Not issued Roll Number Slips
Lahore: The families of the Government College University (GCU) students who were not issued roll number slips for their Intermediate examinations in accordance with the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision, protested against the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE). The decision of the BISE to grant only 37 out of the 88 students their roll number slips is not only illogical but also an absurdly literalist interpretation of the interim relief granted by the LHC. Clearly the court provided this interim relief on the principle of balance of convenience pending a final verdict, since otherwise the students would be permanently disadvantaged by being excluded from the examinations. Since only 37 of the 88 students had moved the court, the BISE in its wisdom has implemented the order by applying it only to the 37 petitioners.
However, the real question remains: where were the parents of these 88 students when they were not attending their classes? It is convenient for the parents to argue that they were not informed about the shortfall in attendance. Two points must be addressed here. First, the GCU maintains that it informed these students and it is the students' responsibility to inform their parents. Second, almost every educational institution requires their students to attend 75 percent of their classes in order to sit for any examinations. Thus while one can sympathise with the fate of these 88 students, they should consider themselves lucky and be grateful to the LHC for providing even the interim relief.
There is deterioration in everything in Pakistan: values, principles and rules. This has also afflicted our education system. Matters are worse with higher education, where the syllabus is narrow, outdated and inefficacious. There is a lack of qualified teachers, the Internet is used as a source of plagiarism, and students are allowed to cheat the system. Protests such as the one mentioned above cannot be condoned, for the simple reason that such acts encourage students to pressurise institutions into concessions on rules that are abundantly clear. Where will it end? And what will be the effect on the education system, which is already in such a crisis? What sort of 'educated' product will emerge? We are already plagued with illiteracy and the uneducated literates that litter our society. By granting such concessions, we will only make matters worse.
While one sympathises with the plight of the students, the GCU and the BISE should work together to find a solution to ensure that the students' future is not permanently threatened. However, it must be said that if we do not follow some rules, our education system is doomed. Daily times
