FAISALABAD, July 5: The Punjab education department has failed to announce the annual result of class V despite a lapse of two months.

The department usually announces the result about 15 days after holding of the examination.

Reports said the department was bound to announce the result by May end. The officials had announced three dates in this regard but could not declare the result due to various reasons.

Sources told this correspondent that over 120,000 girls and boys had appeared in the examination held in March 2006. For the first time, the Punjab government was interested in announcing the results simultaneously throughout the province.

Sources said the major hurdle in results was failure of many districts in compiling the results. Of 120,000 papers checked by examiners, over 70,000 were rejected by monitoring teams of several government agencies and international donors due to which these papers had again been forwarded for rechecking, they said.

Sources said Unicef, World Bank and NGOs were providing huge funds to the government for increase in primary enrolment and provision of better facilities in schools. They said this year teams of these agencies monitored compiling of results and verified the expenditure incurred on education. They said the teams found that schools in rural areas had complied results without completing the required procedure.

Sources said some of the educational institutions were found involved in presenting their record pertaining to number of students and pass percentage through bogus papers which was taken up by top management of the education department that was another impediment in the announcement of primary results.

Requesting anonymity, a senior education official said only in Faisalabad district, the department had spent over Rs10 million on conducting examinations. However, in the past the process was completed by spending a few hundred thousands, he said.

He claimed that a major chunk of the funds was utilised for travelling and daily allowances of teachers and examination staff during the process.

Meanwhile, parents of students said there was no chance of announcement of results in the next couple of weeks and their children would start their next academic session from September due to closure of educational institutions for summer vacation.

They urged the chief minister to take stock of the situation and direct the education department officials to accelerate the pace of compiling of results.