Intermediate part-I result fiasco: Inquiry body seeks action against guilty officials
Suggests evaluation of result tabulation system, third party validation of all results.
RAWALPINDI:
The Punjab Higher Education Department and the Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (RBISE) have been asked to initiate disciplinary action against officials found guilty of preparing flawed results.
The Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT), tasked to investigate the results of last year’s intermediate part-I exam objective papers, released their findings on Thursday. They recommended disciplinary action against the board’s former chairman Dr Muhammad Qasim, former controller of examination Amjad Iqbal Bhara, System Analyst Muhammad Afzal Bhatti, Computer Programmer Asif Masood and Data Processing Officer Muhammad Sarfaraz Ahmed.
“Fraud and forgery has been committed. What remains to be known is if was done solely by the data processing officer, the computer programmer, the system analyst, or by any two or by all of them in collusion,” stated the inquiry report.
The report suggested that the Punjab Information Technology Board chairman should be asked to constitute a team of IT experts to evaluate the new online system used by the examination boards and advise improvements to ensure that the software that tabulates results is robust and error-free.
The report recommended increase in the period for disposal of answer sheets from six months to two years, to allow collection of evidence against the accused staff.
Lastly, the report suggested third party validation of all results prepared by the eight examination boards in Punjab before they are announced.
Initially announced in October 2011, the revised Intermediate Part-I results for Rawalpindi issued in December showed a fall in pass percentage from 47% to 27.49%.
In an unprecedented move, the Rawalpindi Board Acting Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf announced that the results of objective papers were cancelled after they learnt that some board officials had prepared “fictitious figures”.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2012.
The Punjab Higher Education Department and the Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (RBISE) have been asked to initiate disciplinary action against officials found guilty of preparing flawed results.
The Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT), tasked to investigate the results of last year’s intermediate part-I exam objective papers, released their findings on Thursday. They recommended disciplinary action against the board’s former chairman Dr Muhammad Qasim, former controller of examination Amjad Iqbal Bhara, System Analyst Muhammad Afzal Bhatti, Computer Programmer Asif Masood and Data Processing Officer Muhammad Sarfaraz Ahmed.
“Fraud and forgery has been committed. What remains to be known is if was done solely by the data processing officer, the computer programmer, the system analyst, or by any two or by all of them in collusion,” stated the inquiry report.
The report suggested that the Punjab Information Technology Board chairman should be asked to constitute a team of IT experts to evaluate the new online system used by the examination boards and advise improvements to ensure that the software that tabulates results is robust and error-free.
The report recommended increase in the period for disposal of answer sheets from six months to two years, to allow collection of evidence against the accused staff.
Lastly, the report suggested third party validation of all results prepared by the eight examination boards in Punjab before they are announced.
Initially announced in October 2011, the revised Intermediate Part-I results for Rawalpindi issued in December showed a fall in pass percentage from 47% to 27.49%.
In an unprecedented move, the Rawalpindi Board Acting Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf announced that the results of objective papers were cancelled after they learnt that some board officials had prepared “fictitious figures”.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2012.