May 22, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1429

KARACHI, May 21: As many as 272 candidates were found indulging in unfair means in the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate Part-I and II (Class XI and XII) Science, Commerce and Home Economics group annual examinations-2008.

The cases were reported by the vigilance committees of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK). The figure does not include those cases which were detected by invigilators and superintendents at their respective examination centres and will be compiled once the examination process is over.

The BIEK chairman, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, has asked members of the vigilance teams not to succumb to any pressure while performing their duties.

Presiding over a meeting of the BIEK’s vigilance teams in his office, he said that the role being played by members of vigilance teams in detecting such cases would raise the standard of education.

Meanwhile, complaints about prolonged load-shedding continued to pour in from various examination centres as the BIEK’s request to exempt examination centres from load-shedding has so far remained unheeded. The BIEK had urged the KESC at the beginning of the examinations to avoid load-shedding at examination centers from 9am to noon and from 2pm to 5pm.

Students appearing in the their Intermediate (Class-XI and XII) examinations deplored the frequent and prolonged load-shedding currently being resorted to at their examinations centres as well as in their localities which was not only affecting their performance in the examinations but was also disrupting their studies at home.

A student calling from Gulistan-i-Jauhar asked: “How can the candidates concentrate on solving their papers when their clothes get soaked with sweat in the absence of electricity at their examination centres in the current hot and humid weather?”

“KESC officials must realise that the results of the examination will determine our future,” remarked another student who is a Class-XII (Pre-medical group) student.

Scouts’ role hailed

The BIEK in a letter sent to the Sindh Boys Scouts Association has appreciated the role of scouts who are nowadays assisting the BIEK in getting photostat shops closed in the vicinity of examination centres.

Sources in the board said that the scouts are circulating pamphlets among the owners of photostat shops asking them to keep their business closed during the examination timings to discourage those intending to indulge in unfair means.