Columns/Editorials 2nd Dec

[dauno]

dauno added 1 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

dauno added 0 Minutes and 42 Seconds later...

Ministry confirms extra marks scam
Tuesday, December 02, 2008

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: The education ministry has confirmed that the chief justice’s daughter Farah Hameed Dogar was given only one additional mark as a result of rechecking of her papers while she got 20 marks as a result of re-assessment that was done on the orders of the then-Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE).

In its brief on the subject, circulated on Monday to all members of the Senate’s standing committee on education which is meeting on Tuesday in the committee room No 1 of the parliament house, the ministry admitted that the rechecking committee, after having gone through answer scripts in accordance with the rules, pointed out only a mistake of one number in all the papers of Farah Hameed Dogar.

A copy of the brief shared with this correspondent by a member of the committee, said the chief justice’s daughter got grade-B only after she was given additional 20 marks because of the reassessment.

The education ministry’s brief, however, does not talk about the legality of the action,neither it contains the FBISE rules, which clearly say that the reassessment “shall” not be allowed under any circumstances.

The brief also ignored the fact that the controversial reassessment was ordered by the FBISE chairman “in relaxation of rules” which, too, does not have any sanction of the board rules. The operative part of the education ministry’s brief reads: “Miss Farah Hameed Dogar d/o Abdul Hameed Dogar appeared as regular candidate of the Islamabad College for Girls under Roll No: 545207 in pre-medical group in HSSC Part-II annual examination 2008 of the FBISE.

“The result of the said examination was announced on Aug 4, 2008 according to which she secured 640 marks out of 1,100 and was place in grade ‘C’. Later on, the candidate applied for rechecking of her four papers, i.e., English-II, Urdu-II, Pakistan Studies and Physics-II on Aug 20, 2008, under the rules, paying the requisite fee. She also submitted another application for rechecking of her two papers, i.e., Chemistry-II and Biology-II on Aug 29, 2008 along with prescribed fee.

“As provided under the rules, the answer books were placed before the rechecking committee constituted for the purpose. The committee after having gone through the answer scripts in accordance with the rules pointed out a mistake that in Biology Paper-II total marks of Question No 4 were awarded as 12 while recorded as 11. In the rest of the give papers, the committee did not find any discrepancy and were declared to have been checked and found correct. Approval for correction of one mark in Biology Paper-II was obtained on Sept 3, 2008, but prior to that on receipt of the application for rechecking, the chairman had desired in writing on the face of the application for rechecking dated 20-08-2008 that “I would like to see her answer books myself” and in compliance with these orders, the assistant controller of the examinations placed the answer scripts of English-II, Urdu-II, Biology-II and Physics-II in the file and submitted to the chairman through the controller of examinations on 21-08-2008.

“The chairman in his note dated 10-09-2008 directed the controller of examinations “Pl have the answer books of this candidate reassessed”. Under these directions steps were taken accordingly by the office inviting the relevant head of examiners to accomplish the process. The head of examiners in Pakistan Studies and Chemistry-II did not agree to reassessment and observed that marks already awarded to the candidate were according to the marking scheme. The reassessment was, however, carried out in three papers as directed by the chairman whereas in Biology-II the head of examiner made correction to the extent of one mark in Question No 4, as pointed out by the rechecking committee being error in total. The status of revised marks on account of reassessment is given hereunder. English-II (original marks 58, reassessed marks 67, difference 9); Urdu-II (OM (62), RM (67), Diff (5); Physics-II (OM (32), RM (38), Diff (6); total 20.

“In this way, 20 marks as a result of reassessment were added in the total together with 01 mark in Biology-II as a result of rechecking as stated earlier, making the grand total from 640 to 661. Approval of the chairman for updating the relevant record in the awards of the papers mentioned above was obtained on 15-09-2008 and revised marks sheet, showing total marks as 661 grade ‘B’, was issued and handed over to the chairman through the controller of examination personally on 15-09-2008.”

dauno added 1 Minutes and 18 Seconds later...