‘Peon, junior clerk invigilating BISE matric exams’
Grade three officers were added to the Sukkur invigilation team, says teacher.
SUKKUR:
A junior clerk and a grade three peon are being allowed to invigilate the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Sukkur matric exams, according to a grade 17 school teacher.
The teacher said that one of the 17 teams formed by BISE to overlook exams at the 181 exam centres across Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur and Naushero Feroze visited the exam centre on Saturday. “I was surprised to see that the team included a peon and clerk and they were ordering us around,” he said.
According to the teacher, outsiders are helping candidates cheat and even parents stood behind their children, casually dictating answers to them.
“The candidates are backed by influential authorities, including teachers, lecturers, professors, doctors and police officers, so there is nothing we can do about the cheating,” he added.
The Sukkur BISE exam controller, Mehmoodul Hassan Khokhar, said it was impossible for 17 vigilance teams to visit all the examination centres daily. When he was asked about the peon and clerk on the team, he said that the BISE chairperson has discretionary powers and can induct anyone for the vigilance teams. He claimed that they were “handling the situation” and 72 cases of cheating were reported throughout the Sukkur district, along with eight cases of impersonation.
According to the grade 17 teacher, the invigilators have not even bothered to visit exam centres in the far-flung areas on the city’s outskirts. “If it was in our hands, we could stop the cheating in a minute but then we would be transferred to other schools,” he said.
Only grade 11 officials or above should be allowed to invigilate, said a union office bearer, requesting anonymity. The chairperson in charge has inducted a peon to appease the union office bearers, because the peon himself is also a union office bearer. “Most of these officers abuse their powers because they are supported by one political party or another,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2011.
A junior clerk and a grade three peon are being allowed to invigilate the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Sukkur matric exams, according to a grade 17 school teacher.
The teacher said that one of the 17 teams formed by BISE to overlook exams at the 181 exam centres across Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur and Naushero Feroze visited the exam centre on Saturday. “I was surprised to see that the team included a peon and clerk and they were ordering us around,” he said.
According to the teacher, outsiders are helping candidates cheat and even parents stood behind their children, casually dictating answers to them.
“The candidates are backed by influential authorities, including teachers, lecturers, professors, doctors and police officers, so there is nothing we can do about the cheating,” he added.
The Sukkur BISE exam controller, Mehmoodul Hassan Khokhar, said it was impossible for 17 vigilance teams to visit all the examination centres daily. When he was asked about the peon and clerk on the team, he said that the BISE chairperson has discretionary powers and can induct anyone for the vigilance teams. He claimed that they were “handling the situation” and 72 cases of cheating were reported throughout the Sukkur district, along with eight cases of impersonation.
According to the grade 17 teacher, the invigilators have not even bothered to visit exam centres in the far-flung areas on the city’s outskirts. “If it was in our hands, we could stop the cheating in a minute but then we would be transferred to other schools,” he said.
Only grade 11 officials or above should be allowed to invigilate, said a union office bearer, requesting anonymity. The chairperson in charge has inducted a peon to appease the union office bearers, because the peon himself is also a union office bearer. “Most of these officers abuse their powers because they are supported by one political party or another,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2011.