Karachi: The project to implement the ‘E-Marking and OMR System’ at the provincial government educational boards in Sindh at the matric and intermediate levels has once again faced a delay from the Department of School Education. The annual exams for matric and intermediate, scheduled to begin in a few days for the year 2024, will not introduce the E-Marking and OMR system. Despite the machinery being provided to various educational boards in Sindh, including Karachi, months ago, it remains unused.
The training of staff for the use of the machinery, including paper moderation/paper setting for teachers, has not been conducted. While the matric exams in Sindh have already started on May 7th, the intermediate exams will commence on May 28th.
It has been reported that the Sindh School Education Department has provided a limited amount of machinery to the educational boards, which will only be used for the results of a few hundred students. Karachi’s intermediate board has been provided with only one server, while the Karachi matric board has been given two or three scanners and printers, a server, and some cameras. Similarly, the Hyderabad Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board has also received a very limited amount of machinery.
It is important to note that the Karachi matric board prepares the results for over 3 million students every year, while over a million students appear for matric and intermediate exams under the Hyderabad board and about 1.5 million students take exams under the Karachi Intermediate board.
Contacted by “Express,” the acting IT manager of the Karachi Intermediate Board, Arif Jalbani, mentioned that they have received some machinery, but the exact details of the hardware were not provided. Another officer from the Intermediate Board mentioned that this time, MCQs will not be given on the OMR sheet, but instead, simple MCQs will be printed on plain paper as the board does not have any guidelines or training for OMR checking or E-Marking for teachers and staff.
Furthermore, it was stated that in Sindh, the provision of machinery for the annual exams for the year 2024 to the public educational boards had begun under the Secondary Education Improvement Project with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank. However, the project has faced delays, and as of now, the training of paper setters/moderators for matric and intermediate levels on IT and technical staff has not been initiated.
The inside chairman of one board in Sindh expressed dissatisfaction with the machinery provided, stating that the machinery was insufficient for conducting exams for over a hundred thousand students in both matric and intermediate levels.
Moreover, the head of the Sindh Secondary Education Improvement Project, Rizwan Soomro, was contacted by “Express” to understand the reason for the delay in the project. He explained that the start of E-Marking and OMR marking is scheduled for 2025, and everything is on track with machinery provided and training underway. When asked for documentation regarding the project, he suggested viewing the ADP website for more information. However, when questioned about the limited and cheap provision of hardware to the boards, no satisfactory answer was provided.