Despite having an annual turnover of almost 40 million, the Karachi branch of the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has no one to sign the equivalence certificates for students of O and A Levels, local media reports have informed. The IBCC also authenticates certificates issued by various institutions.
The office which receives approximately 200 applications daily is staffed by only two officials and four clerks out of which there is only one grade-18 and one grade-16 officer while it is mandatory that equivalence certificates should be signed by two grade-18 officers. Therefore, in a cumbersome procedure, the certificates are sent to the Quetta office only for one signature.
Hence the long and tedious process causes a large number of students to suffer considering the highest number of Cambridge schools registered in the country are located in Karachi. Scores of students regularly queue outside the two-room office at the Sindh Board of Technical Education building for procedures that ought to take minutes but instead take hours with many struggling to obtain pertinent forms and overburdened staff forced to forward applications to the Quetta office for signatures.
Moreover, granting equivalence rakes in a hefty sum for the government with Rs3,000 for a regular application and Rs4,000 for an urgent one.
The IBCC’s failure to establish a new Karachi premises indicates neglect on the part of authorities. A Bahawalpur sub-office, advertised alongside the need for a Karachi one, started functioning following the acquisition of a building. However, the IBCC was not able to buy or hire a building in Karachi for an office.
The IBCC office was recently shifted from the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi premises in North Nazimabad to the Sindh Board of Technical Education building in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Although the shift in location has facilitated many students as the office is now easily accessible, the office is unable to cater to their requirements.
