Futures at stake: Temperatures rise at exam centre over mismanagement

Students sitting for papers at Defence Girls’ College claim there were no fans to keep them cool .

KARACHI:

As expected, beads of sweat were crawling down the faces of students sitting their O’ Level papers at the Defence Girls’ College in Phase VIII. But it wasn’t because of an exceptionally difficult test with mind-boggling questions.

Some students claim that the arrangements here were inadequate and there weren’t any fans to keep them cool during the exam, let alone an air-conditioning system. The college is the designated Cambridge International Examination (CIE) test centre for students from the CAS school, Beaconhouse School System, The City School, Foundation Public School and Southshore. Disappointed with their experience, many students have lodged complaints with the CIE.

While talking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, a CAS student said, “We were made to sit for the exam in the basketball court and there was not even one fan. You can imagine what happened to all the students who were packed into it on a hot summer day.”



Ms Peer Gee, a student’s mother, said, “When I dropped my child at the examination centre, I noticed a gutter overflowing. There was no clear arrangement for where students were to wait before being ushered into the exam hall.” She added that “numerous” health code violations could be spotted at the centre.

A City School student also had plenty of complaints. “The tables were wobbly and hard to write on.” She claimed that invigilators only had a single glass in which to serve a hall full of thirsty students. “I asked for water five times, but was not provided with any.”

Sadia Jamil, a student’s mother said that she and her child reached the exam centre an hour before the paper’s scheduled starting time, but this didn’t help much. “The entrance was packed and students were pushing and shoving each to make their way through the narrow pathway to the exam rooms.” She claimed that the staff posted at the centre didn’t even know which of the college’s classrooms were going to be used for a particular exam. “All of this made my son nervous. We cannot ignore the fact that this must have affected his exam performance.”

On the condition of anonymity, an invigilator admitted the mismanagement and said, “There have been complaints as the paper didn’t start at the scheduled time.” However he refuted claims that security was an issue, saying that a number of guards had been deployed at the examination centre.

When contacted, Shahid Ashraf, a British Council official, said that he regretted the issues faced by the students who sat for the exam at the college, citing “unexpected circumstances” as the reason they cropped up. “We would like to reassure candidates that we are making every effort to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.