FOLLOWING reports alleging that the Company Law examination paper in the University of Guyana Law Department had been leaked, course lecturer Christopher Ram, in an exclusive interview with this publication, revealed that there is “no confirmation” that the exam paper had indeed been leaked.

The Company Law exam paper, written on December 22, 2014, was the topic of conversation after students in the final year law class had speculated on the possibility that the paper had been leaked. This came against the backdrop of a student writing the same paper the Saturday prior.

One student who spoke to ‘SPLASH’, an Online Campus news website, explained: “What we do know is that one student who had to leave the country wrote the examination on Saturday”. He explained that the final paper written on December 22nd had been titled “final (2) examination”.

Wishing to remain anonymous, that student said: “We were assured that, owing to the breach, we did not write the same paper as that student, hence our paper being titled ‘final (2) exam’. The lecturer told the class that the examination was breached, and a full investigation is on the way.”

Mr Ram, however, assured this publication that there has been no confirmation that the paper had indeed been leaked. As regards the investigation hinted to by the student, Ram explained that he is about to leave the country, but would launch an investigation into the matter when he returns.

The attorney-at-law noted that after he had been alerted to the possibility that the paper had been leaked, he drafted a “new paper” overnight. If reports of a leak had indeed been accurate, he said, precautionary measures had to be in place so as to reduce the likelihood of an examination defect.

“It was purely pre-emptive and precautionary… The students weren’t even aware that they were writing a different paper,” he said.

One student in the Final Year Law Programme who spoke to this newspaper seemed highly annoyed at the revelation. That student said, “If the incident is indeed true, it’s very unfortunate, since the lecturer was very good to us and prepared us very well for the exam.”

However, reports by ‘SPLASH’ also revealed that Ram had threatened to discontinue teaching the final year class if it were found that the paper had been leaked.

Questioned on his decision, Ram neither denied nor acknowledged the allegation, but stressed that, upon his return, the investigation would be launched.

‘SPLASH’, administered by former law student, Sherod Duncan, disclosed that an incident of this nature had also occurred in 2013 in the Department of Law, wherein exam papers were leaked and were being sold for “huge sums [of money].”
“SPLASH was reliably informed that when the scheme was uncovered, it led to the termination of employment of one of the non-academic staff attached to the Department. Students surmise that, this time around, possible access to the paper could have been had through the Department’s network database by some students who were recently granted access to the building’s Internet,” the website reported.

(Ravin Singh)