Class nine and Matric exams to be held in two phases in Karachi

Decision taken due to shortage of teachers: BSEK

KARACHI: Confusion about the exams of class nine and Matric came to an end on Sunday as the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) announced that exams will be held in two phases.

Teachers will be performing duties in the upcoming census exercise, which is why there was confusion about how the examinations will be held. The BSEK held a meeting to come up with a solution, after which the board’s chairperson, Prof Dr Saeeduddin, briefed the media about the decisions.

According to him, the annual examinations will be held in two phases. In the first phase, examinations of general and private groups will be held between March 28 and April 15 while those of the science group will be conducted between April 15 and May 3.



“The decision of taking exams in two phases was taken due to shortage of teachers,” he said, explaining that many of their teaching staffers are busy in the national census and performing duties. According to him, the private sector did not help much in this scenario.

He also announced that they have completed all the necessary arrangements for the examinations to kick off from the scheduled dates that were finalised by the steering committee. “For the first time, the board has set up five centres for the timely distribution of admits cars and date sheets,” Dr Saeeduddin said, adding that around 353,466 students will be appearing in the class nine and Matric examinations this year, which is a 5% increase as compared to previous years.



During the press briefing, he also said that 82 examination centres have been set up for the 45,186 students of general group, of which 49 centres are for girls and 33 for boys. For science group, a total of 308,280 candidates have registered, of whom 150,801 are male and 157,479 are female. According to the chairperson, 318 examination centres have been set up for science examinations with 173 for boys and 145 for girls. He added that there are 122 centres that have been set up in private schools.



Talking about the board teams, Dr Saeeduddin said that they have also formed a special vigilance team at the board office with the reporting team, which will visit the exam centres and submit reports on daily basis. Teams comprising the Karachi commissioner, deputy commissioners, inspector-generals and assistant commissioners will also pay surprise visits in different districts. Meanwhile, he said, teams comprising senior teachers have also been devised to visit the centres to keep a control on cheating culture.

On the request of Dr Saeeduddin, the district administration has also applied Section 144 in all the exam centres. Nearby photocopy shops will be closed during exam hours.



To keep the system transparent, examination papers will be sent to the five centres with armed guards from where the centre control officer will deliver it to the specific exam centre. “The officers will remain in the centre and only leave after collecting the answer sheets,” said the chairperson. “They will submit them to the board office.”

He added the board has also written a letter to K-Electric to exempt the examination centres from load-shedding during exam hours.