Massive load shedding will haunt intermediate students who get ready for their final examinations from May 7. Out of the 606 examination centres established by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, only two have the facility of power generators while students appearing at other centres will be distracted by repeated outages during examinations. Educationists have advised the Punjab government to establish more cluster centres to facilitate students.
BISE Lahore Public Relations Officer (PRO) Qaiser Mehmood told Pakistan Today that board officials always write to the WAPDA chairman to make arrangements for avoiding load shedding during exams. He admitted that when there is 10 to 12 hours of load shedding in cities, it is difficult for WAPDA PEPCO officials to facilitate students. WAPDA and PEPCO officials claimed that it is LESCO’s responsibility to manage the schedule according to needs of students.
There are 366 centres in Lahore (local), 36 in Lahore (mofassil), 53 in Okara and Sheikhupura each, 61 in Kasur and 37 in Nankana Sahib. Centres at Lawrence Road and Punjab University (PU) are cluster centres where 8,000 students could appear in the exams daily. Students claim that they were already facing immense difficulties to prepare for the exams due to unprecedented load shedding and giving exams while sweating could never be easy. Around 0.15 million students are appearing in the intermediate exams under BISE Lahore, in which 74,933 are regular and 77,367 private candidates. Mehmood admitted that more cluster centres would be a better option to facilitate students and cluster centres in small districts could also lessen students’ miseries. The BISE Lahore PRO claimed that cluster centres under the Lahore Board have much better facilities.
A student said that while he was writing, his paper got wet due to sweating. He asked the Punjab government to end discrimination, as there are some centres where generators are available but others remain without the facility. The student said that the board could also change the schedule and not hold exams during summers. School teacher Akhtar said that O Levels students give exams in air-conditioned centres but intermediate students are denied the facility.
He said that load shedding effects students’ preparation in various ways including that students could not study at night, studying in hot weather is never easy and students who have to appear in Computer Science paper could not prepare for the examinations because of continuous power outages. He said that exams are taking place during hot weather and will continue until June 8 while practical examinations will end on June 30. Educationists claimed that the Punjab government was spending millions of rupees on position holders but had not taken any substantial steps for welfare of students. They said that if the Punjab University (PU) provides land, the board should build a centre there.
