Intermediate examinations cheating | HST test put off

Invigilators fail to check cheating in exams
Hyderabad, May 09: Students continued to use unfair means in the ongoing intermediate examinations and invigilators appeared helpless to prevent students from cheating.

In Benazirabad district, several cases of replacement of answer copies were reported.

Recent visits to some examination centres and information collected from professors association's representatives and vigilance teams revealed that invigilation staff appears in no mood to check cheating.

Cheating seemed to have become mandatory in the examination and candidates carry guides and solved papers with them in the examination hall.

They pull out relevant pages from solved papers and start cheating in the presence of invigilators.

The invigilators seemed to have abdicated their responsibility for fear of a reaction from students. Thus students remained undeterred.

The cheating is stopped only when vigilance teams conduct snap checking. But as soon as they leave the premises of any centre or college, candidates again start their unfair activities.

According to a vigilance team, it has caught over 150 cases of cheating a few days ago.

There is another modus operandi which is adopted by influential students who enjoyed political backing in the area. According to this method, the student(s) concerned keep writing in a dummy answer sheet in the examination hall while his/ their actual answer sheets remain (s) with his supporters who solve his paper.

When the examination timing finishes, the actual copy is submitted to the invigilator.

On Thursday a vigilance team found 10 such copies known as 'replacement of copies' in Benazirabad district when physics-II (class-XII) paper was being held in Khabbar Lakhmir higher secondary school. The centre is located three kilometres away from the city centre.

"Six copies are confirmed replacement cases while four of them are doubtful. We have reported the matter to the controller of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education," said Professor Ali Akbar Shah, head of vigilance team from Hyderabad. He said that after signing the copies his team members waited for the examinations timing to be over.

"When the time was over, we found 10 such replacement cases as the answer sheets submitted with the invigilator concerned didn't bear signatures of our team members," said Shah.

Cheating remains a matter of daily routine at each centre. The external and internal superintendents also remained helpless to combat this menace. Cases of impersonation are also reported, but their exact number could not be ascertained.

Though BISE claims making proper arrangements, what is happening in the examination centres is in sharp contrast to their claim.

HSC students inconvenienced
Karachi: Students appearing in the ongoing Higher Secondary School Certificate Part-I and II (class XI and XII) annual examinations faced a great deal of inconvenience on Friday because of the strike of public transport operators.

A large number of candidates, including female students, arrived late at their examination centres as most of the public transport - buses, minibuses, wagons and coaches - remained off the roads in response to a strike call given by the associations of public transport operators.

Most students - who are normally dependent on public transport for travelling - reached their examination centres by rickshaws and taxis after paying their exorbitantly high fares, specially raised for the day. Most rickshaws and taxis did not take part in the strike.

The existing ban on pillion riding also forced many parents not to take the risk of taking their children to examination centres on their motorcycles.

However, an official of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) said that the chairman of the board, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, had directed superintendents of examination centres to compensate candidates arriving late at examination centres by giving them extra time for solving their papers.

When the BIEK chairman, Prof Zai, was asked how many students had missed their Friday's paper because of the transport problem, he said that according to statistics collected by him till 4pm on Friday, attendance at all examination centres was "quite normal".

However admitting that many candidates arrived late at their examination centres, he said that all such candidates were given some extra time to solve their papers.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the BIEK said that two different teams of the board - one headed by its chairman and the other by its secretary - paid surprise visits to a number of examination centres to check whether examinations were being conducted in the smooth and transparent manner or not. He said that a total of 11 candidates were caught resorting to unfair means in the exams on Friday.

Many offices deserted

With almost all public transport off the roads on Friday after a transporters' strike call, commuters, faced many hardships when trying to reach their places of work.

Many commuters remained stranded at bus stops, waiting for vehicles which were not likely to appear. Those who could not afford to take taxis or rickshaws were forced to either undertake their journeys to work on foot, or return home.

Some people were seen using mini Suzuki trucks to pick up passengers and cover short distances, as entrepreneurs cashed in on the hardships of the people.

As point buses also remained off the roads, attendance at government offices was very thin, and, according to a Sindh government official, the Sindh Secretariat wore a deserted look. Most ministers and their staff also preferred not to attend to their duties.

In Tughluq House, which houses Sindh Secretariat No 2, Minister of Agriculture Syed Ali Nawaz Shah was the only exception to the rule. When this scribe visited the building at around 3pm, the minister was holding the fort, meeting visitors who had come to see him as per schedule from places as far away as Mirpurkhas.

The home department was also an exception, where attendance of officers was at about 90 per cent, while some 60 per cent of lower staff members were also present. Dawn

BSEK reluctant to cancel affiliation
Karachi: Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) is reluctant in taking any action against the Al-Umar Foundation, Shah Faisal Colony, which was used as an illegal examination centre in the SSC examinations, it was learnt on Friday.

A source in the board said that the administration of the board was not willing to suspend the affiliation of the said school from the board despite of the fact that 50 days back, a special vigilance team of the Board had raided the illegal examination centre set up at Shah Faisal Colony and suspended the affiliation of the school, Al-Umar Foundation, from the board.

On the other hand, the board had cancelled the paper (English) of matric science group during which the team raided, he said.

It is worth mentioning that Controller Examination BSEK Jawaid Iftikhar, who was also the part of the special vigilance team, reported that nearly 78 students of Al-Umar Foundation were largely caught red-handed while using unfair means in the said paper at their own school. He reported that the students were using books and other written material openly for solving their papers at the centre with the help of their teachers.

The source said that Iftikhar had strongly recommended that the affiliation of the said school should be cancel from the board due to the heinous crime of the administration of the school.

It is pertinent to mention here that Al-Umar Foundation is not registered with the directorate of private institutions.

When we contacted Acting Controller Examination BSEK, Aminuddin, he said that the board would not cancel the affiliation of the school, while only one paper (English) had been cancelled. On the other hand, the directorate of private institutions is reluctant in taking any action against the Al-Umar Foundation, which was working for the last many years without registration from the government authority.

It may be noted here that nearly 3,000 to 3,500 private schools in Karachi are registered with the directorate of private institutions. Conversely, 3,000 to 4,000 unregistered private schools are working in the City. Despite the presence of the regulation and control authority of private schools, numerous private schools have followed their own agenda of minting money.

Director Private Institutions Sindh, Mansoob Siddiqui, said that the Al-Umar Foundation was registered with the government while the school's registration was expired in 2007, however, the school administration had contacted the directorate of private institutions two weeks ago for new registration. Registration of the school will be completed after the acquisition of complete data from the school management, he added. The Nation

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HST test put off
Karachi: The written test for the recruitment of high school teachers (HSTs) for Karachi region which was scheduled to be held on Sunday (May 10) at the National Stadium has been postponed. The Sindh education department said on Friday that a new date would be announced later.

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Karachi University MA exams
Karachi: The controller of examinations of the Karachi University has announced that MA (previous and final) annual examinations-2009, for both regular and external candidates, which were earlier scheduled to begin on May 25, will now start on June 15. Dawn

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DCET announces exam schedule
Karachi: Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET) has announced the schedule for submission of forms and fee for regular/final and supplementary examinations of BE (Electronics, Chemical, Metallurgy & Materials, Industrial Engineering & Management and B Architecture of batches 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. Forms will be accepted with normal fee Rs800 till 18 May while with late fee of Rs700 by May 21 and with double late fee of Rs1400 by May 25 and onwards. The News

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