delays," she told The Malaysian Insider today.

Noor Azimah told The Malaysian Insider today that it was questionable why in some cases prosecution was brought on quickly but not in others.

"For instance the soldier who is supposed to be sent back to New Zealand to face trial, there is also delay and silence in that case as well.

"In some cases, prosecution is swift but in others, especially those involving civil servants, it moves at snail's pace," she said, adding that this only reflected poorly on the government.

She also said that the human element was lacking in standard operating procedure meant to deal with situations like exam leaks, where emotions of children are involved.

"There is no consideration how the children feel, the order is that since the papers were leaked, students have to resit, full stop.

"We cannot understand what is going on in the hearts and minds of the children, and it would have been more excruciating for this boy, therefore it makes sense for his parents to do this on his behalf," she said about Ananda.

Noor Azimah said Page wanted sterner action to be taken against the top two in the Examinations Syndicate, saying that the suspension from duties alone was not enough.

It was reported that Examinations Syndicate chief Dr Na'imah Ishak and her deputy Dr Wan Ilias Wan Salleh were suspended over the leaks. But it was later revealed that they were not suspended but only relieved from duties and temporarily reassigned.

"When you are in that position, you cannot be relieved of responsibility.

"In fact, responsibility over this should go all the way to the top, but you won't see that happening in this country," Noor Azimah added.

National Union of Teaching Profession president Hashim Adnan declined to comment on the legal suit by Ananda, but called on the authorities not to drag their feet in bringing the culprits to book.

"We urge the authorities not to hide anything, and not to downplay something as important as this as though it is a minor issue.

"They need to act fast in bringing the perpetrators to book so that we can close the chapter and move on," he said.

In his statement of claim, which was sighted by The Malaysian Insider, Ananda said he was more depressed than the other pupils over the resit because of his disability.

The suit was filed through his mother K. Managala Bhavani as Ananda is a minor. The student filed the affidavit through law firm Rajadevan & Associates last week at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterised by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling.

Ananda said the government did not take action against the examinations syndicate members and their agents over the leaks.

"Instead, the government set up an independent committee to review its standard operating procedure in the conduct and management of public examinations," the schoolboy said in the legal suit.

He said the Examinations Syndicate, its employees and/or their agents were negligent which resulted in the leak of the Science, English, Mathematics and Tamil papers.

He added the Examinations Syndicate had failed to provide a safe system in ensuring there was no leak and failed to supervise its employees from the time the examination papers were sent to all schools nationwide.

He is seeking aggravated damages for the mess created by the Examinations Syndicate.

The Examinations Syndicate is entrusted to prepare and print question papers for all public examinations as these documents are classified under the Official Secrets Act before the examinations start.

The UPSR examination was held between September 9 and 11, but due to the leaks, pupils were told to resit the Science, English, Mathematics and Tamil Language papers.

On September 30, pupils sat again for the Science and the English language papers and on October 9, they retook the Mathematics and Tamil language papers.

The leaks affected 473,175 pupils from 8,384 schools nationwide.

Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Gan Kong Meng on September 21 had said that the police had interviewed 30 people and investigation papers would be referred to the Attorney-General's Chambers to determine if there were sufficient grounds to charge those detained under Section 8 (1) of the Official Secrets Act 1972 for possession of official secrets and communicating such information to others.

Police had recorded statements from eight officers from the syndicate, 19 teachers, an officer from the Education Ministry, a journalist and an engineer.

In the process, 14 people were detained but later freed on police bail. However, none have so far been charged with any offence. – October 20, 2014.