Sindh to mull over jamming phones around exam centres: Nisar Khuhro

In a desperate bid to stop cheating in exams, the Sindh Cabinet will consider a proposal to jam the cellular phone service in a specific radius around the examination centres where the upcoming exams would be conducted in the province for the Secondary School Certificate (grade 9 and 10) and the Higher Secondary School Certificate (grade 11 and 12).

This was stated by the chief minister’s adviser on universities and educational boards, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, while chairing a meeting of the chairperson of all examination boards in the province on Tuesday.

According to Khuhro, another proposal would be placed before the provincial cabinet for the deployment of the Rangers at the examination centres during the SSC and the HSSC examinations.

He said both the invigilators and candidates would be strictly prohibited from taking cellular phones along with them to the examination centres.

He said any cellular phones found inside the examination centres would be confiscated and a disciplinary action against would be taken against the violators. Khuhro said the candidates would be thoroughly searched before the exam to ensure that they were not carrying cellular phones.

He said the officials of the examination centres would be penalised if any complaint was received regarding any candidate taking with him an answer copy. The provincial adviser said a proposal would be considered to conduct entry tests for admissions in the government colleges, on the pattern of a similar entry test system in the universities, for raising the standard of education for intermediate classes and for more accurately determining the aptitude of the students.

He said all the universities were conducting pre-admission entry tests to screen out such students who passed their college examinations via unfair means. He urged the chiefs of the examination boards to adopt all precautionary measures to prevent the instances of leakage of the contents of the examination papers on social media platforms before the exam.

He said the relevant search committees would soon start the process of appointments on the vacant positions of chairperson of examination boards in Sindh.