KARACHI, Dec 25: Around 22,000 candidates of pre-medical and pre-engineering groups, who remained unsuccessful in the annual intermediate examinations 2007, would take part in the supplementary examinations starting from Wednesday.

The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi has established some 60 examination centres in various colleges and high-secondary schools in the city. The board has assigned 18 vigilance teams – one in each town – the task to visit the examination centres in their respective areas and check the use of any unfair means. To keep another check, nine super vigilance teams have been established which can inspect any centre during exams in the city.

A senior official of the board said this year the number of candidates taking part in the supplementary examinations was higher than the previous year, citing effective measures for ‘rationalizing’ the pass percentage of the result as the main reason for the rise.

“This year the pass percentage in pre-medical examinations remained 36 and in pre-engineering examinations it was 40 per cent, which was eight to 10 per cent less than what was recorded the previous year,” BIEK Chairman Anwar Ahmed Zai told Dawn, adding that 44 per cent candidates passed in pre-medical exams and around 50 per cent in pre-engineering exams last year.

He said the board had already issued notices to the institutions which showed very poor performance during this year’s annual examinations and their affiliation with the board would be terminated if they did not improve their performance next year.

Explaining the ‘effective measures’ taken by the board officials, he said the result percentage was rationalized due to stringent check on the use of unfair means.

Besides, some 20 persons of integrity had been hired as codifiers by the board to supervise the codification of answer scripts. “We did double codification of the copies, which ensured that no alteration could be made by anyone,” he added.

Mr Zai said some 32,000 candidates would appear in the supplementary exams of the intermediate commerce and humanities groups, which would commence in the mid of January.