KARACHI, April 4: About 0.3 million regular and private candidates will take the Secondary Schools Certificate (SSC) Part-I and II annual examinations, 2005, commencing under the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, on April 5. The board has set up about 400 centres, 165 of them for girl students, at government and private schools. One centre each has been set up at the Karachi Central Prison and the Juvenile Jail for about 25 prisoners who have been registered for examination.

Despite repeated extensions in dates for the submission of examination forms several hundred students failed to meet the final deadline. Keeping in view the situation, the board kept receiving applications forms from candidates till Monday (April 4). The number of the late comers appeared to be around 500 whose applications were accepted. They were issued admit cards and placed for examinations at two-four centres.

According to Controller of examinations, BSE, Mohammad Salem Khan, that the board usually does not accept any form after due date but had to allow in the late comers at the eleventh hour as there had been immense pressures from the left-over candidates. “The candidates would cite various excuses and board has to uphold the larger interest of students.”

He said that examination centres had been established at private schools because the board felt that they were in better condition in comparison to the public schools. The private schools would have better facilities, like drinking water, electricity, fans, etc., and the board did not have to bother about providing furniture to such schools to accommodate candidates, he explained.

In reply to a question, he said that students of private schools approached the board even on Monday for issuance of duplicate admit cards, claiming that their schools were not issuing the same to them on account of fee settlement.

“Since the education department had already directed private schools not to deny admit cards to students on any grounds, we are referring such candidates back to their respective educational institutions for remedial measures,” he added.

Mr Khan said that in order to ensure a smooth conduct of examinations, the board, as a routine matter, had set up 95 vigilance teams, each comprising two members, whereas a special vigilance team would also work under the guidance of the BSE chairman. He said that each centre had been granted contingency charges at a rate of Rs2 per candidate.

Due to certain changes in the commencement of new academic session and the revision of the calendar of academic activities, as approved by the Sindh education department, the SSC examinations had been delayed at least for one month throughout the province this year.

Senior teachers pointed out that the city, as well as other parts of Sindh, was in the grip of a scorching heat-wave these days and disruption in power supply at the examination centres and homes of the students would also be haunting the candidates.

Examinations are being conducted in two shifts, i.e. 9am to 12noon and 2pm to 5pm. On Monday, English (Compulsory) paper-II for General Group (regular and private candidates) would be conducted in the morning shift, whereas English paper-I of Science Group would be conducted in the second shift.