KARACHI: The annual Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams kicked off on Tuesday in Karachi, with 375,000 students sitting for the regular and private examinations of Science and General Groups.

Section 144 was imposed at the 499 examination centres set up in government and private schools, of which 256 were for boys and 243 for girls.

Like every year, the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) took “extra measures” to prevent cheating.

The board also announced that this year instances of leaking exam papers on social media will be dealt with by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Ghulam Hussain Soho, chairman of the BSEK, said that the first paper commences at 9.30am and they esure that the question papers reach the centres half an hour earlier, around 9am.

If paper is leaked after 9am, then it is not our responsibility, says BSEK

“Now if a paper is leaked after 9am, then it is not the responsibility of the Board,” he pointed out.

BSEK’s Controller of Examinations, Zaheeruddin Bhutto, said that the answer sheets have a QR code.

“We plan to replicate the same technology for the question papers also in the future, which will tell us which paper was leaked from where,” he added.

Meanwhile, there was some confusion on the first day of exams regarding examination centres, as some were switched or changed without notifying the candidates in advance.

According to a BSEK spokesperson, the new list of examination centres has been uploaded on the Board’s website.

The problem arose when some centres submitted a request to the controller of examinations to remove them from the list of centres due to unavoidable issues at their end.

These centres were instructed to at least print out the notice of the change of centres and paste it on their entrances.

The controller of examinations also directed the superintendents at all exam centres to facilitate students who are not able to reach their designated examination centres on time. “They must be allowed to sit for their exams,” he said.

KE promises no loadshedding at centres

A KE spokesperson stated that the power utility has officially received the detailed list of examination centers along with a formal request from the board on Tuesday evening.

“KE will extend full cooperation to the education department to ensure students face no disruptions during their exams. Loadshedding exemption for examination centres during exam hours has already been implemented, and no complaints regarding power supply have been received from the education department,” the KE said.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2025