Chairman says the board will launch e-marking system to prevent students
or their facilitators from contacting examiners
The Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) has planned many corrective steps to effectively control the use of unfair means at examination centres and to ensure that students, parents and agents are not able to approach board officials and teachers checking answer books to get marks increased.
BSEK Chairman Professor Dr Saeed ud din said in an interview with APP here on Sunday that the board authorities were definitely alive and concerned about weaknesses in the examination system, and
better arrangements were needed to be made by the board, the city administration and the Sindh education department.
He said that among various corrective measures, the BESK in coordination with the Sindh education department would hold a series of seminars and workshops from the next month to train the relevant people in making preparing question papers and assessing the answer sheets in the best possible manner so that the talented and hardworking students and teachers were encouraged and cheaters and their facilitators were discouraged.
Types of questions papers could play an important role in checking the use of unfair means, he emphasised.
The BSEK chairman admitted that he had received information that many private school owners used to campaign and got listed their schools as examination centres to allegedly facilitate cheating.
“Most of these schools are almost covered with residences, which makes it very difficult to keep vigilance and control cheating being done through different methods.”
During past examinations, there were also reports of special rooms at many examinations centres, especially at private schools, he said, adding that senior subject teachers were used to be arranged for helping selected groups of students solve their question papers in those special rooms.
He held out assurance that the board would strictly implement its policy that government schools would be used as examination centres.
In case of non-availability of government schools, private schools at isolated points or at least not closely surrounded by residences would be selected “for this very sensitive and important task to ensure proper monitoring by the board officials and law enforcing agencies”.
He also said that the board had planned to provide furniture and other logistics to government schools wherever required for holding examinations in a better environment.
In the light of reports from the last examinations, he said very effective checks, including jammers, would be installed to stop the use of mobile phones, especially smart phones, for cheating in examinations.
Professor Dr Saeed ud Din said logistic and manpower support was needed from the Sindh education and home departments to better control cheating practices inside and outside the examination centres.
He would also make his best efforts to control the slipping of question papers outside examination centres before or during the examination hours.
About the post-examination malpractices, he said policy and structural changes would be made to block access of students and their relatives or agents to examiners and teachers assessing answer sheets as well as board officials for tempering with the results.
One of the important steps would be setting up two centres within the board premises for checking marking answer sheets for the science group subjects. There would be very competent teachers with very good repute.
For general group subjects, he continued, the answer sheets would be handed over to highly qualified and honest teachers to ensure fair marking.
For ensuring that answer sheets went into the rights hands, the board was making lists of such teachers after verification by heads of their institutions and teachers’ associations, he added.
The BSEK chairman revealed that in the near future the board would launch an e-marking system to minimise contact with examiners by students or their facilitators.
“E-marking is the solution,” he remarked. It was to be noted that there were reports and footage appearing in print and electronic media that officials of law-enforcing agencies and of the city or district administration were seen involved in facilitating students in cheating in Karachi.
The higher government authorities should take serious note of “this dirty game and save the education system of Sindh from further destruction”.
He urged that like in the past the subject teachers should come up with their own notes or at least put certain footnotes onto the readymade notes available at book shops, etc.
It was mentioned that the students are asked by their teachers to purchase these notes and prepare for the examinations. This also benefits the students involved in cheating.
Hence it becomes very difficult to identify or assess whether a student solved his question papers by dint of learning and hard work or by just copying word by word when there is uniformity with the notes being used by a large number of students of Karachi city.
This practice does not show individual efforts of teaches or students.
The BSEK chairman said that he had decided to mention the date of birth of the students in their ninth class marks sheets so that they might not be disturbed and be in trouble after getting their matriculation certificates carrying mistakes in date of birth.
The board’s history showed many cases of correction in date of birth and that became troublesome on both the sides, he said.
About scrutiny of papers, Professor Dr Saeed ud Din said that the answer sheets were dully screened by a committee of head examiners at the Board Office before coming to the Controller of Examinations for further review. “I myself check at random the answer sheets under scrutiny here, he said.