25 cases of cheating reported in Matric exams in Karachi

Security not deployed at schools due to ongoing census

KARACHI: According to the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK), around 25 cases of cheating have been reported by their vigilance teams and eight impersonation cases have been registered in the ongoing annual examination 2017 of the general group. The exams began on March 28 and will continue till April 15.

Meanwhile, some local 'goons' threatened the principal and senior superintendent of the Comprehensive Boys Secondary School in Korangi No 3, Imtiaz Unar, for not letting them into the examination centre. "They tried to get into the school premises and wanted to help some of the candidates cheat in their exam," Unar told The Express Tribune.

A total 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. Unar said the goons belong to local student wings of different political parties. "When we do not allow them to come in, they start threatening us and frighten our guards and chowkidar [watchman]," he lamented. The principal, commenting on the security, said that the law enforcement agencies and teachers are busy with the ongoing census, which is why the security conditions are not up to the mark and these goons can easily threaten them.



"The situation has changed a lot in the last few years," admitted Unar. "This cheating and threatening is around 10% of what they used to do some five years ago," he said. However, he said that the BSEK chairperson's promises were not fulfilled as the vigilance teams also do not visit schools regularly and they are constantly told by local party workers to let them 'visit' the schools to see if the examination process is being conducted seamlessly.

Meanwhile, commenting on the situation, BSEK Chairperson Saeeduddin said that their teams are paying surprise visits to examination centres daily and have also caught many students cheating. "We are also visiting schools where complaints are reported," he said.

Students caught cheating in the examination halls are barred from the completing paper and asked to plead their case to a team constituted to deal with cases of cheating at the board office. "Depending upon the level of cheating, the team decides whether to bar the student from completing just that one paper or all of them," he explained. "In the cases of impersonation, students are banned from sitting for any papers for two years."



Saeedudin admitted that there is a lack of security because the law enforcement agencies are busy in the census exercise. He said a letter was sent to the director-general of the Rangers for surprise visits to the centres that have been termed 'sensitive' in in terms of security.

"The sensitive areas are Landhi, Korangi and Lyari and a majority of the reports of cheating are also from these areas," Saeedudin said, adding that local teams of teachers and invigilators are managing things on their own. He also said he had personally observed the centres and noted that the percentage of students cheating has dropped.

The chairperson also said the situation will get better when the science group examination starts as by then phase II of the census will have been completed. The number of students is also higher in the science examinations, which are scheduled to begin from April 15.