BIEK staff upbeat despite power issues, lack of security as HSC exams begin
KARACHI:April 29: Slow-moving ceiling fans in dimly-lit classrooms of several examination centres on Thursday, the first day of the annual HSC exams, proved that just electricity isn’t enough as proper voltage flow is also required to see these fixtures function properly.
Claims by the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi (BIEK), about their efficient IT system checking admit cards and the whereabouts of vigilance teams also fell short of expectations.
Wafa Mohsin and Areeba Naqvi, who sat for their Urdu paper at Government Degree College for Women, Block M, North Nazimabad, on Thursday were relieved that their papers went well under the circumstances.
“I couldn’t think straight in the heat,” said Wafa. “My eyes would move upwards and then I would waste several minutes counting the fan blades and rotations. The ceiling fans were that slow,” she said. “This was still an Urdu paper, which I handled well, thankfully. I hope things improve by day after tomorrow when we have our English paper.
“One girl felt very ill because of the heat. But we couldn’t really complain that there was no power as there was. It was just that the fans weren’t working fast enough. Still, our centre had cool water, thankfully, which helped us get through the three hours,” Wafa added.
“I couldn’t see very well in the dark at first but then my eyes grew accustomed to it,” said Areeba.
Low voltage was also an issue at Abdullah College, where BIEK chairman Akhtar Ghori, acting controller of examinations Zarina Rashid and other officials visited with the media.
Mr Ghori said he had sent the list of centres and exam schedules to K-Electric with a request to provide uninterrupted power supply during examinations on humanitarian grounds as dues of millions of rupees were still outstanding. “We can only hope for the best,” he said.
Regarding their utility dues, director general of colleges Prof Dr Nasir Ansar also said that they did pay their bills but at places power supply had been disconnected and the meters sealed with mounting arrears. “As for loadshedding, that’s nothing new and happens according to a set schedule, which cannot always be escaped,” he said.
DG, Directorate of Inspections of Private Schools and Colleges, Dr Mansoob Hussain Siddiqui said things were far better at private colleges. “They have more facilities,” he remarked.
Their next stop, Jinnah Government College, was on the list of the city’s most sensitive centres where the supervising staff seemed satisfied with the smooth running of show. Prof Jamal Hassan, one of the college staffers, said he was happy that he had not found anyone cheating so far. “I remember, catching several students cheating openly right here last year. But I haven’t encountered anything like that so far,” he said.
Still, it was surprising to find not much security at these centres as earlier it was said that there would be police and Rangers present at the exam centres. The BIEK team, too, was accompanied by Rangers Security Guards (Pvt) Limited.
There was confusion about a candidate at Jamia Millia Government Degree College, whose father said that he was a victim of polio, and was made to wait for a while until the issue with the photo on his admit card not matching could be cleared. Intervention by BIEK coordinator Imran Chishti got him with extra time allowed to make for lost time, finally. Meanwhile, centre superintendent Prof Mumtaz Ali Mirbahar said that the boy didn’t really suffer from polio. “He couldn’t walk very well so we just stopped him to know what his problem was to which he said that he was in an accident earlier, that’s all. He was one of the earliest to arrive at the centre but complained that our questioning him had resulted in his losing time,” said the centre superintendent.
Meanwhile, more confusion was encountered at the BIEK’s newly established IT Centre. Earlier, students and vigilance teams were tracked from the office of the controller of exams but now there is a separate office for the purpose in the adjoining building, where a couple of IT experts work on a computer and smartphones. “We got a package for 100 phones from Ufone through which our IT experts can track students and vigilance teams who have all been assigned bar codes,” said the chairman.
“This way, soon we will also be able to track each bundle of question paper through a seal on them. We are working towards that. It is also possible to track each individual paper and answer sheet though we would be needing a lot of finances for it.”
“We are checking students for impersonation through the system. We are also tracking our vigilance staff to make sure they are doing their duty,” said the BIEK coordinator.
Still, when trying to demonstrate what they meant, the computer and system couldn’t quite lend support to their claims, probably due to insufficient bandwidth.
“The network has slowed down as our servers have too much load on them. We have been printing exam question papers the entire night so everyone and everything here is a bit slow today,” said the acting controller of exams.Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016.
