KARACHI: Day one of the annual intermediate examinations posed two hurdles in the way of the examinees appearing for their part one and part two papers under the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) on Saturday.

Pranksters acting as BIEK staff started the rumour that the exams had been postponed in view of rain in the city and that a new date for holding the exams will be announced later. This was followed by another rumour that the morning pre-medical botany part two paper had been leaked.

“Leaking a paper is impossible because question papers are finalised on the eve of exams,” said BIEK chairman Prof Dr Saeeduddin while speaking to media, which had accompanied him to the Abdullah Government College for Women on the morning of the exams.

He also examined the paper that the students were solving, himself, to ensure that it was not the ‘leaked version’.

Most students face no problem in understanding MCQs on newly introduced optical mark recognition sheets

The college was an examination centre where about 700 female candidates were appearing for their exams. It took some of them only a few minutes to understand the new way of answering multiple choice questions (MCQs) on the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets provided to them. The MCQs, this year, comprise 40 per cent of the total marks for the paper.

The exams were carried out in a peaceful manner, although one or two ceiling fans in some of the classrooms or examination halls were out of order even though there was electricity in the building.

The BIEK had already written to K-Electric to request the power utility to not carry out loadshedding during the exam timings of 9am to 12 noon and 2pm to 5pm.

The huge grounds of Abdullah Government College for Women had many anxious mothers waiting on the benches and footpaths, praying for their daughters’ success in the exams.

Some said that their girls were so nervous before the exams that they couldn’t even have a breakfast. Some mothers themselves had not eaten breakfast after seeing their daughters so stressed out.

At the Government College for Men, Nazimbad, the situation seemed better with a cool breeze blowing through the clean, well-lit and airy classrooms. The young men seemed to be solving their papers without any difficulties. But then one noticed a long double row of students also seated in a secluded corridor using shaky unbalanced makeshift desks to solve their papers. The invigilator informed that there seemed to be no power in that portion of the building and pedestal fans that they had placed there couldn’t be turned on.

In the afternoon shift, there was the part two science (general) economics paper for clothing and textiles and the part one commerce supplementary paper for business mathematics for regular and private students taking place.

The BIEK chairman, accompanied by the Controller of Examinations Engineer Abdul Aleem Khanzada and deputy controller, took the media on random visits to various examination centres, which besides the two centres mentioned already also included Premier Government College No 2 Block H, North Nazimabad, Siraj-ud-Daulah College Government College No 2 F.C. Area.

Around 108,000 students of the science group have been appearing in the morning shift from 9am to 12 noon. The afternoon shift running from 2pm to 5pm sees about 82,000 candidates of the commerce (regular and private) groups.

The board has set up 211 exam centres, including 115 reserved for the morning shift and 96 for the afternoon shift. Some 64 centres have been declared sensitive, comprising 32 of the morning shift and as many of the afternoon shift.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2022