Year after year, Sindh's exam boards fail our children

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As the examination season begins, chaos and confusion once again take center stage - thanks to the staggering incompetence of Sindh's examination boards. With the first paper set for April 7, thousands of students remain without correct admit cards. The boards, in their desperate attempt to appear modern, have introduced a half-baked "automation" system that has done little more than multiply the existing mess.

One roll number assigned to multiple students, admit cards printed with the wrong photographs, incorrect names, misallocated exam centres and missing subjects. These are not minor clerical issues —they are widespread systemic failures rooted in poor data entry, lack of oversight and an outdated bureaucratic mindset unwilling to adapt responsibly. The result? Students on the verge of panic, families scrambling for last-minute corrections, and thousands of educational futures left hanging in the balance.

Now imagine what happens on the day of the exam. A student arrives at the exam centre only to be denied entry because the photograph on the admit card doesn't match their identity. Another student finds someone else seated under the same roll number. What happens when results are compiled later, and the data doesn't align due to duplicate entries or mismatched profiles? This isn't just a simple error – it's a disaster in motion with long-term consequences.

And yet, this is not new. Tragically, this is business as usual for Sindh's examination boards. Year after year, we see a repeat of the same pattern: leaked question papers, mismanagement of schedules, delayed or disputed results and flawed marking processes. Students in Sindh are forced to navigate a system that is not just inefficient - it's hostile to their success.

Back in 2018, students waited months for their results due to unexplained "technical issues", delaying admissions and causing widespread anxiety. In 2020, when Covid-19 demanded flexible, creative solutions from educational authorities across the world, Sindh's boards floundered in confusion. Other provinces managed to adapt with relative ease - Sindh simply fell apart. Now in 2025, despite repeated promises of digitisation and reform, the system remains riddled with dysfunction.

What makes all of this even more painful is the silence from those responsible. Year after year, students and parents raise alarms, but they're met with the same tired responses - blame shifting, vague explanations and zero accountability. There has been no meaningful investigation, no transparent audit, no consequences for repeated failure. It's as if the system has accepted dysfunction as the norm.

But this is more than just administrative failure. It is a betrayal. A betrayal of students who have poured years of hard work into their studies. A betrayal of parents who make personal and financial sacrifices to educate their children. And most importantly, a betrayal of the very idea of merit-based, fair assessment in a society that desperately needs it.

No other province in Pakistan suffers this scale of examination mismanagement year after year. Why must Sindh's students pay the price for the failure of institutions that exist to serve them? Why is there no national outcry when thousands of futures are jeopardised annually?

The time for tolerance and patience has passed. The Sindh Education Department must act - urgently and decisively. We need a complete overhaul of examination systems, built on transparency, technology that works, public audits and, most importantly, accountability. Those who repeatedly fail in their duties must no longer be shielded by the system. The silence and complacency must end.

Until that happens, students in Sindh will remain trapped in a cruel cycle - where effort, talent and ambition are no match for a broken, unaccountable system that continues to fail them, year after year.