Law enforcers have arrested 153 people in 52 cases filed over alleged question leaks since the start of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations on Feb 1, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Friday.

‘To eliminate corruption and present problems in education sector everyone has to be ethical and honest,’ Nahid said at the award giving ceremony of the Ninth National Debate Competition held at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) studio in Dhaka, reports the UNB.

He said, ‘We have adopted and still adopting every possible steps to stop question leak but for some unethical person it continues. More than one lakh people are engaged in SSC examination process and a few are trying to annoy us by leaking and spreading questions through social media.’

Nahid also said during the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination, starting on April 1, the education ministry will be more conscious.

‘I would like to request teachers and parents to come forward to identify those question leakers and hand them over to police,’ he added.

The debate competition ‘Bitorko Bikash’ was jointly organised by BRAC, ATN Bangla and Debate for Democracy.

A total of 17,600 debaters from 880 schools across the country participated in the competition which was launched in January 2016.

Rashed Khan Menon Model High School of Babuganj upazila in Barisal became the champion after defeating Ishakpur Public High School of Jagannathpur upazila in Sunamganj.

The two teams argued over the topic ‘educational system reformation is a must to make corruption free country’.

Ishakpur Public High School team leader Sharifa Jahan won the honor of best speaker in the competition.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, MP was the chief guest while Education Secretary Md Sohrab Hossain, BRAC education programme Director Dr Shafiqul Islam, Adviser of ATN Bangla Nouwarish Ali Khan were present at the programme as special guests.

Debate for Democracy Chairman Hasan Ahamed Chowdhury Kiron moderated the programme.

Education Secretary Md Sohrab Hossain said a law is being formulated to stop coaching centres’ dominance and the authorities are thinking to reform the question pattern of public examinations.