PUTRAJAYA: A day after announcing the leak of the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) Science papers, the Education Ministry yesterday said the English papers were leaked as well.

As a result, the Examinations Syndicate said English Language Papers 1 and 2 have been cancelled and pupils will have to resit the papers on Sept 30.

The syndicate said in a statement that it conducted an investigation following a report on a possible leak of the English Language papers and found it to be true.

It announced on Wednesday that there was a leak in the Science papers and that the pupils would sit for the test on Sept 30. The pupils had been scheduled to sit for the Science papers yesterday.

The UPSR pupils had already sat for the English papers yesterday when the announcement came on the leak and resitting of the exam.

Bernama quoted Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh as saying that the leak in the English papers was confirmed yesterday morning after the ministry was notified on Wednesday night that the question papers had been circulated widely on the social media.

“We will make sure that those responsible for the leak are dealt with severely because integrity has been questioned. This should not have happened. I apologise to the parents who have to bear with the inconvenience,” Idris told a press conference.

He said an independent and high-profile panel would be set up soon to investigate the leaks which he felt had tarnished the credibility and integrity of the ministry.

The committee would consider the penalty for the offenders, ensure that there would be no recurrence of leaks and recommend measures for the ministry to adopt to prevent the incidents, he said.

The panel would also look into the kind of security measures that would have to be introduced from time to time to counter the actions of those who had access to technology or abused their authority, he added.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will ask the auditor-general to conduct an investigation into the Examinations Syndicate following the leaks.

“I will raise with the auditor-general to have a thorough check on the security of the exam papers to ensure the system is not compromised,” PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed told The Malaysian Insider.

Nur Jazlan said PAC cannot look into the board’s standard operating procedures until the auditor-general has done so.

“I think they should put high priority on this to audit and recommend internal control mechanisms to plug any loopholes to ensure this does not recur,” he said.

The culprits should also be sternly punished, Nur Jazlan added, as leaks in examination papers have been a recurring problem.

“Currently, there is no fear of being audited. That’s why people get away with things, so it’s time for the government to have harsh penalties for those who leaked the contents of official papers,” he said.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 12, 2014.