No action against BSEK principals
Schools submit exam formsTen Thousands students
SSC admit cards controversy Students unaware post ponement No action against BSEK school principalsSindh Governor Ishratul Ebad
While the issue surrounding the non-issuance of admit cards for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, till now, seemed to have revolved around the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi (BSEK), the controversy deepened on Wednesday, as 24 schools submitted the examination forms of over 1,000 more students to the Board.
Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad had intervened on late Tuesday night in the matter of non-issuance of admit cards, and had issued directions for the postponement of SSC exams by two days.
Following the governor’s intervention, the BSEK allowed students of private schools to deposit their examination forms at the BSEK Account Branch till 6pm on March 24 (Wednesday). The BSEK refused to accept any form from private candidates (those not associated with schools, Board officials told The News.
The allowance provided by the governor afforded the opportunity to schools to redress their alleged misdemeanours, and exam forms and documentation of over 1,000 more students were submitted on Wednesday. The Board is expected to issue their admit cards after 1pm on Thursday (today).
Meanwhile, despite the postponement ordered by the governor, hundreds of students proceeded to their assigned examination centres on Wednesday, only to find out that SSC exams had been rescheduled. Officials of BSEK and principals of a number of high schools, however, managed to escape punitive action over the fiasco of non-issuance of admit cards.
On their part, Board officials had decided to initiate action against those schools who failed to deposit their forms and other documentation on time. BSEK Chairman Anzar Hussain Zaidi absolved the Board of any blame, and claimed that the blame for the admit card fiasco lay squarely with the managements of private schools, as they failed to submit the forms and fees on time, which in turn, caused embarrassment to the students.
“Some private schools never submitted their examination forms on the given dates. In fact, they came to the Board’s office after the last date for form submission had expired, and requested us to accept examination fees. This is totally unfair to other students, who had completed the process of submitting examination forms on time,” Zaidi said.
Not all students were to blame: students of Class-IX at Government Major Ziauddin Abbasi Memorial Boys School in Nazimabad No.2 claimed to have suffered due to the mismanagement of their school’s principal.
The students alleged that they had submitted their fees at school, but the school did not bother to deposit these amounts to the Board office. After the deadline had expired, the principal directed her students to go to BSEK, and deposit the examination forms with late fees, the students told The News.
Meanwhile, Zaidi claimed that this year was the first time ever that BSEK had taken a “solid stance” against elements who delayed the examination process, explaining that the management of various schools have been persisting with such a practice for many years. He said that the management of various schools receive a handsome amount in fees
from the children enrolled, but exam forms are never submitted on time to the Board. “Many of these schools also look for some discount in terms of the fees charged, some even ask for 100 per cent discount,” he said.
The BSEK chairman narrated that a principal of a private school recently visited him, and requested him to waive the fees of all candidates from his school. “According to the principal, he had invested all examination fees for construction work at his school, and he had no money left to deposit the examination fees,” he said.
These schools depend on their clerks or the mafia to obtain registration and renewed from the authorities concerned. Such kinds of people also offer their services to schools for acquire affiliation with the Board, enrolment of students and other works, Zaidi added.
However, affected students and parents continued to blame the Board for mishandling the matter of non-issuance of cards, claiming that admit cards were not provided to them/schools on time.
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Students unaware of the last minute postponement of SSC exams return home from their centre —The News photo
The news
