24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 23: The Sindh Lecturers and Professors Association has stated that contractual appointments of retired government employees and politically motivated people at intermediate educational boards had turned them almost ineffective.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, SPLA office-bearers alleged that the policy of ad hocism and frequent assertions by political quarters had dented the credibility of educational boards at large.

They said that the educational boards in the province had failed to maintain transparency or the rule of law in conducting HSC annual exams. If things went unchecked, it would be difficult for college teachers to perform their examination duties in future, they added.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the affairs of educational board, SPLA chief Prof Riaz Ahsan said that teachers would protest against the examination process of educational boards in the larger interest of students and their parents. "We (teachers) will wear black arm-bands during HSC exams on April 28," he maintained.

Flanked by other office-bearers, who had come from Hyderabad and Sukkur, Prof Riaz alleged that the high ups of educational boards in Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad were unable to ensure sanctity of exams.

He said that most of those board officials were either retired government employees or appointed on political grounds. In this situation, he added, things remained beyond their control.

He said that incidents of violence at examination centres, delay inexams, changes of answer scripts, interferences by influential people to benefit political activists and leakage of question paper had been reported during the exams at Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad.

Prof Riaz said that situation at the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, was not different from those of other boards. It was stated that the SPLA had information about certain political elements who were pressurizing BIEK staff to get undue benefits in exams.

It was demanded that the government should deploy Rangers at the Karachi board office during the examination days to stop the entry of irrelevant people. SPLA chief demanded that all boards in the province should be given under the control of provincial education department on the pattern of educational boards in Punjab.