Sweltering heat, power outages make inter students sweat during first exam

Karachi
It wasn’t the question paper which made the students break out in cold sweat but the heat and lack of electricity in examination centres.
Hundreds of candidates who appeared in the annual examinations of Higher Secondary School Certificate had a difficult time answering questions solving their papers in the absence of power supply.
The annual examinations for science, pre-medical and pre-engineering, home economics, science general and arts (Private and Regular) groups began on Tuesday.
The first exam scheduled was of Urdu and was held in the morning shift at 113 examination centres. Meanwhile, arts students appeared in the English exam held at 46 examination centres in the afternoon shift.
The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) claimed that it had requested the K-Electric not to conduct load shedding during exam hours, but to no avail.
Talking to the media, the BIEK chairman, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai said the board had never been a defaulter. He rubbished the claims made by the power company regarding the BIEK lagging behind in payments. According to him, the matter being referred to by the KE pertained to the Sindh Directorate of College Education, not the BIEK.
Controller of examinations at the BIEK, Muhammad Imran Khan Chishti, said in order to protect candidates from the scorching heat and suffocation, the board had provided rechargeable fans and normal electric fans to examination centres which had missing facilities.

KE reassures
The hue and cry caused by parents, students and the BIEK, the KE responded on Tuesday that the power utility will carry out no load shedding at examination centres during intermediate exams.
The KE spokesman, Adil Murtaza, said the decision was made after witnessing the situation faced by on Tuesday even though the Directorate of College owes Rs34 million in lieu of dues.
“We will provide uninterrupted power supply to all examination centres of the city so that students can concentrate on their exams,” he said. “However, we would like to ask the provincial government to make sure all the dues are paid back as soon as possible. The KE will not punish students for the negligence of others.”
According to the KE, 46 power lines were disconnected for not paying dues. However, said the spokesman, the power company had now decided temporarily relief to thousands of students appearing in their annual exams.

Exam centres
Meanwhile, in order to ensure zero tolerance of unfair means during examinations, a high-level inspection team led by the BIEK chairman Prof Zai paid surprise visits to different examination centres, said the board officials.
The team comprised BIEK examination controller Chishti, secretary Qazi Arshad Hussain, director-general colleges Dr Nasir Ansar, director-general private schools Mansoob Husain Siddiqui and representatives of different print and electronic media.
Zaid said the BIEK had already been taking sound initiatives for curbing the use of unfair means during examinations. In this regard, it was said, BIEK had for the first time introduced admit card system with electronically-scanned photograph of candidates due to which only genuine candidates could sit for exams.
He claimed this step had reduced the chances of impersonation of candidates drastically and the inspection team did not find any cases of use of unfair mean during exams.
The examination controller lauded the performance of invigilators, teaching faculty and other staff for maintaining discipline at examination centres and smooth conduction of the process.

Eight impersonation cases
Meanwhile invigilators at the Government Degree Boys College in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, adjacent to Sheikh Zaid Islamic Centre, claimed during the evening shift that had observed eight cases of impersonation of candidates.
The relevant officials while talking to The News also claimed that all of the fake candidates ran away from the examination centre well before any action could be taken against them.
However, when contacted, the examination controller Imran Khan Chishti replied that colleges officials and examination staff should have informed the Board if any such activity had been witnessed.
“We have provided centres and invigilators smart phones with mobile internet facilities so they can contact the control room established at the BIEK or other higher officials to inform them of any irregularity.”
Besides this event, all the papers were held in a peaceful environment. However, such misleading attitude of officials could reflect badly on the BIEK which has been trying hard to uproot the culture of cheating from examinations, said the examination controller.

Power failure slammed
The Karachi leadership of Pakistan People’s Party strongly criticised the prolonged power outages.
Even if the board had defaulted on its payments, the power utility had no right to restore electricity failures at examination centres, said PPP Karachi division’s general-secretary Najmi Alam and others in a joint statement issued on Tuesday.
They demanded that KE should exempt examination centres from power breakdowns immediately.