UPSR leaks: Feb 17 hearing for application to strike out dyslexic student's suit

The High Court today set Feb 17 to hear the application by the Malaysian Examination Board and to strike out a suit filed by a dyslexic male student regarding the leaks of last year's Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination.

Judge Datuk Rosnaini Saub fixed the date in chambers in the presence of Senior Federal Counsel Zureen Elina Mohd Dom, who represented the government and the board, and counsel Nurul Najmi Adila who acted on behalf of the student.

On Nov 19, the Malaysian Examination Board and the government, who were named as defendants, filed the application to strike out the suit by K. Mangala Bhavani, mother to Ananda Krishnan Menon, 13, as plaintiff, on the grounds that the suit did not disclose any reasonable cause of action other than humiliate and prejudice the defendants and abuse the court process.

On Oct 13 last year, the student's mother filed the suit on behalf of her son claiming the defendants were negligent in conducting last year's UPSR exam and caused her son to have to resit several papers.

In the statement of claim, the Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr Ismail 2 student alleged that the defendants failed to implement a secure system to prevent the papers from being leaked.

Ananda Krishnan alleged that the defendants also failed to supervise their personnel and agents, from the start of the process to the distribution of the examination papers, in order to prevent leaks.

The examination was initially scheduled for Sept 9 to 11, but students had to resit the Science, English, Mathematics and Tamil Language papers on Sept 30 and Oct 9 following the leaks.

Ananda Krishnan said as a dyslexic with special needs, he suffered from emotional stress, misery, disappointment and lost motivation to resit the papers.

He is seeking special and general damages as well as costs.

Meanwhile, both defendants, in their statement of defence filed on Dec 3 last year, said they knew about leaks in the English Papers 1 and 2 through news reports which showed the same questions as the actual questions.

Investigations revealed the matter was true and the board had cancelled the papers and directed for students to resit them.

The defendants also stressed that cancellation of the English and Mathematics papers were according to Regulation 9 of the Education (Assessment and Examination) Regulation 1997.