Karachi: The inquiry committee formed by caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar to investigate allegations of manipulation in the results of the annual examination of SSC Part II 2023 by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) has held the entire examination department officers accountable for glaring errors and recommended that their mala fide intentions be investigated by the Anticorruption Establishment (ACE).
Following the BSEK’s complaints of manipulation in the results of the SSC Part-II Examination 2022–23, the caretaker CM formed a three-member committee consisting of Secretary School Education Dr. Shereen Mustafa (chairperson), Additional Secretary Universities and Boards (U&B) Afshan Rubab, and Zuzain Katbar, Section Officer of U&B.
On February 21, the inquiry committee delivered its report and recommendations to the interim chief minister, who approved them and handed them to the chairman of the board to be implemented as advised.
The committee blamed the examination team, which included the controller, deputy controller, assistant controller, and IT staff, for glaring errors. The committee has suggested that the anti-corruption authorities investigate their fraudulent actions.
The inquiry committee’s findings include the following:
During its deliberations, the committee noted that none of the employees who requested a hearing and made a statement were serious, as evidenced by their written remarks.
It’s unknown what the exam results were before they were announced and how many modifications were made between the announcement and publication.
Imran Tariq Butt, the then-acting controller of examinations, issued a written statement that only partially accomplished its aim. The committee requested the actual CD/USB results for comparison, but they were not delivered.
The chairman offered the name of Khalid Ehsan, deputy controller, indicating that he held one of the roles directly associated with the process of the result, but Khalid was also nominated as a member of the internal inquiry committee.
The BSEK administration has overlooked the IT/computer wing, which is the foundation of all subject activity. As a result, all manipulation and management started.
Basecamp IT Solution introduced a new results software in 2023. The students had enrolled the previous year using the prior software, but the new software merely calculated the total marks of the topics that appeared this year and included them in the Gazette.
Furthermore, grade grace was not included in the gazette due to a mismatch between two software programs, which is a blatant act of inefficiency, and the board administration entirely failed to please on this front.
The board introduced the optical mark recognition (OMR) system for the first time. However, the teachers in charge of assessing and checking the answer sheets had no training, which resulted in a substantial number of inaccuracies. This was a serious difficulty for the BSEK office management.
The committee stated that both the system provider consulting business and the education board administration were responsible for providing comprehensive hands-on training prior to installing such innovative/new systems. However, the administration was unable to satisfy the committee because they just highlighted the problems but did not take the necessary precautions to avoid them.
It was obvious that the execution and maintenance of records for both old and new students and schedules were not being done correctly. The entire gazette supplied did not provide any user-friendly options. One may reach a conclusion by asking a lot of questions, and even a student who wanted a consolidated marksheet had to approach it several times.
Fixing responsibly.
The whole examination team, including the controller, deputy controller, assistant controller, and IT staff, were deemed responsible.
Their malafide motives might be investigated further by entities such as ACE, which categorizes the committee in its report.The committee recommended departmental action against all delinquent officers, as stated in the BSEK’s internal inquiry report. The committee reported that none of the executives, including the board’s chairman, cooperated with them in providing mark sheets or access to material, with only selected marksheets released after repeated lobbying.
After evaluating the various departments of the BSEK involved in the assessment, the committee discovered that the IT Cell, software consulting firm, and contract administration were particularly weak and did not appear to be carrying out their obligations effectively.
Furthermore, it was seen that the staff in the examination branch were casual and sloppy during inquiries, frequently criticizing each other, which is exceedingly unprofessional.
The committee stated in its report that the board chairman failed to implement changes and streamline the old and new streams, as well as the compilation publishing, and that the board’s overall performance worsened.
Given the foregoing, the caretaker chief minister of Sindh, acting as the controlling authority, has endorsed the inquiry committee’s recommendations.
