Attestation: BIEK issues mark sheets without controller’s signatures

Many students have gotten admission in universities but cannot submit mark sheets due to the fault

KARACHI: After a wait of 15 days since the announcement of results, the students of Intermediate part-II were disappointed instead of being happy on receiving their mark sheets from colleges. These mark sheets cannot be submitted to the respective universities they got enrolled into as they did not bear the signature of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) examinations controller.

BIEK has issued mark sheets but some students of Government Degree Boys and Girls College SRE-III Majeed, Stadium Road, do not have signatures of the controller of examinations, Muhammad Imran Chishti.

How can a mark sheet, which has a computerised signature of the controller but is manually checked and signed after the printing, be sent to the relevant colleges without the signatures of the releasing authorities?

Read: Awaiting results: BIEK announces availability of mark sheets

The transcripts, which are prepared and checked by the BIEK, were sent to colleges so that they may be issued to students.  Many students of pre-engineering from the Stadium Road College have received their statements of results but without the signature of the authority.

"What is my mistake?" asked a student standing in front of the office window in her college. "I have to go the board office now just because there was a printing mistake or negligence from the checker's end. I have got admission in a university and have to submit my marks within a week but this error will make it late now."

Another pre-engineering student in her second year told The Express Tribune that the college administration was aware that the mark sheets do not have the examination controller's signature. When she went to collect her marks sheet on Friday, the officer sitting in the college office informed her while issuing the mark sheet that she has to go to the board office to make this correction as her statement of marks has a mistake. "He asked me to get it corrected from the board office," she said. She added that when she asked the officer why the mark sheets were not sent back to BIEK when the college administration knew about the missing signatures, the officer replied the mistake is not from the college's end.

Standing at the college gate, another disappointed student said that the board will take a lot of time to issue new mark sheets. "I will have to go to the board office at least twice to sort this matter out," she said. "Such mark sheets are considered forged or tampered and students can never prove that this piece of paper is original. Everyone has to apply for a new one."

The principal of the college, Dr Tariq Yousuf Khan, was unaware of the missing signatures. "There is no such case in my knowledge so far of missing signatures in my college," he told The Express Tribune. He added that if such mistakes happen, it is totally from the end of the board.

"We, as a college, cannot do anything," maintained Khan. He added that students who have typing mistakes or signatures missing in their mark sheets can go to the board office individually and the board will entertain them on request of correction. He also said that it can be a printing mistake and can be corrected.

Meanwhile, the controller of examinations admitted that it is the board's mistake and can be resolved immediately. Chishti further said that it is a human error as officials of the BIEK stamp the mark sheets manually with the signature of the controller. "This is a very minor mistake and in a very low percentage," he said.

He urged all the students to come to the board office and assured that all the genuine cases will be entertained on the spot. "I will stamp all the original mark sheets of all students who will come to the board office with signature missing complaints," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2015.