Matriculation WOES – Travel time tests students

LAHORE – Students appearing in annual matriculation examinations 2011 faced problems in commuting to their examination centres, which have been set up far away from the city’s centre. Students are suffering longer commuting time and transport unavailability, as Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) has set up centres in private schools located far away from the candidates’ residences instead of the nearby schools. A large number of students complained that BISE did not consider the transport factor and the candidates’ localities before allotting examination centres.
Students from Raiwind were appearing in BISE main examination halls in front of the Lawrence Gardens, while students from Shahdra and Kot Abdul Malik were made to appear in examination centres of Raiwind. Students thus have to travel for more than two hours in already exhausted busses in order to reach their examination centres.
Female students condemned BISE for allotting centres far from their localities. Female students’ family members, who believe that it was not easy for females to travel from Raiwind to Lawrence Road, are escorting them to the examination centres. Students’ parents, criticising BISE, said the board used to set up centres in nearby public schools for candidates’ convenience.
BISE officials also condemned the board’s administrations and said that city’s main government schools were overlooked and centres were set up in far-flung private schools. BISE sources said lack of planning on the part of BISE was making the students suffer. BISE Controller Manzoor-ul-Hasan Niazi said the situation has complicated because class 9 exams have coincided with class 10 exams. “The board has to now accommodate 261,000 students in the city schools,” he said. As many as 461,856 candidates are appearing in the matriculation exams and for which 624 examination centres in five districts within its jurisdiction have been established by BISE.