Exam time has arrived in Bangladesh. Photo via pxhere (CC0). Now is the season of school final exams in Bangladesh and the government is trying hard to cope with the issue of exam questions leaking online. Leaking exam questions have become a regular phenomenon in public examinations like Junior School Certificate (JSC), Senior School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), medical college and university admission tests, and state-owned bank recruitment exams over the last several years in Bangladesh. Mostly using Facebook and WhatsApp, people sell exam questions ahead of the nationwide examinations. A few hours before the exam, the questions are often given away for free. The offenders in most of these cases have not been identified. These leaks have cast a shadow over the quality of exams and the process of assessing students. In January, the Education Minister hinted that Facebook would be shut down during the exams to prevent these leaks. On February 11, 2018, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission instructed all internet service providers in Bangladesh to shut off mobile internet and reduce broadband speeds to 25 kbps from 8:00am-10:30am on exam days throughout the remainder of February. But on February 12, 2018 morning, within an hour from the start of the internet shutdown, the government backtracked and ordered ISPs to ensure uninterrupted internet service. It took some hours for the ISPs to implement the new order and things were normal again. The authorities have instead imposed a mobile phone ban near the exam halls. Netizens criticized the move, using sarcasm and satire to express their dissatisfaction and protest the “rash and whimsical” decision. Blogger Sabhanaz Rashid Diya tweeted: No surprises that #Bangladesh govt. has “shut down” Internet access to prevent leakage during exam season. Then again, questions got leaked an hour before Internet was scheduled to go dark. — Sabhanaz Rashid Diya (@diya880) February 12, 2018 Blogger and activist Imran H Sarkar thinks this seems like chopping your head off to cure the malady. ইন্টারনেটের হাত-পা আছে, মাথা আছে। ইন্টারনেট দুর্নীতি করে। ইন্টারনেট প্রশ্নও ফাঁস করতে পারে! তাই বাংলাদেশে প্রশ্নফাঁস বন্ধ করতে ইন্টারনেট (প্রায়) বন্ধ রাখার সিদ্ধান্ত নেওয়া হয়েছে। যারা এমন সিদ্ধান্ত নিতে পারেন তারা মাথা ব্যাথা হলে নিজেদের মাথাও কি কেটে ফেলবেন? The internet has limbs and a head. The internet is corrupt. It can leak exam questions. So the internet was ordered shut down, as a measure to stop leaking exam questions. Those who can make such decisions – would they chop off their heads just because they had a headache? Bangladesh is a riverine country. Each year the country faces floods which cause heavy damages. Stand-up comedian Naveed Mahbub wrote: বর্ষাকালে বন্যা প্রতিরোধে ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ রাখা যেতে পারে… We can shut down internet during rainy season to prevent flood… Referencing recent news about defaulters on bank loans, Islam Raz wrote: ঋণখেলাপী বন্ধের জন্য টাকামন্ত্রীর কাছ থেকে ব্যাংক বন্ধের নির্দেশনা আশা করছি। I am expecting the Finance minister would instruct banks to close down in order to stop loan defaulters. Hasnat Jamil opined that cancelling the exam would be the best solution: প্রশ্ন ফাঁস ঠেকাতে ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ না করে,পরীক্ষা নেয়া বন্ধ করে দেয়া উচিৎ। তাহলে আর প্রশ্ন ফাঁস নিয়ে দুশ্চিন্তা করতে হবেনা। To stop the leaks, better to cancel the exam rather than shutting the internet down. Then you won't have to worry about leaks anymore. This is not the first time Bangladeshis have faced an internet shutdown. In 2015 Bangladesh shut down the internet on security grounds and then blocked Facebook and a number of chat apps for 22 days. In addition to taking away peoples’ abilities to communicate and access important information online, these shutdowns had detrimental effects on the country's economy. In the current scenario, many have spoken out about the fact that shutting down Internet — even for just two and a half hours for one day — has negative consequences for trade and commerce.