HARIPUR: The administration of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Abbottabad has not paid back the fee collected from students during the academic session 2020 for conducting examinations, according to sources.

They said that during the last academic year, the board authorities collected a fee of Rs1,000 from each of the thousands of candidates appearing in the examinations for 9th and 10th grades.

Each of the candidates, who were registered with the board for FA/FSc examinations, paid Rs1,300 fee.

They said that more than 100,000 students were registered as regular and private candidates with the board for taking matric examinations while around 80,000 were aspirants for FSc/FA examinations.

However, the examinations could not be conducted and students were promoted to next grades on the basis of their past academic performance due to coronavirus-induced lockdown in the country. The BISE Abbottabad did not spend the amount on holding examinations.

Sources said that the board was yet to pay back the fees to the students. They said that the amount was lying unspent with the board. Only a small amount was spent on printing and issuing ‘detailed marks certificates’ to the promoted students, they added.

They said that new fee structure for the next academic year was issued by the board to educational institutions but the already deposited amount was neither paid back to students nor adjusted in the fresh schedule of fee.

The parents of the students demanded of the board authorities to pay back the amount to students or adjust it in the new fee as they were already facing financial problems due to outbreak of coronavirus.

Prof Mukhtiar Khan, the chairman of the board, could not be contacted for comments while secretary of board Dr Shaista Irshad Khan said that she had relinquished charge of the office.

KILLED: A man was killed and two others were critically injured when a loaded truck hit their motorcycle on Hattar Industrial Estate Road.

Police said that two real brothers Usama and Ali from Haripur city were going to drop their friend Hammad, a resident of Sera-i-Gadaee village, when a truck coming from opposite direction hit their motorcycle near Tareenabad.

Hammad, who was driving the motorbike, was killed on the spot while Usama and his younger brother Ali were injured critically.

Meanwhile, an employee of health department identified as Mir Afzal alias Mina was allegedly shot dead by Sardar and his son Abrar near Kakotri in Beer union council.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2020