Committee launches probe

Six-member panel seeks details from board and investigates various aspects

KARACHI:

The Fact-Finding Committee of the Department of College Education in Sindh has launched an inquiry into the allegedly controversial results of the intermediate annual exams 2023 conducted by the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK).

The committee is seeking details from the BIEK and is investigating various aspects, including information on the teachers responsible for preparing papers and assessing the copies. It aims to scrutinise the results of first-year students who are the children of BIEK employees, as well as records of failed students in six major government colleges in the metropolis.

In a meeting with senior BIEK officers, including Acting Director of Examinations Zahid Rashid, Acting Secretary of BIEK, former Controller of Examination Zareena Rashid, and IT Manager Shaheer Waqar, the six-member committee, led by Regional Director Karachi Professor Mustafa Kamal, discussed these critical issues.

During the meeting, the committee has requested specific details on the "paper setters, head examiners, and examiners" involved in the exams. The committee is particularly interested in knowing how many retirees and staffers from the private sector and government colleges are working in these capacities. The results of BIEK employees' children who took the exam will be rechecked, including the grades they achieved, if successful.

Read: Intermediate exam results announced

The committee has also asked for copies of these students, alongside those who did not pass. The committee has also sought information on the ratio of results for students of the first-year enrolled in pre-medical, pre-engineering, and computer science groups over the last several years, excluding the two years affected by the outbreak of novel coronavirus pandemic. It is reviewing why centralised assessment was not conducted and is investigating the decision to allow examiners to take copies home. Questions are raised about why the BIEK administration did not intervene to prevent this practice.

Moreover, the committee has sought records of failed students from six major government colleges in Karachi, where admissions to the first year were granted to matric pass students with an A-1 grade. These colleges include DJ Science College, Adamjee Science College, PECHS College, Government College SRE Majeed, and Government College Malir Cantt.

Despite Governor Kamran Tessori assuring the submission of 10 students' roll numbers by the BIEK administration to the parent-teacher association, it was reported that the information had not been provided. It has also emerged that the association was assured that the scrutiny of the copies with these 10 roll numbers was ordered to the Karachi's commissioner. The regional director of colleges has confirmed that the BIEK has not yet received any data for scrutinising copies of 10 students.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2024.