‘Smaller rooms will make cheating easier’

Tanoli warns he will go to court if decision is not withdrawn.


Samia Saleem March 28, 2011

KARACHI:


When the students sit for their annual exams this year they will have more chances of cheating as they will be sitting closer and in smaller rooms, warned Yahya Khan Tanoli, a Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) member.


Tanoli held a press conference on Monday to criticise the BSEK’s decision to hold the annual examinations in less than half the number of centres. After the mock exam, the board narrowed down the number of examination centres from 425 to 170 for the Secondary School Certificate part I and II annual exams.

“If one can manage to cheat sitting alone on a bench during the board exams, imagine what will happen if there are two or three students sitting on the same bench,” he said.

This decision is not only wrong but it also violates the rules of the board, he added. Taking out the BSEK’s ‘calendar book of rules’, he showed rule No 3Ai stipulated on page 206 of Volume III, which clearly states that during the examination all the students must be seated so that each faces the same side and is placed at least 24 square feet apart. Tanoli said that only the 13 board members can make changes in the calendar book. Tanoli is currently the only ‘elected’ member of that board and was selected by representatives of 5,500 registered private and public schools of Karachi. This decision on seating arrangements was, however, made by the controller and not by the board, he said.

READ Private Schools Management Association senior vice chairman Mohammad Younus Baloch also said that even the selection of examination centres has not been done on merit. The responsibility is given to hand-picked schools who bribe the selectors. They in turn earn by allowing cheating, he added. Some of the selected centres only have four to five rooms and many are difficult to reach. “Given the security conditions of the city and the heat, students may face a lot of inconvenience,” he added. If the board does not review its decision, Tanoli warned he will go to court.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2011.

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