Testing times: Exam postponed after students get wrong paper

Geography-I students get question papers for part-II; QAU VC says committees addressing shortcomings.

ISLAMABAD:

Almost everyone feels nervous before an exam, worrying about what the test paper will hold.

This nervousness and anxiety of BA and BSc-I students of different colleges of Islamabad, affiliated with the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), was further accentuated after they were handed a question paper for their Geography Part-I exam, mostly because it was for another subject --- geography-II.

This gaffe on the part of the QAU examination branch has raised eyebrows over the examination process.

According to teachers who were conducting the exam, due to the aberration, the students had to wait for over an hour for copies of Geography Part-I to be arranged, but the wait remained futile as questions papers could not be provided by the university.

Some 15 colleges of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration are affiliated with the QAU after their affiliation with the University of Punjab (UoP) was revoked in 2012.

According to the teachers, after distribution of the question papers, it was not until the papers were handed out that it came to notice that they were for Geography Part-II.

“Soon the students raised the issue and the distributed copies had to be taken from them,” said Prof Tahir Bhatti of Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Boys H-8. The examiners soon contacted the QAU examination branch, which told them that the correct papers would soon be dispatched to them. However, after one-and-a-half hour, QAU officials informed them that they would not be able to arrange the copies. The paper was then postponed.

Roll number slips

Tahir Mehmood, a senior teacher at the H-8 college said most colleges have been divided into multiple exam centres, but the roll number slips just mention the names of the colleges. “The confusion is because there are no instructions for students on where to sit as some colleges have multiple exam halls,” he said

Islamabad Model College for Boys F-10/4 Principal Prof Syed Ali Yar said that the students at his college have also received roll number slips containing subjects which they had never registered for.

Clash of exams

Many colleges are already being used by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) for intermediate exams and space issues may result in clashes of exams, officials said.

“Many colleges lack the space to facilitate the students of degree classes,” Yar said, adding that he was simultaneously overseeing the FBISE and QUA exams.

Munir Anjum, a superintendent at the H-8 College, said that he was struggling to accommodate students as the university has not provided him a list detailing their strength. “I am still scrambling to figure out the students’ strength so I can assign invigilators accordingly,” he said.

Multiple issues

Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls F-7/2 Principal Talat Samiullah said that the students had to face a problem in Botany paper as how many questions were to be attempted, as according to him, the university staff arrived just 15 minutes before the paper ended to correct an oversight.

He said that they were expecting worse results this time around due to gross errors and omissions.

QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Eatzaz Ahmad humbly apologised for the mistakes. “We are noting all such mistakes to overcome them in the future and we have already formed a committee in this regard,” he said. In order to provide question papers in time, he said that he has spoken with the postal services deputy director general to ensure timely delivery of copies.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2014.