KARACHI: Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) on Sunday moved onwards with its policy and systematic changes to ensure credible and modern examination system by adopting innovative ideas and tools.
BSEK Chairman Prof Dr Saeeduddin said that the board had decided to use Optical Mirror Recognition (OMR) machines to scan the objective (MCQs) portion of question papers to escape the chance of human error in the assessment process. Like in surveys and National Testing Service (NTS) tests, OMR through scanning would read and detect marking done at specific points.
For better setting and formation of question papers, especially of science subjects, English and Mathematics, training workshops would be arranged in cooperation with the private sector for senior teachers.
BSEK has also planned to hold a two-day workshop on quality assessment of papers, in the first week of March 2018.
For stopping possible tampering with answer sheets, now the pages would be stitched as opposed to the old practice of their stapling.
The number of pages of an answer copy has also been increased to 24 from 18 to better meet the requirement of the students who want to write more. For this purpose, earlier they used extra loose pages provided by invigilators on their demand. This wasted their time and disrupted their concentration on solving the questions, besides leaving a chance for tampering with or loss of these extra pages, he said.
He said that the number of examination centres has also been reduced. Only the schools at proper locations and having required logistics would be selected to ensure effective monitoring and supervision during exam hours. The list of these centers would be displayed at the board office and uploaded on the board’s website at least fifteen days before the scheduled exam begins.
