June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

KARACHI, June 2: The girl candidates outshone boys in the SSC Part-II General group (Regular and Private) annual examinations- 2003, by keeping the top three merit positions among them.

The Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, on Monday declared the results pertaining to secondary school exams, which were conducted in March. The first three positions went to students of private schools.

In all, 39547 candidates including 32512 regular students of schools and 7035 private candidates had appeared in the General group exams, out of whom 20451 (51.71%) were declared pass while the overall pass percentage of last year exams was recorded as 48.90.

The overall pass percentage of boys remained at 48.74, while out of 26538 girls taking examinations 14093 (53.10%) managed to clear the exams. A total of 13009 boys including 8496 regular students appeared in the exams.

Among private candidates, none of the boys could get A-one grade, while two girls secured A-one grade. The breakdown of successful candidates remained as follows:

A-one grade - 293 regular students including 256 girls; and two private girl candidates; A grade - 1,386 regular students including 1085 girls; and 122 private candidates including 47 girls; B grade - 3674 regular students including 2875 girls; and 557 private candidates including 210 girls; C grade - 6,781 regular students including 5305 girls; and 1357 private candidates including 475 girls; D grade - 4617 regular students including 3241 girls; and 1118 private candidates including 375 girls; and E grade - 381 regular including 187 girls; and 114 private candidates including 35 girls.

A student of H M Tinytots School (Kharadar), Hera d/o Abdul Rauf, clinched first position in the merit list by securing 758 out of 850 marks (89.18%). Madiha Rais of PECHS Girls’ School and Urooj Rehman Bajwa of St Matthew’s Model High School, bagged second and third positions by securing 751 and 746 marks respectively.

An interview session with the position holders, their principals and senior officials of education department was held at the Karachi Press Club on Monday. Though the distinctive students expressed satisfaction over the existing system of education and examination, they felt that it was all a matter of theory education compelling the students to solely depend on their capability to memorize the textbooks and again reproduce those on answer sheets for examiners.

Talking about the system of education at private schools, the distinguished students said that they were given extra attention by their teachers in a conducive environment. They said that things were smoothly carried out at private schools with all approaches to exploit the hidden potential of students.

Commenting on the situation at the government run schools, the EDO (Education) Anwar Ahmad Zai, said that things could be rectified by paying more attention towards the government schools’ students. Blaming the school staff only for the deterioration would be inappropriate, he added, saying that parents and students have also their role to play.

He said that the education department was considering to pool up the students, who secured 80 per cent or more marks in Class IX, so that they could be given extra care and academic facilities including coaching arrangements, enabling them to win laurels in matriculation examination.

“Only after concerted efforts by students, teachers, parents and NGOs, the relatively less talented students of the government schools could be brought at par with the privileged wards of well-off parents studying at private schools,” he remarked.

The EDO (Higher Education) Prof Rais Alvi said that the process of admissions to government run colleges would start very soon. “I do not think that there would be any major shift from the policy of centralized admission system, as observed during the last few years,” he said. The main thrust of government would be to allow admissions based on merit and not under any quota or reserved seats, he added.

The first position holder in the merit list, Hera, seat no 413282, said that she had got fourth position in Class IX, and her achievements were as per expectations. Boys fail to secure top positions as they pay less attention to study, she remarked.

The second position holder, Madiha Rais, seat no 409108, said that like many other students she too felt that examiners should be well update and trained for the job. She informed that she used computer and internet facilities for references and diversified information on different topics.

The second position holder among boys, Salman Arif, seat no 376296, of Citizens Public Secondary School, said that there was nothing wrong with the results and girl students excelled only because they used to work hard. He also suggested some changes in the examination pattern.

The three distinguished students maintained that lack of basic amenities and improper facilities affected the school goers badly. At the same forum, they complained of the water and power crisis and held the transporters and traffic system responsible for many fatal accidents and other hazards in the city.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the All Private Schools Management Association, Syed Khalid Shah, presented cheques of amount ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs3,000 to the position holders. Principals and management representatives of private schools, who also spoke on the occasion, maintained that students should be compelled not to take extra coaching classes, while on the other hand it should be ensured that routine academic works were carried out at schools in time, instead of piling up a lot of work for students till the end of academic year. The representatives of private schools asked the students to retain what they had learnt at schools.