Overseas printing among Standard Operating Procedures for examinations

The security measures to ensure the secrecy of question papers in public examinations is not compromised -- including printing them overseas.

In an interview with an individual who sets the exam questions, Bernama was informed that it was important to prevent leakages arising from the action of irresponsible people, either for personal use or profit.

In fact, he said, the process was very tight - from the panel assessment of prepared exam questions to the day the exam paper is distributed to students on the day of the exam.

In the interview, the source, a senior teacher in a school in a northern state, said people who want to apply to prepare exam questions should have a stable background as well as support from the head of school.

"All applications would be sent directly to the Examinations Syndicate, which is why people in District Education Offices (PPDs) do not know anything about the applicant," he said.

The syndicate will assess the applicant from all aspects, including the record of excellence, integrity, and his mastery in the subject of the exam paper he was applying for.

If selected, the applicant would be absorbed into the panel set up by the syndicate to prepare the questions and given briefings from time to time.

At this stage, the panel would discuss the types of questions to be prepared and several aspects including suitability with the syllabus, and relevant questions repeated from previous years.

He said during the process of preparing the questions, the panel was only allowed to use computers rented from vendors.

"We are not allowed to use personal computers when we prepare the questions, only computers which have been specially rented. At the end of the day, when the process of preparing the questions is completed, the technical team will reformat the computer in front of the people who prepared the questions," he said.

He said this was important to avoid the questions being leaked out, whether intentionally or not.

Once the exam questions had been formed, they would be input into the data bank before being reassessed by a second panel appointed by the syindicate to be certified, before going on to the next stage, which was printing.

He added that the printing process was normally done overseas such as in England and Australia, and monitored by the state education director or deputy director.

He said this was done to avoid any leakages by the employees of the printing companies who understood the language of the questions.

Subsequently, the printed exam questions would be placed in special envelopes which had high security features and distributed according to the zones and schools in Malaysia.

Once in the country, to ensure security, the exam questions would be taken to a vault in each district, accompanied by a police escort.

He added that each district or zone usually had only one or two vaults so as to ensure security could be effectively monitored.

He also said the exam questions would be sent to rural areas one or two weeks earlier, depending on such factors as distance and varying geographical conditions.

"On the day of the exam, teachers who have been assigned as invigilators would be instructed to take the papers in the morning to ensure they arrive at the exam centres at the appointed times.

"The envelopes containing the exam papers would only be opened by the chief invigilator in front of the students who become witnesses. This is to ensure that there has been no compromise of the question papers such as being opened or scribbled," he said.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh was recently reported as saying the ministry would form a special committee to review the SOP used in handling the exam question papers.

The decision follows the leakage in exam questions for the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) 2014 for the Science and English Language subjects. Pupils now have to resit the leaked papers on September 30.