Two more teachers arrested in connection with UPSR leaks

KUALA LUMPUR: Two more teachers were arrested in connection with the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) Science and English examination papers.

Both the male teachers, aged 48 and 51, were nabbed in Bedong, Kedah at about 5pm yesterday, said city CID chief Senior Asst Comm Gan Kong Meng. This brings the number of arrests in connection with the leak to 14 with 12 of them teachers, one an insurance agent and one an engineer.

The two are due to be remanded today, while eight of the earlier arrests were released on bail.

In Putrajaya, police are probing whether those who leaked the UPSR papers were also responsible for leaking exam papers in pre­vious years.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said police are also checking on possibilities that a network among educators could have existed to provide certain quarters with access to the exam papers.

“So far those arrested are from the education sector, including school teachers and principals. We believe that there is a network among educators that provide easy access to the exam papers. No VIPs have been arrested,” he said during a press conference yesterday.

The Examinations Syndicate had announced that pupils had to resit the UPSR Science and English papers on Sept 30. The papers, which were to be held on the last day of the examination on Sept 11, were cancelled as they had been leaked on social media.

Pupils in national and vernacular schools will have to resit the Science papers. Those in national schools will also have to resit the English papers on the same day.

However, vernacular school pupils were not affected by the English paper leak as they sit for different English papers.

Dr Ahmad Zahid spoke to reporters at the Home Ministry after a ceremony to welcome Chief of the Palestinian Civil Force Major General Hazim Attallah to the country.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh announced after the pre-launch ceremony for the implementation of massive open online courses for local institutes of higher learning that a high-powered team has been formed to study weaknesses in the current examination system.

The committee members who comprise the team are Malaysian Institute of Integrity president Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh, former education deputy director-general (teaching professionalism development sector) Datuk Dr Asariah Mior Shaha­ruddin, former Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, Malaysian Communi­cations and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi, Chief Government Security Office director-general Datuk Johari Jamaluddin, CyberSecurity Ma­­laysia chief executive officer Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab, former Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development Tan Sri K Kumaran and Cuepacs secretary-general and National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had said that the committee would be headed by former Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi.