PARACHINAR: Parents staged a protest here on Wednesday against the controller of examinations and administration of the Kohat University of Science and Technology over poor BA and BSc annual examination results 2018.

The parents of the failed students accused the controller Bahadur Khan of deliberately failing 500 students of Parachinar on sectarian grounds and urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, governor and the minister of higher education to form a Joint Investigation Team to probe the flawed exam results.

Later, speaking at a press conference in Parachinar, the parents said that out of over 500 students of BA/BSc, only five students passed. They alleged that the controller of examinations had taken bribe for assigning duties in exam centres. They demanded rechecking of the papers of all students belonging to Kurram tribal district by a third party.

When contacted on phone, the controller of exams rubbished the allegations. However, he welcomed the suggestion to recheck the papers by a third party.

The varsity official stated that some teachers’ bodies had launched a smear campaign against him for his drive against cheating in examinations.

Bahadur Khan said he or the university administration should not be blamed for the dismal performance of students as he said it was the responsibility of the affiliated government colleges in Kurram to prepare students for the exams.

He stressed the need for increased parental involvement in educational matters of their children and said that unless parents kept track of their child’s performance, results of students enrolled at government institutions could not improve.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018