Admitting the failure of the electronic system introduced by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education used the old manual system in re-announcing the ‘corrected’ Intermediate Part-I results, reopening the doors to corruption and booti mafia in all the eight education examination boards of the Punjab.
According to BISE insiders declaring of results according to the old manual system is a victory of the corrupt mafia and the clerks who had forced the Punjab government to bow down before them.
Experts said this is the first time in the history of the province that a government bowed down completely before corruption instead of finding ways to counter it.
In a superhuman effort, the BISE, under Chairman Allah Buksh Malik, was able to finalise the results that ended up raising the pass percentage to 50.26 percent from a mere 39.64 percent and which they claimed would have delivered justice to many. But, however, the question remains as to how the BISE plans to counter the corruption that has taken the entire system hostage. Even though Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur rahman has claimed that the clerks had put in a major effort in setting the result straight, the truth, however, is completely different. All eight BISE of the province, including the one at Lahore that deal with examination of thousands of matriculation and intermediate students are in the grip of a clerks’ mafia and so-called employees unions that are experts in setting up ghost centres and tempering with the results, making millions in the process.
Many a times, ghost centres were identified and fake examiners were also arrested however, not much was done to curb the menace of corruptions and hegemony of private mafia at the BISE.
“The private mafia runs the BISE. It has strong links inside the government and some elements of it also run pressure groups in the form of media channels,” said a senior official of the BISE Lahore, asking not to be named. He said these officials had destroyed the board. “Is the government blind? Does the CM not see from which private institutions the students’ protest over results were being orchestrated and who from the former governments was responsible?” asked the official.
“The CM is well aware of the corruption stories but it seems that he has given up and is helpless against the deep-rooted system,” according to a senior clerk of the BISE asking not to be named, adding “the CM has tried his best, even the education minister could not do what the CM has done”.
“The clerks have failed the online system deliberately, because it stopped them from making money,” he said, adding that the probe of the judicial commission would make things clear but till then, the students were at the mercy of the clerks.
“There is a strong union of corrupt clerks that were recruited during the previous CM’s tenure and they create trouble for the present government whenever it is time to announce the result,” said another insider, adding that the last time, they had started protesting against the government at the time of the result to sabotage the functioning of the board.
“These clerks work for private mafia and they can do anything, with the backing of those who control them,” he added. “Former online consultant Dr Majid Naeem was given a lot of money that has gone to waste. People committed suicide and during the protests, government buildings were destroyed that means more losses to the government,” said Saleem, an intermediate student. “No matter who is the culprit, it is the people who had to suffer,” he added.
BISE Chairman: “The only thing BISE needs is honest officials. I request the CM to appoint three honest officials on merit, the chairman, the controller and the secretary, and all doors to corruption will be closed,” said BISE Additional Chairman Allah Buksh Malik, adding no matter what the system, corruption was a reality and vowed that in the coming days the system would be made foolproof.
The online system and manual system should have been allowed to operate for a couple of years – so that the software bugs could have been sorted out. Now, certainly, its a victory of corruption and BISE mafia.
The existence of the board of examination defeat the purpose education – because they force schools to limit the number of subjects. Children are not required to learn but to memorise word for word. The money which is spent on education – it is not to finance the education of children – instead it is spent on making buildings for boards of education and to pay salaries to a countless number of civil servants. The people who run these boards are given perks such as cars, drivers, houses many other benefits. This is wasteful expenditure. The boards are centres of corruption – people have their children's marks improved by bribing the right officials in the board.
As soon class 9 starts the responsibility of school ends and the board takes over. Boards of education and Textbook boards should be shut down.
The money would be better spent on funding the education of students. Schools remain private and provide the best education they can and teach as much as they can. Memorising will not be the purpose – it will be only actual understanding of the subject. Schools measured on the facilities they have. Sports grounds, auditoriums.
Because of these boards lots of children are deprived of education.
The recent development of entry exams in colleges has rendered the result Board exams useless, because of rampant cheating in BISE exams. This corruption has to be stopped all boards should be abolished.
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