PMS candidates decry poor facilities at exam centres

Fear that their results will be quite poor owing to the absence of facilities

PESHAWAR: With some of the best brains of the province vying for a slot in the provincial management services examinations which started on Tuesday, they first had to deal with a challenge they may have to tackle once they get into the service: the challenges faced by schools.

The provincial competitive examination papers for provincial management services (PMS) commenced on Tuesday. But most of the examination centres, set up in government schools, lacked basic facilities such as power, drinking water and other facilities.



While visiting one of the centres set up in the premises of the education directorate in Government Shaheed Hassnain Sharif Higher Secondary School-I in the provincial capital, The Express Tribune found that it lacked power, drinking water while the lavatory was in filthy condition.

One candidate who appeared in the tests told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that, over 50 candidates had been accommodated in a single room with no power, fan or ventilation.

“We asked the invigilator to arrange at least power and a fan, but he only reprimand us that we were not alone in facing this situation and that we should focus on solving the paper,” he said.

Load-shedding in the area had started from 8am, just when the paper commenced and lasted until noon when the examination ended.

“The PMS authority should have at least arranged for a generator or power alternative for the convenience of the candidates,” the candidate complained.

“There are 11 more papers to go. If the atmosphere in the examination hall continues like this, our results will be quite pathetic since we need centres which have a creative atmosphere, are not noisy or lack basic facilities,” the candidate stated.



Thousands of candidates appear in the PMS exam and most of them have to appear for the exams in buildings of the education department — usually government schools, which always leads to mismanagements, and complaints from candidates that the PMS should have a dedicated facility to conduct the exams in.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2018.