Thousands of Karachi youngsters’ academic futures are at jeopardy due to the Sindh government’s usual tardiness and lack of urgency. Annual exams for Intermediate Part I and II are set to start on April 28, impacting nearly 100,000 students registered with the Karachi Intermediate Board.
However, with only 13 days left, the Board has yet to appoint a Chairman, causing delays in the release of the exam schedule and center lists.Additionally, Intermediate Part I students have not been granted grace marks, despite recommendations from members of the provincial assembly.
Approximately 50,000 students getting ready for the Intermediate Part II (Pre-Engineering and Pre-Medical) exams are unsure whether they will need to retake the subjects they failed or if they will be given grace marks in accordance with recommendations made by a Sindh Assembly committee.
The group, which was led by Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah and included representatives from a number of political parties, had suggested giving Karachi Intermediate Part I students up to 20% grace marks in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. The findings of a fact-finding commission led by Dr. Sarosh Lodhi, the former vice-chancellor of NED University, served as the basis for these recommendations.
At a press conference following a session on March 25, Sindh Assembly members declared that students will be given these grace marks. For the Chief Minister’s approval, a summary had to be prepared by the Department of Universities and Boards. A official notification was to be sent out after approval. But more than 20 days later, no such communication has been made public, and the issue is still open.
When approached by Express, Abbas Baloch, the secretary of the Universities and Boards Department, did not respond.
The Karachi Intermediate Board will have to complete a time-consuming administrative effort to update the Intermediate Part I results and apply grace marks if a notification is eventually sent.This process will involve recalculating results, printing new mark sheets, and distributing them to students, which could take at least a month. This is particularly concerning as students scheduled for the Part II exams on April 28 have already submitted their forms, indicating the subjects they failed in Part I.
Adding to the complications, the Karachi Intermediate Board has been without a Chairman for nearly two weeks. The Sindh government removed Acting Chairman Prof.Sharaf Ali Shah, and even though a new person has been appointed, they haven’t started working yet.The government appears hesitant to assign responsibilities to the expected candidate, Faqir Lakho, the Karachi Regional Director of Colleges.
With exams just 13 days away, the lack of a Chairman has delayed two crucial tasks: finalizing the exam schedule and issuing the center lists, both of which require the Chairman’s official approval. Consequently, students remain uncertain about where they will take their exams and which subjects will be tested on specific dates.
