Failing students awarded a GPA-5, and others given the top grade without sitting the exam: none of it is new. Such result fraud surfaces at the Chattogram education board almost every year, and it has raised sharp questions, and a deep crisis of trust, over how the board prepares and publishes results and over the transparency and accountability of its officials and staff.
Educationists say a culture of impunity and a severe lack of accountability are the main reasons the fraud keeps happening. The failure of senior authorities to answer for it not only exposes administrative weakness but is also sowing serious doubt among students and parents.
A pattern of fraud
2026 SSC exams: a student shown with a GPA-5 when results came out was found on re-examination to have failed all 10 subjects. On 29 October a case was filed against four people, including three of the board’s computer operators, accusing them of tampering with marks to pass the student.
2024 SSC exams: 17 students received a GPA-5 without sitting the exam.
2023 SSC exams: tampering with the marks of then board secretary Narayan Chandra Nath’s son in 11 subjects caused an uproar across the country and ended in a court case.
The accused and the legal action
Over the 2026 fraud, Professor Mohammad Zahirul Haque Swapan, secretary of the Chattogram Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, filed a case with Panchlaish police station.
The accused are Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury, 28, a scanning operator in the computer cell; Md Rashedul Islam, 30, a scanning operator; Nur Hossain Raihan, 32, a computer operator (solver); and a 17-year-old student, the alleged beneficiary.
The board secretary said the fraud was detected on the advice of experts from BUET and system analysts from another education board. According to the experts, marks were changed by exploiting faults in two machines while answer scripts were being scanned. He said the present ministry is following a “zero tolerance” policy.
A thin, poorly managed computer section
Board sources said the computer section was run by only two programmers. To cope with the workload at exam time, 8 to 10 more staff were hired on a daily basis, which created a serious security risk in preparing results. After these incidents, the authorities have begun to overhaul the computer section.
A former secretary under a cloud
On the investigation and legal process, the current secretary said responsibility for these incidents had been inherited by the present administration. Before him, then secretary Professor Narayan Chandra Nath was accused of involvement in changing his own son’s results, was jailed, and is now on bail.
Educationist Professor Dr Anowara Alam said that unless strict and effective action is taken against corruption and irregularities in educational institutions, it will be hard to move past situations like this one that harm students.
Chattogram education board secretary Professor Mohammad Zahirul Haque Swapan said: “Going by the experts’ opinion, problems arose while answer scripts were being scanned by computer. We identified the issue with advice from the software people, experts attached to a BUET project and system analysts from another education board. They pointed out that two machines had trouble scanning 12 answers. Their opinion was that results were falsified there in the name of fixing the problem.”
A report based on that was sent to the ministry, he said. “Legal action was taken on the ministry’s advice. The people who operated those two machines, and the students who benefited, have been made accused. The matter is now under investigation, and the investigating officers are at work. I cannot comment further. Ignoring many kinds of threats, I went to the police station myself and sat there for two days to take legal action.”
Saying an institution’s image also had to be considered, he added: “The instruction of the present minister and the ministry is zero tolerance in this case.” Asked whether any teacher had been found involved in marking the scripts, he said: “No, so far we have not found any teacher involved. The scripts have come to us and are kept in a locker.”
“Whenever investigators from the law enforcement agencies want them, we will hand them over,” he said. “People connected with the board may have been involved in these incidents, but let the investigation bring out the truth. Unfortunately, one of the four people who held this post before me is now in the dock: Professor Narayan Chandra Nath. He is accused of being involved himself in changing his son’s results. The results were changed in every subject. A case was filed, and the burden of it has now fallen on me too.”
“He was in jail,” Professor Swapan said. “As far as I know, he is now on bail. A colleague of mine told me. I have no way of contacting him. But I have inherited the responsibility for these incidents. The arrow is now pointed at my chest.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report