ISLAMABAD: A number of teachers and students have accused the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education’s (FBISE) marking system as over 38pc candidates were declared fail in the recently-announced Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) Part-I exam.

In just two days, hundreds of students submitted applications after paying fee to the board for rechecking of their papers. According to the recently-announced results, a total of 88,381 candidates gave the HSSC Part-I exam, out of whom 54,049 were declared successful with 61.82 pass percentage.

On the other hand, in HSSC Part-II results, the pass percentage remained 83.86pc as 86,495 appeared in the exam out of which 71,518 were declared pass.

According to an official of the board, “we have received hundreds of applications for rechecking of papers of Part-I exam in just two days”.

Board chairman defends e-marking system, says such applications are routine

He said over 1,000 people had applied for rechecking and this figure would increase in the coming days, as students and parents were complaining about discrepancies in the results.

The official said like first year, over 4,000 students had applied for rechecking of class 9 and 10th papers this year and in majority of the cases, discrepancies were found in their results, which were removed and revised mark-sheets were issued.

Speaking to Dawn, a head examiner said earlier during the manual exam system, head examiners and sub-examiners had great working relations as the head could check the marking of sub-examiners. However, he said in the e-marking system, the role of head examiners was limited, adding that there was a need to bring improvement in the e-marking system.

When contacted, FBISE Chairman Qaiser Alam defended the e-marking system saying that those who were beneficiary of the manual exam system were propagating against the e-marking system.

He said since the board is now conducting SLO-based papers, there were chances of mistakes by students like putting the answers in a wrong place, and during rechecking process, if any discrepancy is pointed out we happily fix it.

“We are here to facilitate students and we take all decisions in their greater interest,” he said, adding that a state-of-the-art e-marking system was in place, which would further improve from next year.

Mr Alam said for next year’s exams, the board would have complete optimised version of e-marking while we were also mulling for artificial intelligence-based marking.

Asked about the poor results of first year students and a large number of applications for rechecking, the chairman said: “I am satisfied with the results and our system. Every year, in initial days, we receive a number of applications for re-checking. In the first two days, we received around 1,000 applications, which is a normal practice.”

“Students normally get more numbers in the second year when their practical exam marks are also counted,” he said, claiming that in the past there were up to 14pc discrepancies in the results, which had been reduced to 5pc.

“As far as issue of no coordination between head and sub-examiners is concerned, this is wrong, About 10pc papers are given to the head examiner and there are also super examiners who supervise both head and sub-examiners,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2023