SSC exams 2011: Inside source says over 11,000 results withheld

Report termed ‘incorrect’ and results to be announced soon.

RAWALPINDI:

While the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Rawalpindi claims that results of around 1,200 students that appeared in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam in 2011 have been withheld, a board official has confided to The Express Tribune that the number, in fact, exceeds over 11,000.

The officials said that the board is unable to track answer sheets of thousands of students, as there had been issues with online registration and issuance of roll numbers to candidates. Additional delays and complications were caused because students marked their roll numbers on the newly-introduced computer-readable answer sheets “improperly or incorrectly”.

On Wednesday, hundreds of students and parents besieged the BISE Rawalpindi office demanding the board to announce results of the 2011 SSC examination that it has withheld. They blamed the “negligent attitude of the board staff” for the delay in the results.

When the board announced the SSC result on August 2, BISE Acting Chairperson Dr Muhammad Ashraf confirmed that results of around 1,200 students were withheld and asked the students to approach the board office for queries and clarification of any mistake.

Dr Ashraf was not immediately available for a comment; however, BISE Spokesperson Arsalan Cheema said that report that results of over 11,000 students are currently pending are “incorrect”. He assured that not more than 1,200 students are awaiting their results, which will be announced as soon as the issues are cleared.

A senior official of BISE Rawalpindi said that students were given clear instructions before their exams on how to mark their roll numbers on answer sheets. “The students were told to mark their roll numbers accurately using pens as these would be read by computer scanners, but they failed to follow these basic guidelines,” he added.

BISE Rawalpindi also had to retake certain papers after candidates alleged that they had not received their roll number slips and dates sheets well in time.

Earlier, BISE Rawalpindi’s chairperson, secretary and controller were removed after reports of theft of over 500 answer sheets of SSC exams from a bank were confirmed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2011.