The province’s examination boards have unanimously decided not to change any student’s results under pressure from any external influence, Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) Chairman Anwar Ahmed Zai said on Monday. “Examination results would not be changed following protests against the boards,” said Zai, who is also the chairman of the Committee of Chairmen of the Sindh Educational Boards. He was speaking after the conclusion of a conference held to evaluate the examination system at BIEK Auditorium. It was attended by chairmen, controller of examinations and representatives of all educational boards, the director general of colleges, the director of the Directorate of Private Institutions Sindh and representatives of school-and college-based teacher associations.
An objective analysis of the examination system was reviewed during the conference and participants discussed several issues. “The participants of the conference stressed the need to evaluate the existing examination system and suggested necessary changes for the improvement, transparency, acceptability, validity and authenticity of the results,” Zai said. “During the conference, the participants accepted the proposal that examination boards should not come under pressure and get media support to remove the misconception among parents about the boards,” he added.
“It was witnessed that the results of thousands of candidates were changed after a series of demonstrations was launched by students against the boards. But, this did not happen in Sindh as we have much better policy and examination system in comparison with other parts of the country.”
Zai said copy assessment is carried out by senior teachers and the staff of examination boards has command over administration matters, reducing chances of error during the examination process and results,.
“The participants also accepted the proposal that students of classes IX, X, XI and XII would be briefed about the new examination pattern at the time of their admissions to these classes,” he said.
The examination boards would also conduct workshops for teachers, paper-setters, invigilators and other people concerned to implement uniform standards during exams.
The examination boards have decided not to accept examination forms of a candidate who fails to maintain his/her percentage at less than 75 percent in the class.
The participants of the conference also agreed that the examination boards would impose a fine on the examiners or copy-checkers who commit minor mistake(s) during checking answer copies and the mistake(s) would be rectify at the earliest.
“However, students should approach the board office concerned and apply for scrutiny rather than protesting against the examination board. The students would be entertained in a legal way. Otherwise, the board offices would not change result due to protests,” Zai said.