KUALA LUMPUR: In an unprecedented case, a 13-year-old boy with dyslexia is suing the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate and Putrajaya for negligence in the handling of the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination papers which had leaked last month, resulting in some 480,000 Year Six pupils having to resit four of the papers.

Ananda Krishnan Menon, who has the learning disability, said in his suit that he suffered from emotional and mental stress as a result of the exam fiasco.

The suit was filed through his mother K Managala Bhavani as Ananda is a minor. The student filed the affidavit through law firm Rajadevan & Associates last week at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Ananda, from Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr Ismail (2) here, said he lacked the will to repeat the entire process of preparation for the resits of the public exam.

In his statement of claim, which was sighted by The Malaysian Insider, Ananda said he was more depressed than the other pupils over the resits because of his disability.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterised by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling.

Naming the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate and Putrajaya as defendants, Ananda said the government did not take action against the examinations syndicate members and their agents over the leaks.

“Instead, the government set up an independent committee to review its standard operating procedure in the conduct and management of public examinations,” the schoolboy said in the legal suit.

He said the syndicate, its employees or their agents were negligent, which resulted in the leak of the Science, English, Mathematics and Tamil papers.

Ananda also said the syndicate had failed to provide a safe system to ensure that there was no leak and failed to supervise its employees from the time the examination papers were sent to all schools nationwide.

He is seeking aggravated damages for the mess created by the syndicate.

The examinations syndicate is entrusted with preparing and printing question papers for all public examinations as these documents are classified under the Official Secrets Act before the examinations start.

Commenting on the suit, Parents Action Group for Education chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim wanted to know the outcome of the police investigation into the leaks.

She said the leaks in the UPSR exams last month resulted in Year Six pupils having to resit four of the papers but to date no one has been brought to book for it. “Those who were detained are out on police bail and have not been charged. Why are the authorities taking so long?” she asked.

Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Gan Kong Meng on Sept 21 had said that the police had interviewed 30 people and investigation papers would be referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to determine if there were sufficient grounds to charge those detained under Section 8 (1) of the Official Secrets Act 1972 for possession of official secrets and communicating such information to others.

Police had recorded statements from eight officers from the syndicate, 19 teachers, an officer from the Education Ministry, a journalist and an engineer. In the process, 14 people were detained but later freed on police bail. However, none have so far been charged with any offence.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister, had apologised to the pupils and their parents over the fiasco. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 21, 2014.