KARACHI, July 15: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Karachi, on Saturday declared the results of regular and private candidates of the SSC-II (general) annual exams, 2006.
Of 37,337 candidates who appeared in examination 24,807 were declared pass. The overall percentage of successful candidates came as 66.44, which was 3.20 per cent lower than that of the last year.
The first position in the merit list was shared by a boy and a girl belonging to private sector schools. All the distinguished students were handed over their SSC examination marks sheets at a ceremony presided over by chairman of BSE, Brig (retd) Shafiullah Qureshi, at the board office.
Mohammad Abbas, roll no 665922, of Ghulaman-i-Abbas School, Lyari, and Aiman Tariq, roll number 734751, of Mama Parsi Girls Secondary School, M A Jinnah Road, clinched first position by securing 767 (90.24%) marks out of 850.
Another two students of Ghulaman-i-Abbas School, Baqir Ali, roll no 665915, and Rizwan Ali, roll no 665930, bagged second and third positions respectively by securing 760 and 754 marks respectively.
On the girls merit list, Ambreen, roll number 726972, of the Aga Khan Girls Secondary School, Karimabad, and Mahnoor Ghazanfar, roll no 734761, of Mama Parsi Girls Secondary School, were bracketed for second position as each of them secured 88.35 per cent of the total marks. Third position was secured by Samra Owais, roll no 732974, of St Patrick's Girls Secondary School, Saddar, who secured 738 marks.
During a question answer session, position holder students of Mama Parsi School told newsmen that the use of unfair means was considerable at the examination centre established at a private school in Saddar. However, they maintained that those who were busy in cheating did not belong to their school and they belonged to another two schools located in Saddar area.
Other position holders also condemned the use of unfair means in examination and expressed the view that the over all environment at the examination centres and invigilation system needed to be made more effective and foolproof.
A couple of position holders said that teachers should recognise their responsibility and stand against the cheats who collectively brought scars to the credibility of the examinations.
Those who wanted to continue education and acquire knowledge and skill before entering practical life, in fact cared for a serious system of education and never resorted to cheating, said the students, adding that they never used unfair means as they were never encouraged for that by their teachers and parents as well.
Of the six position holders from among the boys and girls five said that they wanted to become a chartered accountant as it will highly pay in future.
BSE chairman Brig Shafiullah admitted that cheating in examination was on the rise, but that could not be eliminated by educational boards alone. Every character of the society has to think about the damages resulting from the use of unfair means, he added, saying that a good number of students did cheat because they were not guided properly.
He, however, avoided making any quick comment on the role of teachers in checking or promoting the cheating menace. He said that vigilance teams were set up every year, with the objective to ensure transparent and smooth conduct of examinations, but, personally, felt that those were not up to the mark.
Apprising about the conduct of examination and compilation of results, the BSE controller of examination, Mohammad Saleem Khan, said that he and his team had been able to release the matriculation examination results at least two week ahead of the deadline set by the provincial education department, which was surely a tremendous job done.
He said that SSC marks sheets of general group examinations would be issued to students within two weeks.
Later the chairman, along with the controller and Secretary of the Board, Prof Asif Pasha Siddiqui, handed over marks sheets to position holders. The marks sheet of Samra Owais was received by her father.
According to a BSE notification, a total of 28,171, including 20,666 girls appeared as regular candidates in the exams, out of which 19110, including 13852 were declared pass. The pass percentage of regular students remained 67.84.
In the case of private candidates the pass percentage remained as 62.15, as of 9166 candidates, including 2,670 girls, taking the examinations, 5,697, including 1,410 were declared pass.
A grade wise breakdown of successful candidates is as follows:
Regular; A-1 grade 369, A grade 1,828, B grade 3,719, C grade 6,633, D grade 5, 734 and E grade 827.
Private; A-1 grade 10, A grade 204, B grade 1,024, C grade 1,942, D grade 1854, E grade 272 and Pass 391.
Results of 47 candidates were withheld due to the use of unfair means, while another 2,275 candidates were asked to furnish correct information for declaration of results.
