LAHORE: An inquiry team constituted by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is going to start probe into the alleged faulty marking in the intermediate (Part-I) examinations conducted by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, from Monday (today).

The BISE has reportedly received 13,000 applications so far from students seeking rechecking of their papers/answer sheets in the wake of ongoing protests.

The inquiry team, headed by the additional chief secretary and comprising the Chief Minister Inspection Team’s chairman and a member of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), will visit the BISE’s head office to see how the exam and marking system worked.

The team also held a meeting on Sunday in which the BISE officials, including Chairman Prof Chaudhry Muhammad Ismail, were also present.

Regular students to apply through institute heads; fee to be charged in ‘wrong complaint’ cases

“Two meetings were held on Sunday—one presided over by the additional chief secretary (ACS) and another by the secretary (education). In the first meeting, the ACS directed the BISE officials to keep the relevant data ready to confirm whether the students’ complaints were genuine or not,” an official privy to the meeting told Dawn.

According to a BISE official, not a single case related to wrong marking was reported in Lahore. A case was reported from Bahawalpur and it was about calculation/aggregate marks, he added. The data entry operator responsible for it has been suspended.

“The BISE administration has so far received about 13,000 applications from students seeking rechecking of their answer sheets,” the official added.

He said the board had announced to recheck only those answer sheets free of cost that appeared to have some sort of mistakes related to calculation of numbers, etc. If the BISE teams found no error, the applicants would be charged, he said.

He said since a message was wrongly circulated that the BISE would recheck answer sheets free of cost, a large number of applicants had sought rechecking.

The official said keeping in view the situation, it had been decided that those (regular candidates) interested in getting their answer sheets rechecked/re-examined must submit their applications through heads of their institutions. “Only private candidates can apply to the BISE directly.”

He said only those answer sheets in which errors/mistakes were detected would be shown to the candidates. Answer sheets carrying no error would not be shown to the candidates. Such candidates, he said, would be informed formally.

Talking about the protests, he said there were some private educational organisations/chains which wanted to make the boards’ examination/result system controversial to retain entry tests. “These institutions are minting huge money through coaching classes for entrance tests to the medical colleges and engineering universities. If there are no entrance tests, the business of these institutions will end,” he explained.

He said a mafia within the BISE was also conniving with these private institutions. He also expressed surprise over protests in Lahore since there was not a single case reported here. Some board officials of secrecy, conduct and other branches, who were likely to be transferred in coming days due to corruption, might be behind the protests, the official apprehended.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the BISE said on Sunday the board officials had started examining the answer sheets formally.

“The candidates who have applied for rechecking would be informed through SMS so that they could see their answer sheets and marks. He said the BISE controller had also directed the secrecy branch officials to re-examine the answer sheets in depth and make all-out efforts to ensure transparency.

The spokesman further said the BISE had also completed arrangements to conduct supplementary intermediate examinations from Oct 22.

Published in Dawn October 17th, 2016