KARACHI, July 9: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Karachi, on Saturday declared the results of SSC General (Regular and Private) Part-II (Class X) annual examination, 2005, with an over all pass percentage of 69.64, which is five per cent higher than that of the last year. According to a BSE notification, as many as 37,655 regular and private candidates, including 22,825 girls, took the examination, out of which 26,222, including 16,048 girls, were declared pass. The pass percentage of regular candidates remained 71.09, while in the case of private candidates it was 65.29 per cent.

The boy students, who had broken the long supremacy of girls by securing all the top three merit positions last year, failed to maintain the streak, as the three positions went to 3 boys and one girl.

A student of CP and Berar Girls High School, Mariam Junaid, roll no 657552, clinched first position by securing 759 out of 850 marks, while second position was secured by Mohammad Qasim, roll no 629033, of Ghulaman-i-Abbas School, who got 756 marks.

Third position was shared by two students, Sajjad Raza, roll no 629033, and Muzammil Haji Mehboob, roll no 630921, who belonged to Ghulaman-i-Abbas School and BVS Parsi High School respectively. The students scored 745 marks each.

An official of the board attributed the increase in pass percentage to grant of grace marks (ranging from 1 to 9) to a number of students. Even 35 out of 201 regular and one out of four private candidates managed A-1 grade after securing grace marks, ranging from 1 to 5.

According to examination data, 28,214 regular candidates, including 20,013 girls, appeared in the examination, out of which 20,058, including 14,355 girls, were declared to have passed the exams. The pass percentage of boy students was 69.54, while that of girls was 71.73.

A total of 9,441 private candidates, including 2,812 girls, took the examination, 6,164, including 1,693 girls, passed. In contrary to regular boy candidates, performance of private boy candidates was better as they managed a pass percentage of 65.29, which was seven per cent higher than that of private girl candidates.

Results of 47 candidates were withheld for want of correct information and of 20 candidates for alleged use of unfair means during the examination, said the BSE notification.

Breakdown of successful candidates is as follows:

Regular; A-1 grade- 78 boys and 123 girls, A grade-408 and 1062, B grade-1037 and 2808, C grade-1838 and 5555, D grade-1964 and 4332, and E grade-378 and 475.

Private; A-1 grade-3 boys and 1 girl, A grade-168 and 53, B grade- 817 and 316, C grade-1607 and 643, D grade-1484 and 565, E grade-185 and 72 and Pass-207 and 43.

Merit positions were as follows:

Boys; First-Mohammad Qasim, roll no 629033. Second- Sajjad Raza, roll no 629039 and Muzammil Haji Memhboob, roll no 630921. Third-Aneel Ahmed Usmani, roll no 630909, and Syed Bilal Safder, roll no 630930.

Girls; First-Mariam Junaid, roll no 657552. Second- Kanwal Fatima, roll no 659344. Third-Misbah Abdul Malik, roll no 662814.

Speaking at a ceremony held for presentation of marks sheets to top position holders of the examination, the BSE chairman Brig (retd) Shafiullah Qureshi, said that the role of employees in the preparation of results was commendable.

We have been able to bring results much ahead of the government’s deadline, while on the other hand all requisites and transparency have been observed, he added.

He said that the BSE was making efforts to launch its own website for placing different examination results and other information on priority basis and it was likely that some of the examination results would be available to students on the board’s site this year.

While mentioning that board would have its own exclusive site, instead of loading its information and notices on a site run by private or commercial organizations, he said that the scare among the board’s employees, like those of other organizations, that switching over to computers would reduce the importance of their manual work or cause downsizing of staff was one of some initial hindrances.

He categorically said that no one would be deprived of job and urged the employees to adopt computers more and more. Referring to use of unfair means by candidates, the chairman said that he personally felt that there was a lot to do in that direction, while on the other hand parents would have to stand firm against the menace and check their wards, whether they were involved in cheating practices or not.

To a question about establishment of educational boards in the private sector, he said that he personally felt that it would bring about a healthy competition in the education sector. It is too early to say about the utility and success of private boards, he added, saying that his board was not a substandard board and it would keep improving.

However, he mentioned that secondary schools in the city would have to choose one of the two boards, BSE or private board. Schools affiliated with the BSE have been told that they would not be allowed to send up there students to the BSE’s examinations, once they adopted the private educational board, he remarked.

Later, the chairman, along with the controller of examinations, Mohammad Saleem Khan, and Secretary M Shafiullah, handed over mark sheets to the position holders who had gathered in the board’s ceremony.

Talking to newsmen, the position holders stressed the need of improving the syllabus of class IX and X and updating the textbooks, particularly those related to economics and commerce subjects. All the toppers interviewed mentioned that they wanted to take admissions in government colleges and had planned to pursue higher education for MBA or CA certificates.

The first position holder Mariam Junaid, who got 89.29 per cent marks, said that she had been outstanding from class VII and was the first in her school to win such a merit position in the educational board examination.

Mohammad Qasim who got second position by securing 88.94 per cent marks, said that course books were of low standard. He wanted to become a CA in the future.

Sajjad Raza, the third position holder, who got 87.65 per cent marks in the examination, condemned the students relying on cheatings in exams and urged the parents and teachers to play due role in eliminating the menace.