Result fiasco: For downgraded students, anxiety and anger are buzzwords

Many are unsure of what to do after celebrations turned to disappointment.

RAWALPINDI:

Uneasiness and restlessness is prevalent among college students after the number of candidates failing in the higher secondary school certificates (HSSC) part-I examinations conducted by Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (RBISE) shot up in the revised results.

Over 10,000 more candidates failed in HSSC-I after rechecking and the situation created resentment among students.

“Students are not happy with the results announced on December 24 by the RBISE, especially as they cancelled the objective papers results. The situation may get worse soon after the end of winter vacations in schools and colleges,” said Ghulam Abbas, a lecturer at a public college.

Many students who failed after rechecking said they and their parents found it hard to accept the new results and were unsure who to blame.

“I am a premedical student and hope to get admission in a medical college to become a doctor. I got 412 marks on October 17, but my marks went down to 312 after rechecking. The situation has left me stressed about whether I should repeat the exam or accept that it was the fault of the examiners”, said Mariam Hanif, a private candidate.

Another student, Bilal, victim of the rechecking said he was not ready to accept his results as he had been declared successful earlier, but ended up failing after rechecking.

“The board officials have been unable to satisfy me about the rechecking of my son’s result. If the results were fabricated by RBISE officials, the students should not be forced to suffer”, said Waseem Khan, a parent visiting the board’s office on Monday.

The disturbed father said heads should role for the gross oversight, as many students will lose an academic year because of their revised results.

In a related development, the city police made arrangements to keep students from gathering and protesting against the rechecked results to avoid a repeat of the last protest, which ended with the RBISE office on fire.

On Monday, police dispersed any large gatherings of college students and in some areas boys could be seen being chased by New Town police mobile vans as a precautionary measure.

RBISE Spokesperson Muhammad Arsalan Cheema said they had set up different centres for students to see their objective paper results and to prove that the results were flawed, adding that the locations of these centres have been advertised in different newspapers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2011.