KARACHI: All top positions were bagged by girls as Board of Secondary Education, Karachi (BSEK), announced the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) General Group examination results for regular candidates as well as results of SSC examinations for special candidates here on Tuesday.

Amen Baloch of Citizen Secondary School topped with 741 marks out of a total of 850 marks, giving her a percentage of 87.17, and the A-One grade. Alifiya Burhanuddin of F.C. Moriswalla Girls Secondary School stood second with 736 marks and a percentage of 86.58 while Hina Javed of DA Neelum High School was third with 734 marks and a percentage of 86.35.

All the deaf and mute position holders in the special group hailed from Dewa Academy for the Deaf. Wafa Naz stood first with 710 marks and 83.52 percentage, Mobina Khan was second with 703 marks and a 82.7 percentage while Umme Hani was third with 685 marks and a 80.58 percentage.

Amen Baloch, the student who stood first, said that when studying for her exam she never paid heed to how much time she spent with her books. “I just studied without any breaks and then when I saw the exam papers they seemed like the easiest thing in the world,” she said.

Using sign language, Wafa Naz, the deaf and mute student, said she wanted more people to learn sign language so that they could communicate better with people like her.

The programme to announce the results at the BSEK office was dedicated to the late humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi. BSEK chairman Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, paying tribute to Edhi sahib, unveiled the Edhi shield. He said he wanted the position holders receiving the Edhi shields to feel proud on their achievements as they deserved a shield bearing the name of the great man.

He said the general perception might be that the BSEK was an examination board but they were also an education board. “We don’t just concentrate on holding examinations but education standards in schools here is also one of our major concerns,” he said. “Earlier, our affiliation team’s work was to look into, well affiliations with the Karachi board, but they are also monitoring and scrutinising the schools and institutions over their results and overall performance. We work on research and academics. In that we are also looking into changing the exam pattern.”

Besides the certificates and shields, the position holders were also awarded cheques with Rs50,000 for the first position holder, Rs30,000 for the second and Rs20,000 for the third.

Congratulating the position-holders, Faisal Edhi, the chief guest on the occasion, said he hoped the students would use their brains and expertise for the betterment of their country. He also urged the government to increase its education and health budget. “We should be embarrassed over the fact that a majority of Pakistan’s children are still out of school,” he regretted.

“Please give people their rights by taking care of their basic necessities such as education and health,” he added.

“The weapons race between Pakistan and India is only taking away funds from where they should rightfully be used,” he said. “Pakistan and India should not even think of war. They should divert their energies in thinking up ways to make this region more prosperous by ridding it of poverty.”

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2016