Board Employees Face Repercussions for some Serious Mistakes in Matric Exams

Board Employees Face Repercussions for some Serious Mistakes in Matric Exams

After looking into claims of mistakes in the SSC-II test results, Sindh’s acting Chief Minister (retired), Justice Maqbool Baqar, has finally made a decision. The Chief Minister instructed the Anti-Corruption Establishment to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the whole examination team of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) in response to the inquiry committee’s report, which revealed blatant errors in the results.

The three-person inquiry committee’s report, which was sent to the chief minister of Sindh, directly blamed the mistakes on the BSEK IT and examination teams. It recommended departmental action against all personnel found to be negligent in addition to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Establishment.

The committee’s conclusions demonstrated the board members’ lack of earnestness, competence, and effectiveness. It chastised the chairman for neglecting to carry out essential changes and for not providing sufficient training to educators who grade response sheets.

The inquiry committee, which was appointed by the chief minister, thoroughly looked into the claims of result manipulation in the 2023 SSC Part-II annual examination by the BSEK. The committee was chaired by Secretary School Education Dr. Shereen Mustafa and included Additional Secretary Universities and Boards Afshan Rubab and Zuzain Katbar Section Officer of the U&B department.

The CM approved the committee’s recommendations and conclusions for prompt adoption by the board chairman as soon as they were submitted on February 21.

The committee saw inconsistent results announcement and publication procedures throughout the hearings, as well as a lack of seriousness on the part of the called-in personnel. The actual result CD/USB for comparison was not supplied, despite demands. The conflict of interest involving Khalid Ehsan, the deputy controller, who was named to the internal inquiry committee and involved in the outcome process, was also brought up in the report.

The committee saw that the board administration had disregarded the IT department, which was essential to every activity and resulted in manipulation and poor management. It mentioned that M/s Basecamp IT Solution introduced new result software in 2023, but the program didn’t match, thus it didn’t accurately compute total marks and left out grade grace.

The committee also discovered that various mistakes were made during the implementation of the optical mark recognition (OMR) technology due to teachers’ inadequate training.

Inadequate training prior to the implementation of new systems was a point of contention for both the board administration and the consulting firm that provided the system, with the latter failing to adequately address concerns that were brought to light. It was discovered that record-keeping for both new and former students and schemes was inadequate, with no approachable fixes offered.

Significant errors were the responsibility of the inspection team, which also included the controller and the IT team. The panel recommended that institutions such as the anti-corruption establishment look into the matter further. It was warned that all culpable officers face departmental consequences. The chairman and other officials’ lack of collaboration made it difficult for the committee to do its job.

The IT cell, the software consulting business, contract administration, and the examination branch staff’s lack of professionalism were all cited by the committee as areas of weakness. The chairman’s inability to propose adjustments made the performance problems on the board worse. In an indication of her commitment to resolving the systemic flaws found, the caretaker CM accepted the committee’s recommendations based on the factual findings in the report.