Usual scenes of mismanagement were witnessed at various educational institutions on the first day of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Annual Examinations 2022 on Tuesday, with students standing in long queues due to the strict checking process before they were allow into their respective centres.
Earlier in the morning, a group of students also held a protest at the office of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) claiming they had not received their admit cards from their respective schools. They shouted slogans and demanded urgent issuance of their cards.
However, board officials resolved the issue, following which the protesters dispersed. The science group’s exams are being held in the morning shift, while the general group’s in the second shift.
Moreover, some sections of the media claimed the question paper had been leaked, but BSEK officials denied all such reports. According to reports, the class IX computer studies question paper was leaked on social media at 9:15am, while the exam was scheduled to begin at 9:30am.
A day earlier, Sindh Universities & Boards Minister Ismail Rahoo had vowed during his meeting with the chairmen of all the educational boards that copying would be discouraged at all costs, and no one would be allowed to even take their mobile phone inside the exam centre.
This year, over 360,000 class IX and class X students are taking their exams. The board has established 448 exam centres in 18 towns of the city for the purpose. The board had already warned invigilators and students against bringing their mobile phones to the exam centres. The Sindh government had also imposed Section 144 in the areas where the examination centres were located.
Some of the schools where exam centres have been set up contacted the board’s complaint cell to ask why question papers could not reach on time, with some eight centres having the same complaint, due to which exams at those schools started 20 to 30 minutes late.
During the exam hours, BSEK Chairman Syed Sharaf Ali Shah visited various centres and met the invigilators, centre superintendents and other officers. He said the board had the support of all the institutions for conducting exams in a transparent manner.
He said that copying would not be tolerated at any cost, warning that everyone who facilitated the practice would be dealt with in a severe manner. He told the invigilators not to allow any student to enter the examination centre without identification. He directed the centres’ superintendents to arrange water for students because of the hot weather. He also asked K-Electric not to carry out load-shedding during the exams.