LAHORE: The Punjab government on Wednesday uncovered a massive cheating scandal in the class-IX annual examination being held in Lahore, sacking 93 private invigilators at the Lawrence Road centre and getting registered cases against them for facilitating cheating.

The scandal came to light when Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin visited the Lawrence Road examination centre on the instructions of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

During his visit, several students complained that they were being asked for bribes for help in solving the paper. The students alleged the invigilators were demanding Rs7,000 from each of them for the favour, adding that for help in mathematics paper higher amounts were demanded.

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Acting on the complaint, the minister ordered the dismissal of all 93 private invigilators.

He assured the students that all those who violated the law have been dismissed and legal action is being taken against them.

He also said that 10 cases had been filed for flagrant violation of law in the examination centres of Lahore and the suspects were taken into custody.

Lahore District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pervez Akhtar and other officers concerned were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, the government had removed BISE Lahore chairman and the controller of examinations from their posts due to poor performance.

Considering the seriousness of the matter, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has formed a cabinet committee to investigate the cheating scam and the poor strategy of the administration with regard to the conduct of examination. The committee ensures the examination process is conducted lawfully and no violation of the rules is committed.

The cabinet committee head had ordered that regular government officials be appointed as invigilators in all examination centres. He directed that the administration should ensure concrete measures to prevent cheating in the examination process.

Meanwhile, BISE Lahore controller Examination Muhammad Zahid Mian conducted inspections of different examination centres at Jallo Morr and GT Road Manawan.

During the inspection at Higher Secondary School Jallo Morr, an invigilator was caught facilitating cheating and was suspended from service.

In a similar incident, Muredky Deputy District Education Officer conducted a raid at Punjab College of Commerce centre and found a private invigilator there. The senior superintendent of the examination centre was arrested under the PEEDA Act.

DG KHAN RAIDS: Monitoring teams, on the direction of Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat, visited the class-IX examination centres in Dera Ghazi Khan.

At three of the centres, the monitoring teams caught candidates red-handed while they were cheating with the collusion of the staff.

Helping material and mobile phones were also recovered from the cheaters during the search.

Most of the examination staff appointed at the three centres were also found absent, while some staff other persons were performing duty instead of the actual staffers.

The teachers of the same school were also found on duty as invigilators at the Baga Sher centre. Monitoring teams also found candidates cheating with the help of micro photocopies at the Rangpur centre, while points of the answers were written on the examination boards. The team got one of the staffers arrested.

Education minister Mr Hayat said that the authorities are taking strict action on the matter, ordering registration of unfair means cases (UMCs) against the cheaters, besides registration of FIRs, and strict action against the supervisory staff involved in the racket.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2024