No electricity and too few desks on the first day of matric exams

Question papers were delayed at several centres in Karachi.

KARACHI:

All earlier arguments over making two students sit at the same desk during the matric examinations seemed absurd on Monday when female candidates at the Waseem Government Girls Secondary School, North Nazimabad Town had to sit on the floor and scribble down their answers.

Several of them had to sit on the floor and in corridors because the school did not have enough furniture for them. As if the routine anxiety of exams was not enough, it was all made worse by load-shedding, uncomfortable — and in some cases insufficient — seating arrangement and delays in question papers at several examination centres.

Monday marked the start of the annual examination 2011 of secondary school certificate (SSC) Part-I and II (Science and General Group).

In Karachi, the exam was held in 225 examination centres established in private and government schools by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK).

While the girls at the Waseem government school had no chairs to sit on, candidates at the Royal Public School in Jamshed Town took their exams under a tent on the roof of the building. There was no electricity or clean drinking water.

The question papers came around 30 to 45 minutes late at several centres.

Acting Chairman of BSEK Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, who visited centres in North Nazimabad and North Karachi Town, said the BSEK has 12 printing machines, which were not enough to print more than 327,000 question papers. This, he said, was the main cause for delays on Monday.

He also maintained that the board had provided adequate furniture to all exam centres a week before.

Power outages, which made students all over the city perspire, were also a major complaint. Zai admitted that the load-shedding by KESC was a major problem but assured that the board would meet with the utility’s management and come up with a solution.

The BSEK has established an examination complaint cell to monitor the exams and cater to complaints from parents and school managements. Parents, however, alleged that there was no staff at the centre on Monday.

Hyderabad exams

Meanwhile, over 106,000 students sat for their exam in 206 centres set up by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in Hyderabad.

The exams were conducted in two shifts. Class IX (SSC-I) students took their English exams while SSC-II candidates had their Islamiat exam.

Section 144 has been imposed and police personnel were deployed outside the centres to ensure only authorised people could enter.

BISE has also formed surveillance teams under the education department EDOs of nine districts of Hyderabad to monitor the exams.

25 students take principal, BSEK to court

Twenty-five students took their school and the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi to court as they were not issued admit cards on time to sit for the annual exams that began on Monday.

The petitioners maintained that they had paid all the requisite fees, filled forms and completed all the formalities required to sit in the exams. Until the last day, the school administration assured them that they will get the admit cards and will be able to sit the exams.

The fault lies with the respondent Government Boys Faisal Abdullah Secondary School administration, where the students are enrolled, and the BSEK, the petitioners’ counsel submitted, praying the court to allow the students to sit the exam otherwise their academic year would be wasted.

The Sindh High Court division bench, comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Shahid Anwas Bajwa, ordered the issuance of pre-admission notices to the BSEK chairman, the Sindh education secretary and the respondent school’s principal for April 25. The bench also allowed the students’ request and directed the BSEK to let the petitioners sit their exams.

The hearing was adjourned till April 25.

With additional input from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th,  2011.