KARACHI: “ I’m satisfied with the current examination system as it is more transparent. Still there is room for improvement in the course and syllabus,” said Ashna Aslam of Federal Government Girls Inter College, who stood first with 918 out of 1,100 marks to get an ‘A-1’ grade with 83.45 percentage in Humanities group (regular) as the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) announced the results here on Monday.

All the top six position holders in the subject category happened to be girls. Ashna was followed by Tarfia Khan (884 marks) of Zubair Public Higher Secondary School and Sania Sohail (883 marks) of DA Degree College for Women, Phase VIII.

Tarfia Khan said she felt that the standard of education of private colleges was far better than that of government colleges. “I also feel that the teachers of government colleges pay little attention on how their students are doing in class due to which there is also drop in attendance at these institutions,” she said while sharing her ambitions of becoming a teacher herself one day.

Sania Sohail, too, said the government should take notice of the falling standards of government colleges. “There are so many government colleges here which don’t even have electricity as it has been disconnected due to non-payment of bills,” she said.

The Humanities (private) group also saw three girls bagging the top positions. Saba Idrees with 905 marks out of 1,100 was first, Warda Farid Khan (880 marks) was second and Nazia Bano (870 marks) was third.

Saba Idrees highlighted the problems faced by girls when stepping out of their homes. “The biggest problem I faced was our transport system. It was too wayward and expensive for me. Added to this is the law and order situation of Karachi,” she shared.

Warda Farid Khan said that she was distressed to see everyone so interested in the education of boys. “We girls work extra hard to prove mettle in this scenario,” she said.

In the special candidates regular group for humanities though the top positions at least were taken by boys. Muhammad Saleem of Ida Rieu School & College for Deaf stood first with 995 out of 1,100 marks. He was followed by Syed Bilal Asif (980 marks) of Dewa Higher Secondary School and Batool Ashfaq (972 marks) also of Dew Higher Secondary School.

All three special candidates pointed out that there were several government and private colleges for normal students but they, unfortunately, have very few choices in that department.

Meanwhile, BIEK Chairman Anwar Ahmed Zai said: “There is nothing simple or easy about arts and humanities so they are not to be taken lightly, too.”

He questioned, “How else are we going to get experts in different languages, sociology, political science, psychology, etc.?”

The top 20 position holders in all subjects would be awarded scholarships by the board.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014