A professor at Jagannath University in Dhaka has come under the spotlight after releasing photos of some of the answer papers of a recently held examination of his department on Facebook.
Though the teacher, Md Sawkat Jahangir of the accounting and information department, did not release any information which could be used to identify the examinees, the move itself was highly criticised by his peers, the university authorities and students.
On Friday, Prof Jahangir attached pictures of two answer sheets in a post on his Facebook page. “These are some examples of answers on the mid-term examination at the Masters’ level. The handwriting was immaculate, but the quality of the answers was shocking, to say the least. These made me really sad, so I am not going to grade these answers," he wrote.
The Facebook post quickly went viral and the students of the department and the university were heavily ridiculed and became the subject of myriad memes on social media.
The post and subsequent trolling drew ire from the students of the department and the university.
A master’s student at the department, who had requested anonymity from bdnews24.com due to the sensitive nature of the issue, said the students were greatly hurt because it was their teacher who opened the floodgates of criticism on a public forum instead of protecting them.
“I can bet these answers were not from our regular students. But the professor never mentioned it. So, we are facing vicious trolling on social media now,” he said.
Regular masters’ students are the daytime pupils of the department, who had received undergraduate degrees from the university in the same subject.
Another regular student of the department, seeking anonymity, said: “The professor didn’t act responsibly. He made us look like idiots. Everyone is questioning the quality of the students at the department.”
bdnews24.com found many posts and comments on Facebook by frustrated students of the department and the university. The general sentiment of these posts and comments were that the professor’s decision to post the answer sheets humiliated them publicly.
On Saturday afternoon, the professor edited his earlier post, adding: “These are some examples of answer sheets of the mid-term examination at the Masters’ level of an evening programme at a private/public university...”
When approached by bdnews24.com, Prof Jahangir defended his post and said the answer sheets represent the overall status of academics in Bangladesh and he never mentioned that Jagannath University students wrote these answers.
“It was not my intention to troll anyone. I never said that JnU students wrote these answers. My motive was to paint an overall sorry state of our academia, which I believe most failed to understand. I would rather ask you to trace the students who wrote these shocking answers to find the real truth,” he said.
The authorities, however, disagree with Prof Jahangir.
AKM Akhtaruzzaman, the controller of examination at the university, said Prof Jahangir breached the code of conduct of the university by releasing the answer sheets on Facebook.
“It doesn’t matter whether the students in question were regular students or students of evening programmes. He [Prof Jahangir] can’t do it, period. It is the teacher’s responsibility if a student fails, not the other way around. Instead of releasing their papers on social media, the professor should have called the students in question to find out why they wrote ‘shocking’ answers,” he said.
“As a senior faculty member, we didn’t expect this from Prof Jahangir. He somewhat damaged the university’s reputation by pulling off this stunt. What will junior faculty members will learn from this?”
It was not the first time the university came under the spotlight due to some unauthorised release of examination answer papers this year.
Earlier in June, a photo showing an exam paper of a student in his first semester at the English department, went viral.
The additional answer sheet he used bore the writing - ‘Sir, I feel sad today.’
The photo provoked both laughter and criticism, resulting in the authorities summoning the student.
The student in question appealed to the department and acknowledged his mistake, asking to be pardoned.
