ISLAMABAD: A violent protest by a group of students of the Islamabad Model Postgraduate College, H-8, forced the college administration into relaxing its exam enrollment policy.
The college has a policy of not forwarding students cases to the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), to sit the annual intermediate examinations if their attendance falls below a certain threshold.
The 80 students who organised the protest were regular absentees. However, in the aftermath of the protest, anyone, who passes the send-up exams, will be eligible for taking the board exams as a regular candidate regardless of their attendance; staff members told a private media outlet.
Under the FBISE rules, a college student is eligible to sit for the exam as a regular candidate if their attendance during the course is at least 75 per cent. However, the college’s administration reduced that percentage to 45 in light of the recent three-week-long sit-in by religious parties at the Faizabad interchange that restricted the movement of many students.
Even then, the absentee students weren’t happy and kept pushing the administration for sending their board exam ‘admission forms’ to the FBISE as regular candidates unconditionally.
However, when the college administration rejected their demands they opted for aggression. The absentees locked the college’s main gates for around three hours making over 1,600 students, teachers and staff members their hostage.
The administration called in the police for help. The policemen did show up but they were of little help as they just stood there like silent spectators. Some insiders claimed that the police officials were related to one of the protestors and hence were unwilling to take action against them.
Thereafter, the assistant commissioner along with additional police force reached the campus and facilitated a dialogue between the protesters and the college administration.
It was decided in the discussion that the administration will give relief to the protesting students only if they qualify send-up exams.
