PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department cancelled the NTS tests scheduled for Saturday and Sunday after a solved paper was leaked, officials said. The test was being conducted to appoint thousands of primary schoolteachers across the province.

Special secretary elementary and secondary education department Arshad Khan told Dawn that the solved paper along with a PDF key from an unknown examination centre was leaked at around 8:54am and shared on social media.

He said under the law the envelope containing the paper should be opened at exactly 9am in the examination hall. “I have ordered an inquiry into the leakage of the paper,” he said, adding another paper scheduled for Sunday was also cancelled.

In the evening, the NTS informed all the candidates through text message on their cellular phones that the test conducted on Saturday for the post of PST and another test scheduled for Sunday had been postponed. “New dates of tests will be announced and communicated to you soon,” reads the message.

Meanwhile, a female candidate who came from Islamabad to appear in the test termed its cancellation unacceptable. “I travelled with my children with lots of difficulty and at great expense. We have been hearing the news about paper leaks and mismanagement for quite some time, but today NTS has itself committed the blunder,” she deplored.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2018