Maharagama NIE Director arrested over Grade 5 scholarship exam paper issue

The Director of the Planning Division of the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Maharagama has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over the Grade 5 scholarship examination question paper issue, the Police Spokesman, DIG Nihal Thalduwa said.

The arrested suspect had also served as a member in the committee that had prepared the question paper of the Grade 5 Scholarship examination.

Accordingly, the relevant suspect, a 57- year- old resident of the Thiththwella area in Kurunegala, was arrested in Kurunegala on Sunday (22).

He was arrested for allegedly providing confidential information pertaining to the question papers of the Grade 5 Scholarship exam to outside parties, police said.

Further investigations related to the incident is carried out by the Criminal Investigations Department.

On Friday (20), an investigation was launched by the Department of Examinations after it was alleged that a question paper from the exam had been leaked. Later, the initial investigation report has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is currently conducting further inquiries.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Thilaka Jayasundara, announced that the paper marking process of the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, which was held on September 15, has been temporarily suspended, owing to the issue.

Furthermore, the Education Ministry said the decision on whether to hold the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination again or not will be made after the CID and the Exams Department complete their investigations into the alleged leaking of questions. The decision will be based on the findings and recommendations of the relevant investigations, according to the Ministry Secretary.

On Tuesday (17), the Commissioner General of Examinations Amit Jayasundara said that investigations are being held into an incident where three questions similar to those on the Grade 5 Scholarship exam paper had allegedly been posted online via a model exam paper.

He had also stated that if investigations uncover that the questions have in fact been leaked, the relevant questions would be disregarded during the paper marking process.

He revealed that an investigation was conducted based on the information received alleging that a teacher in the Alawwa area had uploaded a model question paper to social media which had included three questions similar to three questions in the first paper of the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam.

This year’s scholarship exam was held at 2,849 centers across the island, with 323,879 candidates participating.