Hyderabad:The Matriculation examinations of all boards began across Sindh on Monday amid cheating at various centers, particularly in interior Sindh. Cheating was reported in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Khairpur and other districts of the province, where students used mobile phones and other means to cheat the examination.
In Karachi, two external students were held for giving examinations in place of their associates. In Tharushah, police arrested 11 people for helping students in cheating during the examination. Students used WhatsApp group for cheating in Tando Jam. In Sanghar, examination started late due to delay in arrival of question paper.
In Thatta, students faced trouble due to mismanagement at examination centers caused by external people.
In Naundero, hundreds of girl students of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Naundero, appeared in annual examination without electricity. School Principal Nausheen Khokhar told newsmen that Pole Mounted Transformer had been closed eight days ago by Sepco authorities without prior notice despite payment. She said two years back former education secretary Abdul Aziz Uqaili had also promised to provide solar system to this major school within two months but his commitments also proved false and no solar system had so far been installed despite passage of two long years and new education secretary forgot all promises made by his predecessor, she added.
Students said that they remained busy in using answer copies as hand fans because of hot weather and demanded of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and provincial education minister Syed Sardar Shah to provide solar system to the girls school of Bhutto leader’s hometown.
In Larkana, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Larkana, has claimed that they carried out 135 copy cases on first day of annual SSC examinations 2019 and 93 cases of impersonation were also caught by their teams out of which 19 were in Larkana, 62 in Kambar-Shahdadkot, 5 in Shikarpur, 7 in Dadu and ironically they could not capture any case in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts.
As many as 93405 students are appearing in SSC annual examinations out of which 46722 students are appearing in SSC Part-I and 46685 in Part-II for which 140 examination centers have been established and 24 vigilance teams have been constituted out of which 16 belong to BISE Larkana and only eight to education and Literacy Department of Government of Sindh. The invigilators have also been appointed on influence basis ignoring seniors and experienced teachers
In Sukkur district, massive cheating was reported as students used mobile phones and other means. There were reports of mismanagement as external people entered at many centers.
In Karachi alone, 367,606 students of Science and General Group took part in the examinations held at 365 centers. In order to ensure security and stop entry of external people, the local authorities in coordination with boards and schools imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The station house officers (SHOs) of the relevant police station were empowered to register complaints of unfair means and take action over violation of section 144 around the examination centers.
The photocopy shops around the examination centers were already banned from operation during the examination time.
The ninth class paper of English was leaked before the staring of examination in Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. The Physics paper of Tenth Class was also leaked through WhatsApp group half an hour before the examination.
It may be noted that the examinations were twice postponed across Sindh. It was first delayed due to Holi festival of Hindus on March 20 and rescheduled from March 23. They were postponed once again due to a protest by teachers in Karachi. Later, government accepted their demands and teachers agreed to conduct the examinations.
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has called the chairperson and commissioners of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) of Sukkur and Mirpur Khas after English paper was leaked in Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. The chief minister has sought a report and ordered thorough investigation.