BCL leader holds a Facebook Live session from exam hall
“We are Chhatra League, wherever we go we are like bullets. I am giving the exam while fasting, I will get golden A+. In the exam sheet in the slot for group name I have written, “MP Anar group” (the local member of parliament from Awami League Anwarul Azim Anar). If the teachers don’t give us A+, we’ll tear apart this board.”
Jhenaidah district’s Kaliganj upazila Chhatra League’s general secretary Monir Hossain aka Sumon made the above comments during a 9 minutes and 38 seconds long Facebook Live session he hosted on Friday during his final exam of a six-month course on Computer Office Application under Bangladesh Technical Education Board. He took part in the exam from Prism Computer Training Centre.
He and some other Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) members were sitting in the exam which was held at the Jhenaidah Polytechnic Institute.
According to several sources from the Polytechnic Institute, the written part of the exam was held from 10:00am to 11:00am. After that, the practical part of the exam was held from 11:30am to 12:30pm. Monir started the Facebook Live session from his personal Facebook account at 12:00pm.
Monir said, “Our exams are going on, everyone’s writing, I am just sitting around. Everyone’s writing in Bangla, I don’t write in Bangla, I write in English. I always wanted to host a Facebook Live from the exam hall. Today (Friday) my wish is coming true. Even madam is videoing me. The sirs are sleeping, I wrote in English, Salam also wrote.”
At one point Monir asked the student sitting beside him, “What have you written, let me see?” The video showed that he has written, “We want A+ without writing anything.”
He further said, “There is an aunty giving exam over there. The vice-chairman has seen our video, the vice-chairman has commented, stop chatting and start writing on the exam scripts. MP sir is also watching it, he and the vice-chairman are on the same motorcycle.”
Addressing the people watching his live session, Monir said, “Such a nice exam hall and we are giving our exams here. Hey, you guys won’t ever get a chance in your lives to sit for an exam like this, see there Salam is also here. I am here live from the exam hall, from Kaliganj upazila Chhatra League I want to welcome everyone. We will get A+, the madams are telling us everything. In the exam sheet in the slot for group I have written, “MP Anar group”. Even Joy has written the same thing.” At one point in the video he pointed at the invigilator and said, “Madam, would you like to say something in my live?”
Many people of the area criticised the act holding a Facebook Live session like that from the exam hall. Many such comments were made under the video. Later, Monir Hossain deleted the video from his profile. But by that time many had saved copies of the video.
In the video, two teachers were seen walking around in the exam hall. They were later identified as Prism Computer Training Centre’s teacher Samir Das and his assistant Nourin Akter.
Prism Computer Training Centre’s director Bashir Ahmed Chandan said that 11 students from his training centre took part in the exam, Monir was one of them. He said that holding a Facebook Live from the exam hall wasn’t right and officials of the Polytechnic Institute, where the exam took place, should’ve taken steps against it. He said that Samir and Nourin were there to just assist.
Kaliganj upazila Chhatra League president Nazmul Hasan Nazim told reporters, “Doing a Live from the exam hall isn’t right. But I don’t know what the general secretary has said in the video. I just heard about it, I will look into it.”
Monir Hossain was phoned multiple times on Saturday by the correspondent but he didn’t respond. But on Friday he told reporters, “I didn’t hold a Live during the exam, I hosted a small Live after the exam.”
Jhenaidah Polytechnic Institute’s academic in-charge Mahbub Ul Islam said, after the exam some internal works were going on. The teachers from the respective institutes were taking care of it. That’s when the Live was held. But still, it was a very bad thing that happened. We will investigate the incident and take legal actions against the persons involved.