KARACHI, July 9: The Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, has declared the results of annual intermediate exams of the home economics group on Wednesday.

Out of 485 candidates appeared in the exams, as many as 359 were declared successful, stated the official handout. The pass percentage remained 74.02.

None of the students was placed in A-1 grade, eight students got A-grade. As many as 79 students got B-grade, while 210 bagged C-grade and 62 students got D-grade.

All the three positions were secured by the students of Rana Liaquat Ali Khan Government College of Home Economics. Bina Mohsin secured the first position with 76.75 per cent marks; Maria Zubair got second position with 76.42 per cent marks; and, Fizza Masaud remained third with 76 per cent marks.

Talking to newsmen, the position-holders said absenteeism among students had assumed alarming proportions. They were of the opinion that the Board of Intermediate Education should take steps to rectify the situation.

In response to a question, they said, the teachers in their institution were punctual and disciplined. The standard of education was, thus, fairly good, they added.

The position-holders said cheating was another issue that should be addressed. “I saw many girls getting caught in the act,” said one of them.

Many students, they opined, wasted their precious time in watching television. Two of the position-holders said they wanted to continue studying home economics. One girl said she wanted to go into textile designing.

The girls told the journalists that the examination system needed to be improved. “But the changes should be gradual,” said one of them.

The BIE chairman, Prof Iftikhar Zaidi, said that his research cell was looking into the ways and means to improve the examination system. He said that multiple choice questions could feature in greater numbers on the examination papers in future.

Assessment of scripts was another area in which there was a lot of room for improvement, he said. The honorarium paid out to the invigilators was also proposed to be enhanced in an effort to increase efficiencies during the examinations.

One of the parents said that one exam every year was neither sufficient nor advisable. “There should be several exams in an academic year, perhaps after every two months,” she said. “Otherwise, lethargy and complacency creeps into the lives of the students,” she added.

The controller of examinations, Prof Amjad Ali, told Dawn that the Board of Intermediate Education would declare the results of the second year exams of pre-medical group, by the mid of August.

He said that the results of the examinations taken by the students of the pre-engineering group will be declared within the next seven months.