November 12, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 11: The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi has debarred 227 Science faculty students from appearing in their examinations for one to three years for use of unfair means.

According to the BIEK chairman, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, 13 of the 227 students have been debarred from appearing in their examinations for three years, 18 for two years and the remaining 196 for one year as the use of unfair means charges against them were of serious nature and documentary evidence about them was available with the BIEK.

The results of 60 more candidates were cancelled but they have been allowed to appear in the supplementary examinations.

Under the rules of educational boards, candidates debarred from appearing in examinations by any board cannot take their examinations from any other educational board of the country.

Giving the details of the punishments awarded to the candidates for resorting to unfair means in their Higher Secondary School Certificate (Science) annual examinations for 2008, Prof Zai said the BIEK had formed a committee comprising senior professors to decide the cases of the candidates caught while cheating in the last examinations.

The committee after going through the cheating material seized from the students during their examinations had given its decision in 277 such cases. However, the committee which had provided an opportunity to all those candidates to appear before it to defend themselves had exonerated 60 candidates of the charges, allowing them to appear in the HSC supplementary examinations, he added.

The BIEK chairman said the controller of examinations had been tasked to intimate the committee’s decision to the parents of all those candidates who had been penalised.

About the unfair means cases against candidates who had appeared in the HSC (Commerce and Arts) annual examinations, he said the board’s unfair means committee would announce its decision about such cases later.

He said once all the cases of unfair means were decided by the committee, the BIEK would take further measures to help curb the menace of cheating.

The BIEK chairman was optimistic that the trend of cheating in examinations would be reduced considerably with the introduction of the new pattern of papers for the students of Class IX and XI from the 2009 annual examinations.

The educational boards of Sindh have already decided to conduct Class IX and XI annual examinations for 2009 on the new pattern finalised with certain changes in the mode of papers and redistribution of marks of each section of theory and practical.

Accordingly, objective-type questions will carry 20 per cent marks, short questions 50 per cent marks while for descriptive questions there will be 30 per cent marks.