ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad school, whose students’ O-Level Islamiat answer sheets got lost in transit, has turned down the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) and the British Council’s offer to allow students to reappear in the exam without paying the fee.
Quratulain Rizvi, principal of the Global System of Integrated Studies (GSIS), said that the CIE does not want to resolve the issue and that the students should not have to write the exam again.
Deputy director qualification University of Cambridge International Examination, Anne Gutch, and director assessment services, Di Palmer, in separate emails acknowledged that the loss of papers is “unsatisfactory and very upsetting,” adding that while it is “extremely rare,” it is also a “fact of the life that when we are handling millions of scripts each year it does happen from time to time that a very small number are lost in transit.”
The emails added that “we are also happy to offer the opportunity to take the examination in the next session free of charge.”
Sixty-seven students from the GSIS, who wrote the exam in June 2010, were told that their result has been delayed. When the school administration protested, a result was sent awarding 29 students the U grade, 10 students E grade, 11 D grade, six B grade and only one student an A+ grade. When the school administration protested these results, the CIE sent another. This time, nine students were given U grades, five E grades, 12 D grades, nine C grades, 19 B grades, six A grades and nine A+ grades.
Rizvi told The Express Tribune that the initial explanation the British Council, Islamabad, gave was that the marking of the papers had been delayed. Subsequently, the regional manager of the CIE Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, William Bickerelikes, said that some of the scripts have been lost and that the forecast grades provided by the school are being considered. “But it is highly regretful that the forecast grades system was not followed,” she said.
In such situations, Rizvi said, the rule is to award grades on the basis of what has been forecast by their schools.
However, the University of Cambridge officials wrote to her, saying: “It is never possible to issue results that reproduce forecast grades as you have suggested, because the results have to be based on the evidence of the candidates’ work which we have.”
Bickerelikes said the examination has two papers, one of which they received. “We dealt with this thoroughly following the usual procedures that are employed in rare circumstances such as this, taking into account the student work that we have and our examiners’ professional judgement, to ensure each student receives a fair and accurate grade,” he said.
Worried about the students’ future, Rizvi said, “We would move to the court to initiate legal action against the CIE system for misplacing papers within the country as well as outside”.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2010.
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