ZUEB postpones IBCC visit at 11th hour

The Ziauddin University Examination Board (ZUEB) has suddenly decided to push the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC)’s scheduled visit to inspect the private board’s examination and assessment procedures, to a later date.

The IBCC visit was scheduled to take place on Tuesday (today), with education experts from Karachi, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the chairmen boards to be part of this visiting convoy.

However, ZUEB executive director Akhtar Ghauri recently informed the IBCC secretary through a letter that some of the board’s employees had contracted the coronavirus while several were stuck in isolation. Citing the impact of Covid-19 on the staff, the director regretfully informed IBCC that the ZUEB would not be able to facilitate an immediate visit. As per IBCC Islamabad sources, the decision to push back the visit coincidentally came at the same time as when the department started verifying documents of matric and intermediate students of ZUEB.

“This postponement at the eleventh hour has not only stalled proceedings but has also raised several doubts about evaluation process itself,” the source commented. It is to be noted that a few days ago, IBCC had initiated its process for issuing matriculation and entrance equivalence to ZUEB students with results available in the result gazette. In this regard, a preliminary investigation of the gazette sent by ZUEB has also been started. IBCC sources in Islamabad allege the said gazette to be subject to various repetitions and dubious additions.

“There are some places in the gazette where the same roll number has been issued to more than one student, while the results for a majority of roll numbers have been withheld,” the source claimed. It may recalled that ZUEB had prayed to IBCC to be granted membership, like other education boards across the country. However, when the IBCC sub-committee reviewed the ZUEB’s Act, it was found that while the act mentioned that an IBCC representative can be a member of its executive board, there was no mention of the said board being a member of IBCC. This is still a major obstacle in the way of ZUEB securing permanent IBCC membership.

Thus, IBCC, on the recommendation of its sub-committee, has allowed provisional membership in its forum to the private board. The board’s executive director has been told that since the board’s act has been passed by a legislative assembly, all concerned are bound to recognise it. However, the board also prescribed to have the act amended by the assembly for the permanent membership of the ZUEB in IBCC. Moreover, it was also noted at IBCC’s last meeting that the evaluation system of the said board has been subject to constant complaints. As a result of this, it was decided that the IBCC chairperson, IBCC secretary, officers of the institution and other nominated experts would visit ZUEB for inspection.