PESHAWAR, Aug 15: All the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education are fleecing students of matric and intermediate by minting excessive amount in the garb of re-checking of papers in the Frontier.

The flawed examination system has been adversely affecting the students taking matriculation and intermediate examinations. According to sources, the students were being charged Rs500 in the name of rechecking, but their papers weren’t rechecked rather re-totalled the marks. The fee for rechecking was raised this year from Rs300 to Rs500 per paper.

Some of the students, who think that their marks were less than their expectation, opt for rechecking of their papers in the hope that they would get their marks improved. However, their hopes get dash to the ground when they are told after 10 days that there was no change in their obtained marks.

“I deposited Rs1,500 for rechecking of physics, chemistry and biology papers after the FSc result this year. But, I was told after 10 days that there was no change in my marks,” said Abdul Wajid, a disgruntled student of the Islamia College University.

“I was under the misconception that I would be shown my papers and would be allowed to raise objection wherever I had not been given appropriate marks for certain questions I had attempted.”

Under the existing process, the papers of the students are checked by the staff inside the Secrecy Room without letting them to see their papers. Sources said that sometime back about 10 to 15 students were invited to the room and were shown their papers, where they were allowed to raise objections over the marks given to them on certain answers. In this way, many eligible students were able to get their marks improved.

“But now the system has been replaced by re-totalling of the marks instead of rechecking of the papers. In the absence of the students, the marks obtained by the students are counted again and the students are asked that there is no change in their marks.”

Sources in the BISE Peshawar told Dawn that this practice was in progress in all boards of the province. They said that the culture of rechecking of papers had been started in the wake of central marking system launched by the examination boards. Previously, the papers were sent to teachers for marking, who returned them to the board after stipulated period.

“In central marking system, dozens of teachers check the papers inside the board office. They are given Rs6 per paper due to which they try to check as many papers as possible and in the process the students pay the price,” the sources added. They said that it had been observed several times that Islamiat teachers checked English papers and Urdu teachers checked Pashto papers.

An official of the BISE said that the previous system had been stopped due to the problems created by the students, who usually raised objection over the marking of every question. This was a total waste of time and more often led unending debates between the students and the officials.

“In the new system, the students aren’t involved in the checking of papers. Only re-totalling is done,” he said and added that ‘quick marking’ had been prompted as the high-ups wanted to prepare the results quickly, which caused flawed marking.