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Tuesday March 19, 2024

SPLA to boycott inter exams until BIEK officials apologise

By our correspondents
May 26, 2017

The Sindh Professors & Lecturers Association (SPLA) has announced boycotting the ongoing intermediate examinations until the senior officials of the exam board apologise for their accusations against the senior leadership of the SPLA.

The association made the announcement during a news conference at the DJ Sindh Government Science College Library, where SPLA Central President Prof Ferozuddin Siddiqui, Karachi General Secretary Prof Munawar Abbas and Karachi Press Secretary Prof Ameer Lashari were also present.

The association made the decision after the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi’s (BIEK) chairman and acting controller of examinations (CoE) levelled accusations against the senior leadership of the SPLA.

The teachers’ body said they would remain indifferent to the ongoing exams until the BIEK’s chairman and acting CoE apologise for their accusatory remarks against the SPLA’s leadership.

The association said the Directorate of College Education Karachi’s Zamir Khoso had offended the teachers affiliated with the SPLA. They claimed that Sindh’s education minister had declared Khoso “the most incompetent officer” in the education department, but he was defaming the association through BIEK officials.

The teachers’ body demanded that the chief minister immediately remove the BIEK’s chairman and acting CoE as well as appoint a secretary and CoE in all the exam boards of the province.

They said that since last year the SPLA’s teachers were being insulted and threatened by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) without a reason, adding that they were being treated like criminals, but, in fact, the BIEK high-ups were “incompetent”, whose “ineligibility” had put the futures of thousands of students at risk.

The association also announced that they would cooperate with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) or any other LEA to curb use of unfair means during and after the exams as well as to expose the people involved in the racket.

The SPLA said the media were invited to the conference after publication of “baseless” and “misleading” reports in which the BIEK and the CTD pointed fingers at the association’s central president.

They said the SPLA had been part of the examination process for the past three years and had always pointed out the wrongdoings at the exam centres.

The teachers’ body said the SPLA had highlighted a WhatsApp network leaking question papers, while Prof Abbas had single-handedly caught 65 impersonators, adding that they had also reported a large number of cases of using smartphones during the exams.

The association claimed that most of the cases were not shared with the media because the BIEK did not wish to expose the board’s “poor examination arrangements”.

The CTD, in its 16-page report submitted to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday, has mentioned that 13 teachers, 23 board officials and nine agents were involved in the cheating racket.

The report states that employees, lecturers, students, and agents were a part of the scandal. The CTD had earlier identified the examination centres where pictures of the exam papers would be captured and circulated on WhatsApp groups.

After 15 board papers were leaked during the annual examinations of 2017, the Sindh government took action, imposing Section 144 to curb cheating. The Sindh CM had also visited exam centres to make sure arrangements were sufficient, but to no avail as the very next day, cases of cheating and leaking of papers emerged again.