PESHAWAR: The employees of the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have locked the doors of their offices and stopped working in protest against the government’s proposed reforms in the examination system.

Hundreds of employees of the educational boards also staged protest demonstration at the busy Rehman Baba Square for several hours. They threatened to withhold the imminent results of the intermediate examinations until withdrawal of the decision about the reforms.

The employees were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the reforms in the educational boards. They also chanted slogans against the education department, declaring the reforms a step of ruining the boards.

The government has decided to centralise matriculation and intermediate board examinations and paper setting and marking in the province as part of education reforms. On the directives of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, a high level committee has been formed to develop a mechanism for early implementation of the decision after legislation.

Protesters threaten to withhold results of intermediate exams

As per plan, the Peshawar board will be the ‘mother board’, while the seven others will function as its branches.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board Employees Coordination Council general secretary Mohammad Umar Farooq told Dawn that there used to be a single board in the province until 1990. However, the government started establishing educational boards at the divisional level to facilitate students, he added.

“Now the government has decided to declare Peshawar BISE as a centralised board by abolishing the status of the other boards,” he said.

Asked as to why the employees were objecting to centralisation of the examination system, Mr Farooq said that with the abolishing the status of the remaining boards, all employees would be merged in the Peshawar BISE which would open a Pandora’s Box as their seniority would definitely be disturbed.

He showed the apprehension that after centralising the education system, the provincial government’s second step would be abolishment of the autonomy of the educational board.

He alleged that government was eying the assets of the educational boards, which currently stood at more than Rs3 billion. He said that the secretary of elementary and secondary education held a meeting with the employees for amicable solution when they a call for protest, but in vain.

On the directions of the chief minister, a working group has also been constituted to review the prevailing system for conducting examinations by different boards and explore the possibility of a single board for holding the examinations.

The working group is consisted of Education Secretary Motasim Billah Shah, Special Secretary CM Secretariat Adil Saeed Safi, Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Chairman Qaiser Alam, Education Director Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim, BISE Peshawar Chairman Prof Nasrullah Khan, BISE Kohat Chairperson Samina Altaf, Government Higher Secondary School Hatian Mardan Principal Alamgir Khan, former additional director of curriculum and teacher education Zulfiqar and Deputy Secretary of Education Lal Saeed Khattak.

A member of the working group told Dawn that one of the items in the proposed reform was to introduce the centralised examination system. He said that there would a single paper for the entire province during the matriculation and intermediate examinations.

“We are also moving towards the changes in the paper settings as in near future the examinations would be based on ‘students learning outcome’ to discourage the rote learning,” he said.

Our correspondent from Haripur adds: The local leaders of different parties staged a protest here on Monday set one week deadline for the government to revise its decision of proposed abolishing Abbottabad board otherwise they would bring life to halt in entire Hazara division.

Hazara Qaumi Mahaz Pakistan has given the call for protest, which was joined by the district chapters of PML-N, PPP, QWP, JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami, Mutahidda Ulema Council and Awami Tehreek.

The protesters, led by Naseem Awan of Hazara Qaumi Mahaz, marched from Chowk Sheranwala Gate to Chowk Sidiq-i-Akbar.

Naseem Awan said that BISE Abbottabad was established after 23-day hunger strike by the workers of HQMP on March 14, 1990. He said that BISE Abbottabad recently approved its regional offices in Ghazi, Battagram and Kohistan.

QWP’s Dr Faiza Rasheed, PPP’s Zulfiqar Qureshi, Dr Jehangir of AwamiTehreek , JI’s Imran Alizai, Mutahidda Ulema Council leader Qazi Ulfat, JUI-F’s Ayub Hazarvi, PML-N’s Hamid Shah, Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith leader Maulana Waheed Abdullah and Basharat Abbasi also addressed the protesters.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2022