Measures to Prevent Examination Paper Leaks at Institutes of Higher Learning

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Education in view of the recent exam paper leak at an Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) (a) what measures are put in place by the IHLs to ensure that papers do not get leaked and are protected with secure confidentiality when students take the papers at multiple locations; and (b) what assistance is provided by the IHLs to students affected mentally with having to retake the exams in cases where papers are leaked.

Members have asked about the recent premature online release of a NTU test paper, what the root causes were and also whether all our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have sufficient measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

IHLs have protocols to prevent unauthorised access or premature release of examination papers. These include password-protecting digital copies of the examination papers and only releasing the password to students just before the scheduled examination time, hosting e-assessments on internal platforms with controlled access and storing printed copies in secure locations with restricted access.

NTU is conducting an internal investigation into the leakage of a test paper that occurred earlier this month. NTU's preliminary assessment is that the premature online release of the test paper was due to human error on the part of an administrative staff. The individual had failed to password-protect the electronic version of the test paper which was meant for students taking the test online. As a result, the students were inadvertently given access to the questions before the test started.

NTU undertook remedial action to ensure a fair assessment process for all students by having a retest with reduced examinable topics and extended counselling support to affected students. NTU takes this matter seriously and is reviewing its internal protocol and staff training to prevent recurrence of a similar incident.

Dr Tan had filed a Parliamentary Question for the 29 November Sitting and asked whether there had been similar occurrences over the past three years. There were five isolated incidents within this period where examination papers were leaked ahead of time, affecting a small minority of the undergraduate student population for the more serious cases.

The IHLs acknowledge the additional stress on students when there is a need to retake examinations. Sufficient time is provided for students to prepare for the re-examination. In addition, lecturers and mentors avail themselves to support affected students. Students who require more assistance can also turn to para-counsellors or professional counsellors in the IHLs.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of State for her reply. I declare that I am an academic staff at an IHL and clearly my concerns are for the students. I share the Minister of State's concerns that this is an added stress for our students.

She mentioned about allowing sufficient time, but I would like to ask the Ministry if it could prepare a standard set of guidelines for all our IHLs to adhere to, just in case this incident happens again. This means the students has a standard time to prepare for the next make-up exam.

My second supplementary question is for the lecturers themselves. I think one of the fears for us is when the exam papers leak, we need to prepare alternative papers. In this case, there could be instances where we need to prepare more. Can the Ministry provide assurance that we do not have to prepare too many alternatives in such incidents in the future?

Ultimately, we have to understand the purpose of having examinations, assessments and tests. These are mainly to gauge the students' understanding of the topics that they have been taught and the ability to apply the knowledge that they have gained during the course of their lessons.

On guidelines for IHLs to adhere to and standardising the time for students to retake exams, I think we need to understand that there are different types of tests, exams and assessments for different disciplines as well as subjects. Some may be covering many topics, some may be very few topics; for some tests, the students may need a lot of time to prepare, for some maybe modular in nature. So, it may not always be practical to prescribe a standard time for students to prepare for re-examination.

On the second point about the lecturers and the staff having to prepare for more make-up examination papers, I believe that our IHLs do work as a team, at the team level and not at the individual level. And indeed, it is useful for each IHL to have its own system and also have some flexibility to prepare for not just the main exam, but also for contingencies.

I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I have Clementi residents who are following the news of this. I have got one supplementary question.

The Minister of State mentioned that the IHL ascertained the cause of the mistake as human error. Can I ask whether there has been a deeper dive into whether there were measures to intercept human errors before it led to an impact for many exam candidates? For example, did the web portal have safeguards so that an online exam needed to be uploaded in an encrypted or password-protected format? And likewise, whether there were other processes to reduce the risk of one human error affecting an entire cohort of exam candidates?

For this case which occurred quite recently, NTU is still in the process of conducting its investigation and is also looking at further safeguards that it could consider to prevent such human errors from affecting future examinations.