PUTRAJAYA, Oct 20 — The standard operating procedure for managing of question papers for the 2014 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination will be enhanced to ensure no leakage, said Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

He said the aspects on storage and security control during the distribution of the question papers to the examination room would be stepped up.

“To avoid any leaks of SPM examination papers, we have made several improvements, such as having police escort during delivery of the question papers to every examination centres, as well as restricting access to the safe room where the question papers are stored.

“Before, we did not have security escort when the question papers were sent to schools in the interior areas, but now the ministry will ensure there is police escort, no matter how far the school or examination hall may be,” he added.

With this improvement, he said, the key and access number to the safe room would be given to different individuals compared to before where the same person had access to the key and access number.

Speaking at a media conference after presenting the ‘Jalinan Sekolah Kluster Kecemerlangan (SKK) dengan Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA)’ Excellence Award 2014, here today, he said improvements had to be made to ensure the confidentiality of the question papers for the 2014 SPM examination which would start on November 3.   

Admitting that the changes would incur cost, Idris said they were necessary.

Idris said the ministry would also ensure closed-circuit television cameras were installed at all safe rooms where the question papers were stored.

The ministry, he said, also set a requirement for all personnel involved in handling of public examination papers to go through security screening. — Bernama