Following the directive from Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar, the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) is set to provide students of Pre-Engineering, Pre-Medical, and General Science Part-I with additional marks of up to 15% in their exams.
The decision comes after a fact-finding committee, established to investigate the unusually low marks received by Intermediate Part-I students this year, submitted its report to the chief minister. Consequently, the in-charge of BIEK’s IT section has been relieved of their duties.
The caretaker CM announced that based on the committee’s recommendations, students in the aforementioned categories would receive extra marks. The additional marks allocation includes 15 marks in Maths, 12 marks each in Physics, Chemistry, and Statistics, and six marks each in Zoology and Botany.
The committee has been instructed to establish paper patterns and a marking scheme before the start of the academic year. These patterns and schemes will be implemented for a duration of three years.
To ensure the integrity of the examination process, the Sindh CM directed an increase in the number of paper inspection centers to 10 in the city. Furthermore, he emphasized the need for MCQs papers to be checked using an optical marks recognition system to minimize errors.
CM Baqar also stressed the importance of training employees, including head examiners, examiners, and invigilators, while urging strict adherence to BIEK’s rules and regulations. He assigned responsibility for conducting the 2023 examinations to the controller of examinations, deputy controllers, and the IT manager.
The CM instructed that notices should be issued against board officers who fail to comply with the established rules and regulations.
The recent release of Part-I examination results by BIEK indicated a troubling decline in student performance, with significant failure rates observed across various groups. This situation has raised concerns, particularly for students seeking admission to professional universities and colleges, as admissions are typically based on Inter Part-I marks.
