Pakistan: Karachi Secondary Education Board faces backlash over Class IX results; students left without mark sheets amid E-marking failure

Karachi [Pakistan] October 26 (ANI): The Board of Secondary Education Karachi is under fire for its "outdated and unprofessional practices" after the announcement of Class IX results for the Science and General streams. More than 1,75,000 students find themselves in a state of confusion and distress, as BSEK has not issued detailed mark sheets, leaving them unaware of their true scores, according to a report by The Express Tribune (TET).
The results, released last week, only specified whether students passed or failed in each subject, without providing individual or total marks. BSEK has announced that detailed mark sheets will not be available for at least the next two weeks, hindering students from calculating their overall percentages or standings, as reported by TET.
This method has sparked significant criticism from students, educators, and parents. It sharply contrasts with contemporary assessment practices, such as those employed by Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) and the boards in Punjab, which provide provisional mark sheets simultaneously with results, clearly displaying both individual subject marks and overall totals.
The release of results coincided with a meeting among Karachi's education boards to deliberate on the digitalisation of assessments, including the implementation of e-marking and a revised grading system. BSEK Chairman Ghulam Hussain Saho participated in the meeting, where the focus was on the future of digital assessments. However, despite claims of advancements towards e-marking and computer-based evaluations, the board failed to offer even basic digital transparency when releasing results, as reported by TET.
Education professionals have noted that this lack of efficiency indicates a larger issue of mismanagement within the board. Haider Ali, Chairman of the All Private Schools and Colleges Association, voiced his disappointment, "In Punjab, when the first-year results are released, students immediately receive provisional mark sheets with details per subject. Here, not only are the marks withheld, but even the total score is not made public; this is completely unjustifiable," as quoted in the TET report.
The mathematics exams for the Class IX Science Group, which were initially supposed to be evaluated through the e-marking system, were instead assessed manually. Despite spending millions of rupees on producing e-marking-compatible answer sheets, the board failed to organise the necessary logistics or outsource the evaluation process. As a result, the widely touted e-marking initiative has effectively failed, squandering significant public resources and increasing the frustration of students and parents, as revealed in the TET report. (ANI)