Education move seen as giving joystick to mafia

* Position-holders raise concern over ‘end’ to inter-board paper marking
LAHORE: Position-holder students have raised a grave concern over the purposed ending of inter-board marking and paper checking, terming it a conspiracy hatched by a powerful mafia.

Four position-holders of Gujranwala Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education have filed a written appeal with Punjab chief minister’s office, requesting him to stop the purposed ending of inter-board marking in Punjab Board Chairman Committee’s meeting, which was started in 1998 during the PML N rule.

The appeal, a copy of which is available with Daily Times, has been scribed by the female position-holders of matriculation, including Hadiqa Aijaz (first position in 2012), Nabila Younus (second position in 2011), Rabia Munir (third position in 2011) and Aqsa Muhammad Ali. The copies of the appeal have also been sent to senior officials, including Punjab education minister, Punjab chief secretary, secretary of higher education, DPI colleges, Gujranwala Board chairman and chief of the Punjab Board Chairman Committee.

The appellants have claimed that the purposed ending of inter-board marking is a step to oblige a mafia, which wants to make money. The students stated in the appeal that due to shifting of answer sheets from one board to another, the chances of following the answer sheets by influential students and thus pressurising of the paper checker had decreased to almost zero. “The step had played a vital role in eliminating corruption from all eight education boards of the Punjab. Now the new proposal has alarmed the genius and hard working students belonging to the poor and middle-class families who don’t want to use influence to get more marks,” a part of their appeal read.

The students maintained that if the answer sheets were checked in the same board in the future the positions would be doled out on the basis of money and not hard work, and the middle-class students would be deprived of their just positions. “However, we appeal to the chief minister and the board authorities to not approve of the new proposal as it will amount to injustice to the hard working students.” They, however, appreciated the computer registration system as it was helping those students who could not visit the boards’ offices again and again.

Meanwhile, talking to Daily Times, the position holder Hadiqa said, “I belong to a middle-class family where hard work is deemed necessary to gain a position in society. I fear this new proposal that gives power to an influential mafia, the award of future positions will be decided on the basis of money. I guess the era of series of top positions going to the hard working middle- and poor-class students is going to end forever.”

The father of Rabia, another position holder, said that distribution of answer sheets between boards was considered a step to avoid marking of answer sheets of the candidates within their parent board. It had also ended the possibility of approaching the examiner for any unethical gain. However, the proposed measure of discontinuing the practice may save some money, but its execution will only affect the results of those students who cannot afford money to give to the mafia inside all eight examination boards of the Punjab.

When contacted, the Lahore Board spokesperson denied the allegation that the idea had been purposed before Punjab Board Chairman Committee’s meeting. He, however, said that some parents and teachers had sent complaints to the committee suggesting that through inter-board marking, students were not being awarded equal marks because education of all the eight boards was not of same standards.