Karachi:The Board of Secondary Education, Karachi (BSEK) has relocated examination centres in various towns without providing any concrete justification for the move, The News has learnt. This step has bred the notion among students that the Board had surrendered to the cheating mafia.

Sources told The News that the new examination centres would entertain “special candidates” in secure rooms, and the cheating mafia had invested handsome sums in this regard. Similarly, sources added, the Board has allowed schools that do not have proper infrastructure and space to entertain candidates to conduct examinations.

According to BSEK Chairman Anzar Hussain Zaidi, Rs400,000 had been allocated for inspection teams, who were assigned the task to visit and choose government and private schools that could serve as examination centres. No proper visits were conducted by these inspection teams, sources said.

On the other hand, several private schools visited the Board’s office, and lodged complaints regarding the unavailability of adequate space to adjust all candidates. The BSEK, however, told them that examination centres cannot be changed under any condition.

One of such schools is the Prince Aly Boys Secondary School, which is situated at Main National Highway, Malir City, Shah Faisal Town. As many as 246 candidates of Class-IX and 234 candidates of Class-X are scheduled to take the upcoming exams in this school, but the building only has 10 class rooms.

Sources told The News that Board officials told the school that it would have to accommodate 52 extra candidates, despite the rules stipulating that no more than 20 students should be placed in one examination room. The management of the school then submitted an application to the BSEK Controller Examinations Kalim Asghar Kirmani, and apprised him that the school could not entertain more students than its capacity at any cost. “The Board should find some other place for these students,” the school’s management had written. No action was taken by the Board, sources maintained.

When The News sought the opinion of the authorities concerned, a BSEK official present in the room of the examination controller, he argued that there would have been “some good reason” to change the examination centre, but could not cite a single example. —ZA
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