Over the last few years, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) has revamped its services to facilitate students, particularly those living in remote areas.

FBISE has the largest jurisdiction of all education boards in the country, with affiliated institutions across the country and abroad. Its efforts to facilitate students with the use of technology include the installation of devices at its main office that cater to students, as well as offering several facilities on its website for students who cannot visit their offices in person.

One of the board’s new initiatives has been to make roll number slips available on its website to prevent exploitation by private school operators, who previously stopped students’ roll number slips until unjustified dues were cleared.

Students can now download their slips and sit for examinations, and can even apply online for their exam papers to be rechecked, for duplicate mark sheets, the verification of documents, migration certificates, results cancellations and so on.

Students can also seek information from an online chat room, which is responsible from 8am to 12am seven days a week. According to FBISE data, 117,298 students and parents exchanged 513,612 messages from March 2016 to August this year.

At the FBISE office, a one-window operation aims to provide quick and easy access to various services through a queue management system.

Upon entering the premises, students can get an application form for their respective issues from the designated counter and fill out another form at a machine before they receive an electronic token to reach board officials.

A Rawalpindi student, Saleem Abbas, who visited the office for a duplicate mark sheet, said other government departments should follow the pattern to facilitate the public.

But board officials said that even though online facilities are available, students still tend to visit the office in person.

“Normally, we dispatch [no objection certificates], migration certificates and duplicate mark sheets within two days through [a courier service] to those who apply online,” a board official said.

On the other hand, the FBISE was also the main source of funding for scouting activities, but for the last few years has not released funding for scouting due to alleged corruption in funds it released to the Islamabad Scouts Association between 2007 and 2013.

“I cannot release more funds until I am provided audit reports for the funding released by my predecessor,” FBISE Chairman Dr Ikram Ali Malik explained.

A teacher Dawn spoke to said the board could involve the Federal Investigation Agency or National Accountability Bureau in its corruption cases, and on their guarantee, release funding to revive scouting in Islamabad. “But this is no way to stop funding,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2018