KARACHI: The Inquiry Committee constituted by Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice Maqbool Baqar to unearth the allegation of manipulation in the result of the annual examination of SSC Part-II 2023 by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) Karachi has held the entire examination team responsible for glaring mistakes and recommended to probe their malafide intentions through Anticorruption Establishment.
The Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister after receiving the complaints of manipulation in the result of SSC Part-II Examination-2-23 by the BSE Karachi constituted a three-member committee comprising Secretary School Education Dr Shereen Mustafa (Chairperson), Additional Secretary U&B Ms Afshan Rubab, and Zuzain Katbar Section Officer of U&B dept.
The Inquiry Committee submitted its report and recommendation to Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar on February 21 which the CM approved and sent to the chairman of the board to implement as recommended by the committee.
The examination team including the Controller, Deputy Controller, Assistant Controller, and IT team have been held responsible for glaring mistakes by the committee. The committee has recommended probing their malafide through the anti-corruption establishment.
The findings of the inquiry committee are as follows:
The committee during its proceedings, observed that none of the employees, called for a hearing and the statement, was serious which is evident from their written statements.
It’s unclear what the actual exam results were before they were announced, and how many changes were made during the announcement and publication process. Imran, the then Acting Controller of Exams, provided a written statement which only partially served its purpose. The committee requested the actual result CD/ USB for comparison, but it was not provided.
The name of Khalid Ehsan, Deputy Controller, was provided by the Chairman showing that he was holding one of the positions that were directly related to the process of the result, but Khalid has also been appointed as one of the members of the Internal Inquiry Committee. The IT wing/ computer wing, which is a linchpin of all subject activities, has been ignored by the Board administration, due to which all manipulation and management started.
A new result-software was introduced in 2023 by M/s Basecamp IT Solution. The students enrolled in the previous year under the previous Software, but the new software calculated only the total marks of appeared subjects this year and included them in the gazette. Further Grade grace was also not included in the gazette due to mismatching of two software, which is a glaring act of inefficiency and Board administration completely failed to satisfy on the front.
It was clear that the execution and maintenance of records for both old and new students/ schemes was not being done properly. The complete gazette available did not offer any user-friendly solutions. One could reach a conclusion by asking many questions, and even a student trying to obtain a consolidated mark-sheet had to approach multiple times.
The probe body said that the entire examination team including the Controller, Deputy Controller, Assistant Controller, and IT team are responsible for glaring mistakes their malafide can further be probed through some agencies like Anticorruption establishing the committee categorical in its report.
The committee recommended departmental action against all delinquent officers as mentioned even in the Board’s internal inquiry report. The committee complained that none of the officers including the Chairman cooperated with them to provide mark sheets, access to information even selected mark-sheets provided after constant persuasion.Given the above, the Caretaker Chief Minister Sindh, in his capacity as Minister In charge/ Controlling Authority, has approved the recommendations submitted by the Inquiry Committee.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024