Board staff strike: SSC exams may not be held on schedule
RAWALPINDI, Annual examination for secondary
school certificate (SSC) may not be held according to schedule
on March 13 because of strike of the employees of Board of Intermediate
and Secondary Education (BISE).
Even the initial scrutiny of the applications forms of the
candidates could not be completed because of the strike over
the withdrawal of admission fee from students of public institutions.
Workers of BISE Rawalpindi here on Monday blocked the 6th Road
in front of their office and continued their protest against
provincial government’s decision of the wavering the examination
fees.
The workers fear that the decision will make the board financially
vulnerable and have demanded the chief minister Punjab to take
measures to rescue the examination bodies from going bankrupt
as admission fees were not being received this year.
Talking to Dawn, BISE Employees Welfare Association general
secretary Mehr Muhammad Akbar said the board usually started
distributing roll number slips to the students two weeks before
the starting the start of matriculation examination. He said
the process was stalled because of the strike.
He said the government instead of resolving the issue was considering
conducting the SSC examination by hiring university teachers
and clerks from other departments if the strike continued.
Mr Akbar said government should redress grievances of the employees
and that the examination conducted by the outsiders would not
be successful as, he added, there were few days to prepare for
the exercise.
He said about 124, 000 students had submitted examination forms
with the board and it had to set up over 400 examination centers
in four districts, besides arranging to convey question papers
and answering sheets to the examination staff.
The representative of the board employees said they met Punjab
Education Minister Mian Shujahur Rehman four days ago and the
minister had assured them to arrange their meeting with the
CM. But, no response has yet come from the minister.
Expressing solidarity with the staff of the BISE, representatives
of Punjab Teachers Union announced that no school teacher would
perform duties for upcoming SSC examinations across the province.
|