Courier service to deliver, collect exam papers for Sindh technical education board

It will be delivering question papers an hour before exams

KARACHI: For the first time in the Sindh Board of Technical Education's (SBTE) history, the examination question papers and answer sheets will be delivered to examination centres through a courier service.

"To cope with the menace of cheating in the technical exams, we have given a courier service the responsibility of delivering the exam papers and later collecting the answer sheets," said SBTE Chairperson Dr Masroor Sheikh while addressing a press conference on Monday.

The matric technical examination will be starting all over Sindh from April 5 and continue till April 20. More than 3,500 students have registered for the examination that will be held at 13 different centres across the province. Five of these centres have been set up in Karachi.



Sheikh also announced that the examination for diploma in associative engineering will be held in May. The board offers a diploma in 24 different disciplines of engineering in which 15,000 students appear every year, he said.

Three main steps have been taken in this year's examination in order to put an end to cheating, Sheikh said, adding that unlike the matric and intermediate boards, there is only one technical board in Sindh, which is responsible for the provision of examination papers and sheets to centres as far as Daharki and Chachro from Karachi.

"Earlier, we had to print and send the question papers a day before, which is why we chose a courier service to deliver it this time," said Sheikh, adding that the courier service will be delivering the question papers an hour before the exam and will be collecting the answer sheets one hour after the exam finishes.



Before this, answer sheets usually reached the board office one week late but now the courier service will be delivering them the very next day.

Other than this, the board has also asked its five regional directors to visit their nearest centres during the examination process.

Complaining about the curriculum, Sheikh said that it is old and poses issues for students studying from the technical board when it comes to finding jobs.



Technical education is mostly for the lower middle class and is the second choice of most students, Sheikh said, adding that it is very rare for a student to opt for technical education as their first priority.

Sheikh was of the view that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project will bring job opportunities for students studying in the technical field. However, he said that the Chinese have certain standards which would need to be fulfilled by our students.

"Our students need training in their fields, but the centres are short of equipment and machinery," he said, adding that the technical education centres should adopt the system of developed countries where students are given theoretical education in centres and learn practical work in industries.