Peshawar’s leaked cadastral papers have students, parents and educators questioning the system’s credibility
PESHAWAR:
The recent matriculation exams in Peshawar have come under intense public scrutiny as repeated reports of paper leaks dominated social media and drew strong criticism from parents and education experts who described the situation as a serious failure by the government and the education board.
Haris Khan, a resident of Gulbahar, shared that he had serious doubts about the transparency of the recent investigations by the Peshawar Board. “Almost every day there were reports of papers being leaked. One day it would be one paper and the next day another. Under such circumstances, how can anyone trust the fairness of the examination system or the marks awarded.
The government should install cameras in all exam halls and adopt a stronger network and surveillance system to secure the future of students,” Khan said.
Shah Nawaz Khan, a professor at Islamia College Peshawar, revealed that the paper leak during the recent matriculation exams was a big blunder and reflected the incompetence of both the administration and the government. According to Khan, some private schools in collaboration with authorities and administrators buy exam rooms to ensure high grades for their students. These results are then used in advertisements to attract more parents to enroll their children in these schools.
“Earlier, such incidents of paper leakage before the scheduled time had never taken place in the Peshawar Education Board. But this time, within ten minutes of the start of each paper, the same paper circulated on WhatsApp groups. This not only showed the incompetence of the board’s officials, but also raised serious questions about the transparency of the government’s education system,” Khan noted.
Peshawar Board Chairman Khuda Bakhsh told The Express Pakinomist that while there were some reports circulating on social media regarding one or two paper leaks during the matriculation exams, claims that all papers were leaked were false. Bakhsh claimed that during the exams, action was taken against 24 teachers who were suspended after papers from an exam hall were leaked.
“Strict measures were taken against multiple exam centers and against cheating and hence no incident of paper leakage has occurred in the ongoing intermediate examinations so far. About 100,000 students and 6,000 invigilators are involved in the examination process and sometimes some invigilators “slip up” and share papers or multiple choice questions but single question or multiple choice questions were conducted except for year. two cases had there been no paper leaks,” Bakhsh said.
On the other hand, some parents also raised concerns about the newly implemented cluster system. Murad Ali Shah, a resident of Peshawar and a parent whose daughter appeared in the Class 9 exams, told The Express Pakinomist that the system created difficulties for many families as some students were allotted nearby exam centers while others were allotted distant ones, causing considerable inconvenience to parents.
Khuda Bakhsh opined that some people are spreading fake news and misinformation on social media which others are circulating without verification despite lacking any truth. “Exam rooms were moved from private buildings to public buildings to better prevent cheating,” he replied.
