The question paper on ninth-grade computer studies has recently been leaked on social media.
Despite endless claims of the government of taking strict steps to curb cheating and secure the distribution of examination papers, the unfortunate incident happened anyway. Now, the main concern is who and how did the papers got leaked?
Board exam
The month of May has been the month of board exams for both grades 9 and 10. Students of both grades go and give exams in this scorching heat.
According to the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK), more than 360,000 students are taking the exam for the ninth and 10th grades. For that, 448 exam centers have been established in Karachi’s 18 towns.
What happened?
The Science Group exam was scheduled to start at 9:30 am but the questionnaire was leaked on social media at 9:15 am, exposing the gaps in the board’s safety mechanism.
Not new for Karachi
It is worth mentioning that unfortunately, this is not new for Pakistan’s largest metropolitan, and such cases are historically very frequent for exams. In 2019, the question papers were leaked before the paper even began in six cities of Sindh including Sukkar, Larkana, and Shikarpur and were sold at Rs. 300.
Similar incident
A similar incident happened few days ago when matric class paper’s paper got leaked which showed the incompetency of the board. It was reported that the class 10 English paper was going to be conducted but the invigilator of an exams center distributed the paper mathematics instead of English.
Soon after reporting this incident, Lahore Board took action and took the exams paper of English just after a delay of one hour. The matter was reported to Higher Education Department and HED secretary asked the chairman of the Lahore board to report this matter with a detailed investigation of the matter.
As per law
Sindh government has also imposed Section 144 in areas where examination centres are established. Around 158,869 students are sitting for today’s exam.
Who is responsible?
Education is a provincial matter, and thus the responsibility falls on the Sindh government. Thus, it is only imperative that the government focuses on improving the integrity of examinations, as this cheating has a huge opportunity cost in the students’ future.
