ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) granted ‘affiliation’ to a private school allegedly without completing the formalities and collecting fee.

The case surfaced a few days ago when the affiliation branch of the board alleged that the school in question was not affiliated as no inspection visit had been conducted nor the fee was deposited.

Sources said the affiliation wing in writing referred the matter to the acting chairman of the board, Syed Junaid Akhlaq, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

“I have decided to hold a meeting on this issue to listen to all concerned officials to reach a conclusion. May be it is a case of misunderstanding or otherwise, but before checking facts I can’t say anything more about this issue. Let me check first,” the chairman told Dawn.

The sources said in November last year, the affiliation was granted by the board bypassing the affiliation branch. Subsequently, in the portal of FBISE the school was mentioned as an affiliated one. The students of the school appeared in exams and their results were also issued.

The sources said the affiliation branch deals with affiliation cases while the registration branch also have some roles in it.

But the school was given a computer-generated affiliation letter without inspection, which is mandatory. Before affiliation, the board checks the qualifications of teachers, student-teacher ratio and facilities in a school. Since signatures of officials were available electronically, the computer-generated affiliation letter with the signature of the concerned official was handed over to the school.

However, the sources said that during the recent inspection of the portal of board, officials of the affiliation branch pointed out that they had never recommended approval of the school and there was also no record of the school available with the affiliation branch such as inspection report, fee receipts etc.

Therefore, the officials concerned of the affiliation branch wrote to the acting chairman informing him that the school was affiliated with the board with a forged signature.

The chairman of the board said he was going to hold a meeting on the matter.

Some officials of the board claimed that a daily-wage employee, who brought the matter in the notice of higher-ups, was allegedly facing pressure from a couple of officials.

“There is also a need to check all affiliations granted in recent years,” said an official.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2024