KARACHI: All the top three positions in the Secondary School Certificate (science group) annual examinations were bagged by boys as the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) announced the results here on Friday.

Mohammad Hamza Khan of Usman Public School was first with the A-one grade. He got 798 marks out of a total of 850, giving him a 93.88 percentage. Sikander Ali Khokar of St Patrick’s Secondary School was second. He got 796 marks, giving him a 93.64 percentage. Meanwhile, Abdul Ahad of S.M. Public Academy was third with 795 marks, giving him a 93.52 percentage.

Other than certificates and Abdul Sattar Edhi shields, the top three students also received cheques for Rs50,000 for the one who stood first, Rs30,000 for the one who was second and Rs20,000 for the one who was third.

Some 151,351 students registered for the examinations while 150,294 appeared for them. Of them, 25,420 got A-one grade, 33,233 got ‘B’ grade, 29,089 got ‘C’, 12,303 got ‘D’, 458 got ‘E’.

Speaking about his plans for the future young Hamza, who stood first, said that he hoped to get into engineering. About the course and curriculum in schools, he said it would be better if it was updated occasionally so that the students could obtain current knowledge.

Sikander, who was second, he, too, wanted to study engineering but then he wanted to appear for the CSS exam. About the cheating culture, he said that he was lucky enough to not have experienced it himself. “Everyone was very strict at my centre, St Paul’s, but if you ask me, cheating hinders speed. Cheaters waste so much time deceiving the invigilators that they can’t really complete their entire paper leaving several questions unanswered in the end,” he said.

Abdul Ahad, who stood third, said there was a growing divide between O-Levels and Matric standards and the government should look into filling this gap.

BSEK chairman Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai said that earlier there used to be only a few thousand students in the entire country, who would opt for O-Levels but now their numbers have grown to tens of thousands despite O-Level education being very expensive. “Those who cannot afford O-Level education turn to the local board so we are obligated to provide them with quality and standards at par with the foreign boards,” he said. “Therefore, we are working at reviewing the shortfalls in our education system.”

Meanwhile, former cricketer Moin Khan, the chief guest on the occasion, said that for him each match that he played for Pakistan was like an examination, which taught him a lot about life. “I have learnt that there are no shortcuts in life,” he said. “And those who are looking for shortcuts should know that whatever you achieve that way, will be temporary.”

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2016