BISE Punjab matriculation exams | GCU debates
Power cuts 'short-circuiting' matriculation students
Lahore, March 24: Students taking matriculation exams through eight boards run by
the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) are suffering
badly due to the current wave of load shedding across the province, learnt on Monday. The students said matriculation
exams were pivotal to their careers but the power crisis was sure to
affect their grades adversely. They said the students choose their
future course of study on the basis of matriculation results, but they
are likely to suffer in the exams due to frequent power outages. They
said their problems were compounded by the attitude of the examining
authorities that were not giving any extra time to the students during
exams. Education Department officials said load shedding would affect
the marks of the students and the percentage of failed students was
also likely to increase. Examination officials said most government
exam centres had poor natural lighting and lack of generators at these
centres was adding to the students' problems. BISE: BISE
Lahore Controller Manzoorul Hasan Niazi said they had asked authorities
not to conduct load shedding at examination centres, but it had fallen
on deaf ears. The BISE controller said that the
authority had set up 800 examination centres and BISE was in no
position to provide back-up generators at all these facilities. Another
BISE official said that the only solution to the problem was that BISE
stop conducting exams until the government resolves the electricity
issue. Facilities: It was observed on Monday that some
examination centres did not even have drinking water available at the
premises, with some centres in far-off areas facing 20-hour long load
shedding. Students scheduled to appear for FA/FSc/ and BA/BSc exams
also complained of power outages that are affecting their
preparation.The coming April and May are important for students of
FA/FSc, BA/BSc and O and A level, as their final examinations are
scheduled to begin as early as April 14. Shamsa, a matriculation
student, said students were suffering as they did not have enough light
available in the examination centres and had to battle hot weather
while attempting the exams. A father of a matriculation student
said his daughter was studying under the torch in her mobile phone. He
said students, who had already suffered academically due to the closure
of schools due to terrorism, are now faced with power crisis coupled
with record-breaking temperatures. A female examiner said that they could do nothing except fear for the students' results,
adding that examiners were only performing their duties in such
circumstances due to the fear of losing their jobs. Last year, the
Education Department had taken action against principals and teachers
of public colleges for the poor performance of students in BA/BSc
examinations, which the teachers attributed to power outages.
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LUMS, UCL grab top awards at 15th GCU debates
Lahore: The 15th GCU parliamentary debates hosted by the Government
College University (GCU) concluded on Monday with the Lahore University
of Management Sciences (LUMS) winning the 'Professor Khalid Aftab
English Trophy' and University College Lahore (UCL) taking away the
Urdu debates trophy. Addressing the gathering, Guest of Honour,
Professor Iffat Shah lauded the efforts of the GCU Debating Society
that had won over 2,000 awards since its inception in 1993 by Professor
Khalid Aftab. Over 200 orators, adjudicators and organisers
participated in the four-day tournament. Aitchison College Lahore,
University College Lahore (UCL), LUMS and Lahore Grammar School (LGS)
Johar Town made it to the final round of the English debates. The Urdu
finalists were Lahore School of Economics (LSE), King Edward Medical
University (KEMU), University of Engineering and Technology (UET)
Lahore, and UCL. The English finalists debated on whether
'there should be a uniform education system in Pakistan' and the Urdu
finalists debated 'The possibility of winning the war on terror'. The
Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas Shield for the Best English Speaker went to
Syed Haider Naqvi from LUMS while Sheikh Bilal Khalid from KEMU was
declared the Best Urdu Speaker of the tournament. Rana Abdul Aziz and
Dr Sameer Shaharyar were declared the best Urdu and English adjudicators, respectively. Daily times
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