ISLAMABAD: On the federal education ministry’s request, the federal cabinet on Tuesday granted an extension to Senior Joint Secretary Ministry of Education Syed Junaid Akhlaq, to hold the additional charge of the Chairman Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) until a regular appointment is made.

The process of the FBISE chairman’s appointment has been facing an inordinate delay. This position has been vacant since May. The ministry has initiated the process of hiring a new chairman. According to sources, 39 candidates were shortlisted out of over 100 candidates that applied for the post. However, the process is yet to be completed.

According to rules, the education ministry will send names of the top three candidates to the Prime Minister’s Office for the premier’s approval of a name from the panel.

“A total of 39 candidates have been shortlisted, and on September 11, the education minister will conduct their interviews. Then, we will move a summary to the PM Office carrying three names, out which one will be appointed by the government,” said an official of education ministry, adding that the process would hopefully be completed this month.

The post of the chairman fell vacant in May this year when Qaiser Alam, an employee of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resigned following a repatriation order from the provincial government.

Mr Alam was appointed as the chairman in 2020 for three years. The government later extended his services for another three year but he was sent packing before the completion of his second term through a circulation summary approved by the federal cabinet.

It is relevant to note here that the FBISE in July this year had faced a scam of replacing 64 answer sheets with other sheets.

When the scam surfaced, the board removed some temporarily hired low level loaders. However, some officials say that the loaders could not commit such acts without the involvement of the board’s regular officials. Following this scam, the board stated that only 32 papers were replaced by loaders and they were removed from their jobs when the replaced papers were detected by the “board’s automatic system itself.”

The board in July had claimed that the said replacement issue would have no effect on the Higher Secondary Schools Certificate (HSSC) results as the issue had been timely detected and resolved. The board had also ordered an inquiry, the outcome of which is yet to be revealed.

On the other hand, after the recently announced HSSC results, dozens of students last week staged protest demonstration outside the board building, alleging that it had issued faulty results as a majority of students failed in the mathematic paper.

To this, FBISE acting Chairman Syed Junaid Akhlaq said that there is no fault in results, offering students the option to recheck.

He said that if any student has an issue, their answer sheet will be shown to them and their parents.

He also offered that in case any discrepancy is found in the rechecking, the board would not charge any fee from the students.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024