PBTE DAE and DCom results scam
PBTE computer staff in 'engineered' results scam
Lahore, April 02: The Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE)
controller of examinations has unearthed a massive scam of tampering with DAE
and DCom second annual examinations, 2010, results by board's computer section
staff. Examinations Controller Prof Muhammad Tariq said that he
would also recheck the previous results to see whether such malpractices had
been committed by the computer section officials in the past. According to documents available, board's computer section
officials changed 598 results of 266 candidates across the Punjab. In all
identified cases, the candidates were given marks to pass all papers. For
example, roll number 934 obtained five and two marks in mathematics A and B
papers. The final result showed that the candidate had obtained 35 and 32 marks
in the two papers.
Similarly, roll number 6267 obtained 21, five and six marks in English and
mathematics A and B papers, while the final results showed 41, 35 and 30 marks
obtained. Another candidate (roll number 8139) secured 11, 10, 28, 11, 11, 14,
three and three marks in chemistry, civil technology-114, civil technology-123,
civil technology-133, English, Islamic Studies, mathematics A and B papers.
However, the tampered results showed that the candidate had secured 21, 41, 42,
21, 41, 21, 33 and 33 marks.
Prof Tariq has brought the scandal in the knowledge of the board's top
management as well as Tevta Chairman Saeed Alvi, the controlling authority of
the board.
PBTE Chairman Dr Muhammad Shafique has called an emergent meeting of the PBTE
board (the governing body) on April 4 (Monday) to take up the case. Sources say
the board management is identifying the officials involved in the scam. The
probe will also lead to the identification of a mafia operating in various
technical and commerce education institutions.
Prof Tariq confirmed the results tampering scandal and said the board would
hold a formal inquiry, cancel tampered results and penalise the officials
involved in the scandal.
Though the DAE and DCom second annual examination 2010 results were declared
in January this year, it is learnt that Prof Tariq got a tip that some
candidates had been declared pass though they had no competence to pass even a
single subject.
Consequently, he decided to get DAE and DCom results re-assessed through
external verifiers.
The external scrutinizers examined the scrutiny prints and final result
sheets and reported that 848 results were changed, including 250 legitimate
corrections. The scrutiny of the remaining 598 results (of 266 candidates)
showed that the results were tampered with and candidates were granted pass
marks. This forgery was done by data entry operators at a time when the results
were to be converted from fictitious numbers to the original roll numbers that
follows the printing of result gazette and its publication on the board's
website. Data entry operators are directly supervised by two computer
programmers, who have the authority to edit the data.
Prof Tariq who conducted the DAE and DCom exams as his first assignment as
controller of examinations, says all forged results' answer-books, award lists,
scrutiny prints and the computer data regarding changed results had been
sealed.
Unearthing of the massive results changing scandal has again raised fingers
on the working of board's computer section that has always been regarded
notorious for such malpractices. It may be mentioned that computer section
system analyst Zulfiqar A Cheema, who had originally designed and remained head
of the section till the midst of last year is being grilled by inquiry
committees.
Prof Tariq as PBTE secretary had detected a question-paper leak scandal in
2006 and those involved were arrested in Multan and later dismissed from
service.
Post your comments
Many a 'star' performer in Class-V, VIII exams
Lahore: The Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) on Thursday
declared the results of province-wide uniform examination of Grade-VIII students
while downgrading pass percentage from 33 per cent to 25 per cent besides
promoting hundreds of students with a "star" mark, who failed in any one of
seven subjects. In Grade-V examination, the PEC top officials
said, the pass benchmark was kept at 33 per cent, however, students failing in
any one of the five subjects were promoted with a "star" mark.
According to the results statistics, as many as 1.471 million students were
registered for the Grade-V examination while 1.420 million appeared for the
exam. Some 51,783 students did not appear for the examination. As much as 89.24
per cent candidates passed the examination including those failed in any one of
the five subjects.
For Grade-VIII exam, the PEC had registered 1.059 million students and out of
them as many as 1.034 million took the exam. Some 24,442 students did not appear
for the examination.
Of those appeared, 83.93 per cent students were declared pass (according to
25 per cent pass percentage benchmark) including those who failed in any one of
the seven subjects.
When contacted, PEC chief executive officer Naseem Nawaz said the commission
had declared the district-wise results and no overall top positions were
declared. PEC operation manager Iqbal Ahmad Awan said the commission had
identified position holders at respective districts level.
Lahore executive district officer (education) Pervaiz Akhtar said his
examination branch officials had themselves identified the position holders
overall as well as gender-wise as no such data was communicated by the PEC. He
said the EDO office also faced pressure from students and their parents because
the PEC uploaded the results in the afternoon. It may be mentioned that the
Grade-V and VIII results were again removed from the website at around 10pm.
In Lahore district, the pass percentage in Grade-V examination stood at 90.74
per cent and 83.96 per cent in Grade-VIII.
According to the overall positions in Grade-V in Lahore, Nimra Khalid of
Khairunnisa Girls High School stood first with 533 marks out of 600. The second
position was shared by four students by obtaining 529 marks each. Of four second
position holders three students – Bushra Majeed, Fizza Javed, Amina Farooq are
from Khairunnisa Girls High School and Muhammad Arqam Ghaffar belongs to St.
Anthony School. The third position was bagged by Farah Arif of Convent of
Jesus and Mary with 527 marks.
In Grade-VIII exam, the overall first position was bagged by Ifrah Irshad of
Crescent Model High School with 746 marks out of 800. The second and third
positions were secured by Divisional Public School's Fizza Ali and Muhammad Ali
Akhtar with 730 and 729 marks, respectively.
A number of students complained that they had been given quite less marks as
they were expecting higher scores on the basis of their performance in the
examination. Dawn
Post your comments
64th PU Inter-Collegiate Girls Athletics Championship kicks off
Lahore: Punjab University (PU) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid
Kamran inaugurated 64th PU Inter-Collegiate Girls Athletics Championship at the
Punjab Stadium on Friday. A renowned social worker Raja Manawar, Prof Dr Amin
Athar, Dr Samar Fatima, Abida Tanveer, Shamsa Hashmi, Zafar Rashid, Anwarul Haq,
Farhat Siddiqi, Mian Amjad, principals of participating colleges and coaches
were also present on the occasion. While addressing the inaugural ceremony, Dr
Kamran said he was immensely pleased to know that for the first time 26 teams
from different girls' colleges were participating in the championship, as our
society does not appreciate women participating in sports. He said that sports
created team spirit and due to sports, a person learned to cope with both
success and failure. Sports like 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500-metre race, relay
race, 100 and 400-meter hurdle race, long jump, high jump, triple jump and many
other games are included in the championship. The closing ceremony would be held
today (Saturday) at 10am, the chief guest of the ceremony being PU Women Sports
Tournament Committee's President Prof Abida Tanveer. Daily times
Post your comments
Teachers boycott anti-polio drive
Lahore: The Punjab
Teachers Union (PTU) and Joint Action Commission (JAC) of schoolteachers have
announced a boycott of the upcoming duties in the anti-polio vaccination drive,
starting from April 4. The PTU and JAC office-bearers, including Rana
Muhammad Arshad, Syed Sajjad Kazmi, Rana Liaqat and others, said the involvement
of schoolteachers in additional and non-academic duties had been hampering
academic activities at the schools. They said such assignments had also
been resulting in poor performance of students in the examinations and every
time the teachers were held accountable for poor performance of the students.
They further said the teachers would also boycott the duties related to
upcoming census surveys. The PTU and JAC have demanded the government not
include schoolteachers in non-academic activities in future. The news
Post your comments
Spiritual quackery - recurring theme at GCU arts festival
Lahore: Spiritual quacks were highlighted as one of the biggest sources of social evils in our society at the
Performing Arts Festival organised by the Government College University's (GCU)
Psychology Department on Friday. As many as 16 universities and colleges
took part in the festival and staged mimes and dramas on the themes of "Sufism",
"Religion and psychology" and "Human nature". The plots of most of the mimes and
dramas revolved around the spiritual quacks and the negative role they play in
creating paranoia in the minds of people through tactics like
fortunetelling. The opening play of the festival was presented by the
Punjab University (PU) Institute for Art and Culture, that portrayed how the
so-called spiritual healers in our society misguide people even on religious
issues and destroy families for money. The play presented by the
students of Kinnaird College for Women won the first prize. The story
was of a girl who suffered from a psychological problem but her mother-in-law,
instead of consulting a doctor or a psychologist, took her to a spiritual quack.
The play portrayed the blind faith some women in our society have on these
"immoral and characterless cheaters". The GCU Psychology Department
presented a mime in which four different traditions, including "Heer Waris Shah"
and "Whirling Derwasih and Dhamal", were staged. The GCU students also presented
a drama "Sayan Aur Psychiatrist", written by the late eminent writer Ashfaq
Ahmed. The play underlined the spiritual and social problems of our society. The
Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Rawalpindi, students staged a play on the topic
of "nationalism", in which they highlighted the invaluable love of cadets for
their country. The PU Department of Psychology also presented a play on
"childhood trauma and its effects on later life". Daily times
Post your comments
|