THE delay in the announcement of first-year results of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) disrupted the studies of those preparing for the second-year exams which are only a couple of months away.

The board first made no announcement and kept coming up with lame excuses to somehow rationalised the delay. The actual reason was the substandard machine that was used to check multiple-choice question (MCQ) sheets. It was the first time the machine was used for checking papers, and it malfunctioned right away.

The responsibility for checking the MCQ sheets then fell on the teachers. Indeed, that was challenging and delayed the entire process. The BIEK has a never-ending list of issues, and the current one is just the latest addition to that heap.

The students were more concerned than before because they believed that the results would be prepared hap-hazardly, and the announcement of the first-year pre-engineering results proved them right. The passing rate was just 41 per cent, which was far lower than preceding years.

From the beginning of December, the students have been distracted by ongoing concerns about possible delay in the conduct of exams.

Whether it is the Karachi board, or, for that matter, any board across Sindh, corruption is the order of the day; every day. A senior of the BIEK counterpart in Larkana recently conceded that there was a certain ‘union’ that was ‘selling’ grades. No student qualified to receive A-1 grade on merit, and the so-called union, comprising low-grade employees, brings ‘customers’ to buy A-1 grades.

With things being so bad and ugly, one can imagine the plight of the students. At the end of the day, the students have to bear the brunt of the rotten system, and no one from among the higher authorities cares about their future one tiny bit.

The relevant authorities need to ensure that the students do not suffer because of corruption and apathy of the officials concerned.

It is a case of hoping against hope, but is there anything else that we may do in this regard? No, there is absolutely nothing.

Gulnaz Mustafa Mahar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2023