KARACHI, July 15: In an unusual occurrence, five girls and three boys, shared the three top positions in this year’s matriculation (science) examinations.

According to a gazette released by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi on Tuesday, 84,736 candidates had taken the matriculation examinations.

Just under 7,000 students were placed by the board in the A-1 category, 12,338 in A category, 15,445 in B category, 13,526 in C category, 5,048 in D category and 278 in E category.

Forty-nine students were declared successful in the additional subjects. The total pass percentage of the examinations was, therefore, 63.3 per cent.

Just under 50,000 male students appeared in the examinations, of which 58.5 per cent were declared successful. In comparison, more than 35,000 female students took the examinations, of which about 70 per cent were declared successful in all the subjects.

The first position was shared by Mohammad Osama of the BVS Parisi High School and Asma Tariq Ali Khan of the St Lawrence’s Convent. Both of them bagged 93.6 per cent marks.

The second position went to Hasan Siddiqui of the Habib Public School and Sanam Mehdi of the Oxford High School. They scored 93.41 per cent marks.

The third position was shared by four students who got 92.94 per cent marks. The names of these students and their institutions are: Hasnain Rizvi, St Gregory’s School; Afifa Zehra, Ali Ali School; Afroz Abdul Razzak, Dhaka Boys and Girls School; and, Nida-e-Fatima, Ali Ali School.

At a simple ceremony, held in the Karachi Press Club, the position holders were given their marks certificates by Prof Anwar A Zai, a senior official of the education department, in the presence of M Salim Khan, the board’s controller of examinations, and Prof Rais Alvi, EDO for higher education. Later a group of journalists interviewed the position holders.

M Osama, in response to a question, said he had been coached by some tutors in the last couple of months before the examinations. He said he intended to go for a master’s degree in business administration.

Asma Tariq Ali Khan was of the opinion that the quality of the English textbooks was rather poor. During the last two months before the examinations she studied for 20 hours every day. She said she wanted to be a doctor.

Answering a question, Sanam Mehdi said multiple choice questions should feature in greater numbers on the examination papers. She was of the view that mathematics should be taught in the ninth class.

Hasan Siddiqui said he did not have to work too hard to bag a position. He said objective-type queries should be among the questions that are included in the examination papers.

Hasnain Rizvi said his teachers had cooperated with him at all times. He was of the opinion that the environment in the state-owned schools and colleges was not conducive to academic activities.

Afroz Abdul Razzak said the school in which she took the board examinations did not even had fans. She wanted to be a doctor, she told the journalists.

Nida-i-Fatima said she was rather disappointed that she had not secured the top slot. She did not have to go for private tuition because her teachers used to arrange extra-classes for all the students, Nida added.

Meanwhile, it is being suspected that a lot of pressure was exerted on the board by some parents who wanted to see their children mount the pedestal reserved for position-holders. As a compromise, the board officials decided to distribute the three positions among eight candidates.

When asked if this was true, the controller of examinations, M Salim Khan, denied that his testing board had bowed to pressures on the question of positions. He, however, acknowledged that there were several other issues on which the board had to contend with interference.