UPSR: Papers could've been leaked between printers and schools

The Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination papers were probably leaked during the transporting of the papers from the printers to the schools.

This was the opinion of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar.

“Whoever handled these papers does not have any integrity," he said sharply when contacted by Astro AWANI today.

“We need to re-look at the SOP (standard operating procedure) and ensure that those who handled the papers have integrity as this is a high-risk position.

“This is very embarrassing and has affected the prestige of the country. When are we going to learn?" he said, referring to past exam paper leaks that have happened, not only for UPSR but other national exams as well.

Akhbar hoped that stern action will be taken against the perpetrators, and that they should be thrown into jail to set an example for the country.

His views were echoed by Public Accounts Committee chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed who said the culprits should be sternly punished as leaks have been a recurring problem.

"How can such a widespread security breach happen? There must be something wrong with the security control in the examination department," he told Astro AWANI.

Nur Jazlan said he would ask the Auditor General to investigate the matter.

Yesterday, the Examinations Board announced that the UPSR Science papers with code 018, 028, 038 would be postponed to Sept 30 due to its questions being leaked on the internet.

The papers were originally slated for today.

Yesterday, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had apologised to all Year Six pupils and their parents over the leak and promised to probe the matter.

Today, the UPSR English papers 1 and 2 were also found to have been leaked. This was clarified by Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh on his Twitter account.

He said those who sat for the paper today will have to re-sit them on Sept 30.

Yesterday, it was reported that Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Tajudin Mohd Isa had said that police were investigating the matter under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972. However, no arrests have reportedly been made yet.

More than 470,000 pupils are sitting for the UPSR this year at about 8,300 examination centres nationwide.