SWAT: The result announced by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Saidu Sharif has perturbed 150 students who flunked their Secondary School Certificate exams.
The students have appealed for justice, dubbing their failure a deliberate attempt by the examiner.The students who failed, their parents and teachers staged a protest in front of the building of BISE Saidu Sharif. They held placards inscribed with slogans against the board and blocked the main GT Road for some time. They demanded the board to conduct an impartial investigation into the matter and retake their practical exam.
Oddly enough, all the students who failed have scored remarkably well in the written examination but obtained only two marks in the practical test. “I got 62 marks out of 65 in the written exam but was awarded only two marks in the practical, even though I gave correct answers,” said Dawood Khan, a student.The students blamed the examiner of conducting the practical exam “improperly”, alleging that he only asked their names and their fathers’ names besides one or two simple questions in the test.
Waqas Ahmed, a student who scored 60 marks on his written exam, said he was shocked to see his result. “We would study in the light of our cell phones so we do not disturb our family members, and were expecting a good outcome,” he said. He claimed that the examiner had only asked him about basic concepts like mass and weight.“During the viva voce, [the examiner] told me that I am a good student but my school administration is not good. I did not understand what he meant back then, but now I realise that he flunked us to settle some personal scores,” Khan added.
When contacted, Private School Management Association Swat Chairman Ziauddin Yousafzai accused the examiner of deliberately ruining the future of 150 students. “He has failed these students illegally, which we condemn. We demand of the BISE authorities to suspend the teacher and conduct the practical exam again,” he stated.The BISE chairman, on the other hand, has assured the students of initiating a “fair and just probe”, saying that an inquiry committee has been constituted in this regard. “All the 150 students will reappear in the practical exam on June 18. The exam will be taken in a fair and transparent way,” he said.
