Technology may be one of the surest routes to advancement but embracing it without doing homework makes it a burden. It is such a scenario which has made computerisation of many a manual system in Pakistan a genie out of bottle, unlike other countries which have achieved through it a fair degree of efficiency, accuracy and transparency in results.
The Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education’s flirtation with the online examination system has proved one big failure. The computerisation of results in all eight education boards in Punjab, introduced by former Punjab higher education secretary Ahad Cheema and being spearheaded by consultant Dr Majid Naeem for well over a year, has become neither efficient nor accurate. The objective of transparency too remains to be seen.
Every time the boards declare results they end up seeing on their campuses long queues of candidates anxious about their late results or those who want to get their result-sheets corrected.
This year’s FA/FSc results, declared on Sept 10 (third successive computerised results), have proved not much different from previous experiences. The Lahore board declared more than 25,000 candidates’ results late (RL), triggering an unusual rush of students at its offices for the last nine days. Hundreds of candidates are visiting board offices for rectification of mistakes on the computer-generated result cards.
There are instances in which the candidates have been given 52 and 53 marks out of 50 in Pakistan Studies paper, or 102 marks out of 100 in other papers, girls’ pictures appearing on boys’ result cards, shuffling of figures like computer posting 29 marks instead of well-earned 92 marks.
There are also cases of declaring results without posting all papers’ marks. The most glaring example is the case of Sara Abbas of Mansoora Girls College, who was finally declared first position holder in humanities group among girls a day after the declaration of results. She suffered agony for board’s failure to post all papers’ marks. Originally, she was given only 29 marks in Education paper and her result was kept late.
However, when the result was cleared on inquiry, she was found having obtained 93 marks in the paper and overall 955 marks that marked her way to the coveted top position in humanities.
The whole sequence of positions in this group was changed and the first and second position holders’ jubilation tainted, while third position holder Neelam Shah’s delight dampened as she was dropped out of the list of position holders.
At a special medal-awarding ceremony, she declared the computerised system the culprit responsible for delaying her hard-earned position.
Unable to cope with the student rush, the unfriendly staff at the board offices has failed to detect errors and make corrections.
Consultant Dr Majid Naeem most of the time is not available; either he remains busy somewhere or avoids exposure to public wrath.
In an incident of such nature angry students, accompanied by their parents, stormed board’s computer offices as well as board secretary’s office. The police stepped in to rescue the board officials who admitted that the students were forced to take the extreme measure in the absence of any relief in sight.
“We are helpless as we are supposed to find bar-coded answer scripts that have been intermingled while working in hurry and checking huge number of scripts,” a board official said.
“We are able to clear only 100 to 200 results in a day, while the candidates in queue are still in thousands,” another official said.
The situation at the Lahore board is bound to worsen as it has received some 4,000 applications for re-checking of answer scripts and the number will further rise till Sept 26 -- the last date for applying. The candidates have also paid Rs700 forre-checking of each answer script and the board officials have yet to start work on this front.
The students and their parents have called into question the credibility of results. “If there are so many mistakes in results, which are being updated, how many students will be suffering with low marks unknowingly,” they said.
It is alleged that the board itself is a victim of apathy of the higher-ups like the higher education secretary and the chief minister. Two experienced officials – Controller of Examinations Prof Manzur-ul-Hassan Niazi and chairman Prof Dr AkramKashmiri -- have been relieved on the completion of their tenures (the latter in the middle of the crisis on Sept 16).
Board Secretary Mushtaq Tahir, whose tenure also expired on July 31 and kept dragging owing to political affiliations, has been given the additional charge of the chairman. Newly-appointed CoE Ijaz Husain Naqvi will obviously take time to be incharge of the affairs.
Confronting the leadership crisis and pending job of clearing RLs and re-checking of scripts, the Lahore board is also supposed to take on another huge task of holding matriculation supplementary examination from Oct 8 and intermediatesupplementary examination from Nov 12.
The board doesn’t afford even a single free day before preparing for these assignments as it has already lost many days.
The affected students (and their guardians) have demanded that the higher-ups appoint a team of experienced and crediblepeople to streamline the board affairs.
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THE Wise College, which is offering admissions to I.Com and B.Com classes, has launched “Skilling Young People for Employability” (SYPE) project to offer part-time jobs to its students so that they may learn, earn and gain practical experience simultaneously.
The project seems lucrative for low-income parents as the students, who will be gaining national and international accredited education, will be able to pay their fees themselves. The students will also save some part of their income as the institution requires opening of joint accounts in the name of students and parents.
Wise College Principal Hamda Tariq told the media that current conventional theoretical education was not paying and there was a need to make innovative interventions to make education relevant to the modern needs.
“The college, in consultation with the educationists as well as local and foreign job-providers, has introduced a comprehensive programme to enable students to learn and earn at the same time,” she said.
Ms Tariq said the college in collaboration with ICM-UK would prepare students of intermediate level for UK-IBC Certification and BCom students for UK-Bachelor (Honours) in business management and help them attain experience and credibility to viefor placement in the local as well as international job markets.
“Our aim is to make students avid learners and visionary managers,” she added.
Entrepreneur Mansoor Tareen offered salesmen jobs for 15 students and committed for another 50 jobs, while other entrepreneurs Shaista Pervez, Haji Ahmad, Asif Chattha and Faisal Durrani also offered their support. — mansoormalik173@hotmail.com