Matriculation exams: Testing time for test takers
The first day of matriculation exams across Rawalpindi district was a disaster. Hundreds of students and their parents thronged the board’s office throughout the day, trying to get their issues resolved.
Complaints over delays in delivery of admit cards were common and some received incomplete slips. Many students were not allowed into the examination centres.
Muhammad Tausif, a student from Chakwal, said, “At the eleventh hour, I received an incomplete slip which misspelt my father’s name and was even missing my picture.”
Students from far-flung areas like Chakwal, Murree and Attock said that while board officials did tell them to download the slips from the board’s website, they could not do so due to power outages and software problems.
“It was the board’s fault, but we were not allowed to sit in the examination centre,” said a group of students outside an examination centre. They missed their Arabic paper.
When contacted Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi Controller Abdul Sattar admitted there were some mistakes in the exam slips. However, he said that the students were also partly to be blamed, as the board had also delivered hard copies of their slips to nearby model schools. Students were told to collect the slips from there through news media, he said, but “they ignored the instructions.”
He said that the board has introduced new software to streamline the system and ensure transparency in examinations.
He added that board officials have been working to resolve these issues throughout the day and the office will remain open on Sunday to facilitate students.
“About 250 students were affected and their issues will be resolved by Sunday. It is a procedural lapse due to the new system and will not be repeated again.”
He said that students who were denied entry for Saturday’s papers (Arabic and Woodwork) would be accommodated.
The new online system has been marred by issues ever since it was introduced. The Punjab government ended manual registration system and made it mandatory for matriculation and intermediate students to register online.
However, in the middle of February, right before the deadline to register for matriculation exams, the website went down. The government was forced to re-introduce manual submission and extend the deadline from February 19 to February 25.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2011.
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