LAHORE:
Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rahman has blamed Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) officials for the errors and subsequent delay in exam results, saying they were unable to implement a viable online system.
“Unfortunately BISE authorities could not implement the online system properly and the nation and students suffered a lot as a result,” said Rahman in a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Sunday.
The minister said that there was no problem in the new online results and tabulation system, designed by IT consultant Dr Majid Naeem. The officials that were operating it could not handle it and the BISE management was responsible, he said. He said that the government was investigating “the elements who were behind the errors in the online system”.
He said that he did not want to comment further as a judicial commission was conducting an inquiry into the matter.
However, he added that the “mafia” that had been behind the results fiasco would be punished.
BISE officials have blamed Naeem for the errors, accusing him of negligence and corruption. He is also the subject of a National Accountability Bureau reference for alleged corruption while he was principal of the Punjab University College of Information Technology.
The minister said that the Higher Education Department had no knowledge of alleged corruption by Naeem in his former jobs.
However, he insisted that Naeem had no relationship with PML-Nawaz leader Ishaq Dar, as has been reported in sections of the media and claimed by PPP leaders. He said his party would send a legal notice to anyone who claimed otherwise.
Rahman said that the government would stick with the computerised system and try to improve it with the help of experts.
He said that the chief minister’s deadline for the release of the re-tabulated results would be met. The intermediate part I result would be announced on November 19, he said.
At the press conference, the minister faced uncomfortable questions from reporters about two students who committed suicide after learning they had failed the inter exams, only for it to emerge later that there had been errors in the tabulation of their marks. Rahman said he apologised for the mistakes and vowed that the provincial government would address them.
The minister said that reporters would be given a tour of the BISE Lahore and briefed on the examination system. Higher Education Secretary Dr Ejaz Munir and officials of the BISE and Education Department also attended the press conference.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2011.
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