Recent raids by the anti-corruption officials on the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) and disclosures about alleged malpractices have underscored the need to revamp outdated examination system and upgrade it on modern lines.
Students of matriculation and intermediate use old system of writing answers of questions on plain copies supplied to them by the education boards. These copies are checked by the teachers and marks are given to the written answers. On the basis of these marks, formal examination results are calculated and announced.
Sadly, these results are not relied upon by the universities, medical and engineering colleges and even the government departments that conduct separate tests under the National Testing Service (NTS) for their admissions or recruitment. It compels one to think that when the actual decisions are taken on the basis of the NTS tests, what is the necessity of the education boards and their matriculation and intermediate examinations? Why the matriculation and intermediate examinations are directly conducted under the NTS?
Parents ask if the NTS like tests are not an expression of ‘no confidence’ in our educational boards. Why students are compelled to take two examinations: intermediate board exam and NTS entry test for getting admissions in universities and professional colleges? These questions demand rationalizing and streamlining the education boards so that their results be accepted as authentic and recognised for the purpose of admissions and recruitment.
There is a dire need to bring more transparency and fairness in the examination systems of Matric and intermediate boards. Like the NTS tests, the candidates should be given carbon sheets, so that they should possess an undeniable proof of what they have written on their answer sheets. Moreover, the exams should be wholly conducted on the basis of the MCQs, and there should be multiple sets of examination papers, so that one candidate gets a separate examination paper from the candidate sitting next to him or her, to minimis the ‘copy culture’. This method would also ensure announcement of the result on the same day, eliminating the chances of manipulations of results.
The education department of Sindh, led by Dr Mahtab Dahar, should give this suggestion a serious consideration and order holding the next matriculation and intermediate examination in the province under this NTS-type pattern, so that the exams are conducted under the MCQs method, the candidates are given the carbon copies of their answer sheets and the results are announced the same day.
