Following a break-in at one of the Government operated high schools on Grand Bahama, officials from the Ministry of Education Testing and Evaluation Department rushed to Grand Bahama to confirm that the 2006 BGCSE examination papers were not stolen, copied or tampered with.
Heading the team of Ministry officials was Lionel Sands, Assistant Director of Education for Testing and Evaluation, who yesterday confirmed that all of the examination papers were accounted for and intact.
The break-in occurred at Jack Hayward High School, where the papers were housed.
Although local Ministry officials checked the boxes and packages, representatives from New Providence had to confirm their findings.
“We wanted to ensure that the security and integrity of the BGCSE examination papers for 2006 in Grand Bahama were not compromised,” said Mr. Sands. “You may be aware that there was a break-in at one of the schools on Friday last week and coincidentally it was at the school where the examination question papers were housed.”
Mr. Sands said the Ministry of Education’s primary concern was whether the examination papers were compromised, “so we did an initial check with Mrs. Duncombe and the staff here in Grand Bahama to ascertain whether any of the papers were compromised; that is, taken out of the packet, or whether any packet was taken away from the entire consignment.”
He added that contrary to reports coming into the Ministry of Education office, none of the examination question papers where removed.
“So my purpose was simply to ensure the security of the papers so that I could make this statement to the Grand Bahama community and to The Bahamas-at-large that the examination papers are intact, and that there has been no breach,” he said.
Mr. Sands was unable to confirm whether high school students or adults were involved in the incident. However, he reiterated that their main concern would have been the examination papers, and “once we were satisfied that there was no breach, all the other things relating to the break-in would be dealt with by the school, the school security and the police.”
If the papers were compromised, Mr. Sands explained that the Ministry of Education would have followed its normal procedure in these circumstances.
He said all of the examination papers would have been recalled; not only those in Grand Bahama, but throughout the entire Bahamas. The recall would have affected some 6,000 students, who are scheduled to take exams beginning today, May 4.
“Recalling the papers means that we would have had to replace those recalled,” Mr. Sands said. “We would have had to develop and reprint and have them return the new bunch for examinations which is scheduled to begin today. ”
In addition, he said it would have been very costly, estimating that the Government would have spent some $2 million for the process.
“And so it is very, very important that we maintain security and integrity, especially at the BGCSE level where the exam is accredited by an international agency,” Mr. Sands said.
Noting that any breach of security would cause the Ministry of Education its accreditation by the international agency, he added that this would mean that the examination certificate for the results would be meaningless.
“That is why it is so important that we maintain the kind of security we have in place,” said Mr. Sands.
There has been only one time the Ministry of Education experienced a breach with the examination papers and that was in 1999.
By BARBARA WALKIN, Senior FN Reporter
