In Karachi, the Sindh College Education Department has formed a fact-finding committee regarding the majority of students failing in the intermediate first year exams under the Karachi Board. However, the committee does not include any senior professors or individuals with good reputation from Karachi. The members of the committee have no significant experience with exams and assessments, which is why there is no expectation of any specific results. Recently, Professor Mustafa Kamal, who is responsible for managing the position of Regional Director Colleges, has been appointed as the convener of the committee, with other members including Additional Secretary Colleges (HR), Director Monitoring and Evaluation, Ajaz Ali Setho, Associate Jawaid Channa and Associate Idris Ahmed. According to the notification issued by Secretary Colleges Education, more members can be included in the re-team, and the committee will present its report within 7 days.
It should be noted that this committee was formed about 10 days after the announcement of the results, and students who failed in various faculties such as pre-medical and pre-engineering are protesting about their results. So far, no committee has been formed by the Karachi Board to investigate the matter and find out the reasons, which is causing continuous disappointment among the students.
Even on Thursday, a specific number of students protested within the Karachi Board, and the Board administration, in response to Commissioner Karachi’s directive, is only giving verbal reassurances to the students. Students are being told to file their queries and then the matter will be looked into. However, it should be noted that according to the Board’s regulations, there is not enough capacity for scrutiny for students to take legal or legitimate action on their complaints, because scrutiny only includes retotaling and adding questions and answers left out during assessments, without any critical analysis of teacher’s assessment methods.
It should be noted that the Board’s situation is currently very different. The Chairman of the Board’s charge is currently held by the Commissioner Karachi, who runs the Board from the Commissioner House Karachi, issuing instructions over the phone without physically being present at the Board.
The Exam Controller and Secretary are called after waiting for hours, they are made to listen to the matter and then give their comments, after which the officials leave. The officers are then told to go and meet the District Deputy Commissioner and explain the issue to them.
In this way, the responsibility of the Karachi Intermediate Board for the exams and results of millions of students currently lies on the mercy and kindness of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner who are not taking the matter of giving time to the Board and resolving the sensitive issue of students’ future seriously.