KARACHI: Use of unfair means unabated in SSC exams
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 17: While cheating remains unabated at many SSC examination centres in the city, candidates find convenient ways of using unfair means, including using cellphones, said sources in the academic circles. Over 310,000 regular and external candidates are appearing in classes IX and X exams under the Board of Secondary Education Karachi.
These exams are being held in two shifts at about 400 centres set up at government and private schools in all towns of the city.
Since the commencement of the exams on March 5, the average catch of candidates using unfair means till April 15 remained 2.7 candidates per sitting, which speaks volumes of the efforts and approach of the BSE, examination staff and society above all, said a senior teacher involved in examination works.
Under the rules, a candidate found cheating, exchanging information with other candidates or importing incriminatory material from outside the examination room while the examination is in process, can be expelled from that very paper and debarred for one to three years from appearing in the SSC exams. However, reports received from some of the centres showed some other scenario.
A senior teacher said that candidates including those who used unfair means were in the 14 to 17 age group, a period generally considered as that of grooming the innocent and talented ones, adding depressingly that even the female students were not lagging behind in foul play.
It was learnt that boys and girls at a few centres resorted to unfair-means by even showing knives to the examination staff. Interference from outside and use of pressure tactics for facilitating the cheaters are common problems at centres, no matter if these are located in the downtown or remote areas.
Problematic areas include Landhi, Lyari, Korangi, Orangi, villages, Nazimabad, Jehangir Road, Nishter Road, Saddar, Federal B Area, North Karachi, New Karachi, FC area, Clayton Road, Jacob Line, Shah Faisal Colony, Gulistan-i-Jauhar,
Liaquatabad and Bin Qasim areas.
The use of costly cellphones has also been added to the ways and means of cheating. Candidates, both boys and girls, at some of the centres, including one in North Karachi and another on Nishter Road, were found taking dictation from outside.
Reporting at the examination centres with incriminatory material concealed in pockets and other parts of the body is now very rarely being taken as a crime by candidates taking the exams.
About 95 vigilance teams comprising two teachers each have been visiting the centres, but have failed to cast any desiring impact. This was for two reasons: first the team members, who have to visit three to four centres everyday, cannot stay at a centre for the whole exam session; and second, they do not want to play any ‘daredevil’ in the absence of proper protection to their lives and family-members, and due to the increasing external pressures on the centres, commented a vigilance officer.
In many cases, teachers detect cases of unfair means, but instead of recording and sending them to the board for any punitive action, they prefer keeping the cases to their chests and warn the students not to repeat the act.
Owing to pressures, sometimes the examination staff also resort to alarming the students before the arrival of the Board’s (BSE) vigilance teams or special vigilance team, added the source.
When contacted, the BSE controller, Mohammad Salim Khan, said cheating was a menace, which could be overcome only when the individuals, who include students, teachers, parents and groups of politically motivated people, decide to do so.
“We at the board ensure measures to discourage the use of unfair means, and among others, he said,” adding that those setting the question papers are directed to give questions, which might eliminate guesses.
He said that till Friday (April 15), 47 cases of unfair means were reported from centres and by the vigilance staff, while a few of the officials were still due to submit their reports.
To another question, he said that the centre superintendents had already been briefed that use of mobile phones within
the examination area was strictly prohibited, but any exact implementation was yet to been seen.
