Matric-shatric: Forgot the answer to Q1? The invigilators just handed them out

A candidate claimed that he made another student sit in front of him so he could cheat.

KARACHI:

On Thursday, a young school boy at the Government Boys Secondary School in Moosa Lane insisted that his answer script be handed back to him.

He also asked the invigilator for extra time to copy the last answer from his cheat sheet.

“You were given three hours to fill up your answer script,” said an invigilator in a black t-shirt, not paying much attention to the notes in the boy’s hand.

This is what was happening at one of the 250 Matric examination centres set up across the city. Between cheating and load-shedding, over 300,000 class IX and class X students from the science and general groups sat the papers. Nearly 130,000 students from the class X science group were there to give their Islamiat exam.

At around 12:30 pm, half an hour after the exam should have finished, some boys at the Moosa Lane centre were busy filing up their answer scripts with solved question papers provided to them by invigilators.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the centre’s superintendent Dilshad Malik explained that the board had not sent enough question papers and many students were unable to start on time. There were 627 registered candidates and they were short of 250 question papers. “We gave the students half an hour extra to complete their papers,” she said. “I did not receive any complaints.”

There was no electricity at the centre and Munir Ahmed Baloch, a grade 17 teacher who was appointed to monitor it by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK), said that they had acquired power through the ‘kunda’ system. According to Malik, the centre should have a generator by Friday.

At the Government Boys Secondary School in Gul Muhammad Lane, the situation was worse. Around 1,200 students from 47 different schools in Lyari were registered to sit their exam. According to a student, 15 minutes into the exam, solved papers were being distributed to the students by the invigilators and some even took Rs500 for helping candidates cheat. The student gave the solved question paper to The Express Tribune and said that he did not care any more as it was of no use to him. He added that Islamiat was not a major exam and the rates were higher for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry - anywhere from Rs3,000 to Rs5,000.

However, the centre’s superintendent Muhammad Asghar said that nothing of the sort happened. “The students were complaining that they would not do well in the exams because the papers were difficult,” he said. “The board’s team was present at the centre till noon.”

A student said that he made another student sit in front of him at their centre in Agra Taj Colony, so he could cheat. He added that it was a tried and tested method as he had done the same thing last year during his class IX exams. While talking about how much it cost him, he said that for Rs16,000 he got solved question papers for all subjects.

On their monitoring visits to the Government Boys Secondary School in Jutland Lines and Pak-Turk Higher Secondary School in Shireen Jinnah Colony, vigilance teams caught 21 candidates with fake admit cards and solved question papers. The chairman of the board, Prof. Saeed Siddiqui, has asked the EDO of schools to take action against the management for their negligence.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.