Exam fiasco

There are flaws in our examination system but the intermediate exam fiasco in Punjab takes the cake.

We already knew there were all kinds of flaws in our examination system, with corruption a not uncommon feature. But the Intermediate exam fiasco that has occurred in Punjab takes the cake. Following outraged protests by stunned students and their parents, the provincial chief minister has announced a cancellation of the Intermediate Part 1 result declared by all eight boards of the province and a rechecking of all Part I and Part II papers. The fee of Rs700 normally charged for such rechecking has been waived, as of course it should be, while red-faced officials try to find means to explain what happened.

As things stand for the moment, Punjab Education Minister Shujaur Rehman has blamed the entire debacle on a computer which had apparently gone quite crazy. This is the first year during which the Intermediate exam system result compilation process had been computerised. The experiment has obviously not been a success. Students who had never taken maths papers were awarded marks for them, while one candidate was awarded 52 marks for a paper that carried a total of 50. The position-holders in the Part II exam, the results of which were declared in September, already had to be changed after similar grave errors were discovered, presumably as a result of the same computer system.

Behind every computer there lies a human hand. The persons responsible for the setting up of the system need to be brought to book. The chief minister has already ordered an enquiry for this purpose. Most important of all is to rebuild our exam system and restore faltering faith in it so that students can be assured of some degree of reliability as they sit for their papers which will decide their futures and the careers they are able to take up. Messing up this crucial factor in the lives of millions of young boys and girls amounts to mismanagement on a disastrous scale.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2011.