IN Pakistan, there are 145 universities in the public sector and 99 in the private sector registered with the Higher Education Commission (HEC). All these universities are following the HEC policy guidelines for the implementation of a uniform semester system in higher education institutions of the country.

Section 11.1 of the guidelines reads, “… in each semester, students may be required to appear in quizzes, tests, midterms, final examinations, presentations (individual/group), group discussion, and submit projects/assignments/lab reports, etc. These assignment marks (to be determined by the teacher concerned) will have different weightage contributing towards the overall assessment in per cent…”

Some teachers use this authority and ask the senior students to mark the papers of the juniors. This has happened at various institutions, including Islamia College University, Peshawar, and Islamia University, Bahawalpur, according to the students enrolled in those institutions.

So, how should a paper be made and marked? It depends on the semester teacher. Who should be given the grace marks? It also depends on the semester teacher. Who should be a failure? To a great extent, it also depends on the semester teacher.

It is because of these guidelines that university students cannot say a word against their teachers even when the teachers are not present there. These guidelines bound the students to obey and surrender before their teachers. They cannot complain against their subject teachers even if they are not teaching well; or even when they are not teaching at all. On the part of the teachers, they teach the way they like, follow the method they prefer, and those who have a permanent job have the luxury of being as whimsical as they want to.

To have the examination answer sheets officially marked by a designated third party is a great option we have. The third party could be of two types. It could be other teachers of the same university having similar expertise to that of the concerned ones, and the third party could also be the teachers of nearby universities.

By adopting such a policy, we may save our teachers from such false allegations, and our students from getting black-mailed. It may also make higher education institutions corruption-free.

Abdul Salam
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023