Innovation or inconvenience

LAHORE
WITH only one job to perform and that too once a year with around Rs700 annual budget, Punjab Examination Commission’s failure to conduct primary and middle examinations in a professional manner has raised serious doubts on its ability to perform this job.
At the same time, the Punjab government’s inaction over the mess created by the Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) speaks volumes vis-à-vis growing sense of apathy among kids appearing in the ongoing Class-5 examinations. This is the prevailing perception among the stakeholders particularly the students and their parents.
On February 24, the PEC had to abruptly postpone English paper as it was unable to deliver the question papers on time. Around 1.2 million kids had registered for this exam and almost all of these were at exam centres when asked to leave as the paper was postponed. The paper was held again on Feb 25, but again with reports of rampant mismanagement from across the province. At most of the centres, only three to four versions were delivered against six approved versions and delay was also witnessed.
Once again on Thursday, the PEC failed to ensure provision of all versions of question paper of Urdu subject at exam centres across Punjab. One can imagine the situation vis-à-vis provision of the question papers at districts like Rajanpur, Rahimyar Khan and DG Khan etc as almost all the centres established at Lahore, headquarters of Punjab government, received subjective portion of the paper as late as 2:40pm though the paper had started at 2:00pm. Interestingly, objective portion of the paper was received by the exam centres around 3:30pm. As per the revised date sheet, the paper timings are from 2:00pm to 4:30pm.
However, to the surprise of students and examination staff, the PEC could distribute only three to four versions of the Urdu question paper out of six versions. This was the situation in areas like Gulberg, Raiwind, Allama Iqbal Town, Shalimar Town and many other areas of Lahore.
Sources privy to the developments said Cluster Training & Support Centres (CTSCs) in each district of the province, (30 to 40 CTSCs in Lahore alone), were supposed to distribute the question papers to the exam centres failing in their respective jurisdiction after receiving the same from the PEC. They added, in Lahore, the CTSCs had not received the papers by 1:30pm which caused panic among the heads of CTSCs. However after repeated requests, the CTSCs were able to receive the question papers by 2:00pm after which these centres started delivering the papers to their respective exam centres.
Keeping in view widespread mismanagement in the ongoing Class-V exam, the chief minister’s announcement to award tablet-computers to students obtaining prominent positions in the Class-V and Class-VIII exams is difficult to understand and materialise as well. One wonders as to how the PEC authorities would determine prominence of the students who faced extraordinary situation to attempt the exam.
Meanwhile, according to a handout, the chief minister has ordered inquiry into mismanagement in the Class-5 examination and directed Punjab Education Minister and Secretary Schools to investigate the matter and submit a report. He also said mismanagement in the examination was intolerable. When contacted, the PEC chief executive officer Nasir Iqbal Malik, said he felt sorry for inconvenience faced by the students.
Admitting that there had been delay in the conduct of exam, Nasir Malik said this could be seen as a tradeoff. ‘The students are supposed to come to schools. This is not a loss. Our efforts are for institution building in the larger interest of the public’, he explained and added there was always margin of error in innovation.
According to him, hectic efforts were being made to revamp the whole system and to make the examination credible with little human resource. Nasir Malik said multiple versions of question papers were introduced to make the exam credible, adding that complexity of the operational dynamics should also be understood.