The Punjab Board of Technical Education, Lahore, has amended its rules pertaining to checking of answer copies, and new rules have been framed for disposal and preservation of examination-related documents on the directives of Punjab Ombudsman, Rao Abdur Rashid Khan.
According to details, complainant, Muhammad Aslam, in his application to the Punjab Ombudsman submitted that his son Riaz Aslam appeared in D.Com Part-II examination 2004 of Punjab Board of Technical Education, and applied for rechecking of his answer copy of Economics paper, as he had obtained less marks than his expectations.
His grievance was that the Board was not doing the rechecking of his paper. The Technical Board reported that no mistake was found during the rechecking process and the candidate concerned was informed, accordingly.
During the hearing of the case before the Ombudsman, Aslam demanded that answer book should be shown to him. The Board produced relevant rules, under which a candidate or anyone on his behalf does not have the right to see or examine the answer books for any purpose. The Ombudsman observed that the rule was not fair and directed the Board to amend the said rule in a manner that candidate concerned should be entitled to see and identify his answer copy with a view to satisfying himself that all answers have been marked; any portion of a question has not been left unmarked; all marks have been correctly brought forward on the title page, and that answer book has not been replaced.
The Punjab Board of Technical Education in its compliance report has informed that it had amended the relevant rules in compliance with the directions of the Ombudsman.
In another complaint, filed by one Umair Ali against the Board of Technical Education, it was reported by the Board that, as per rules, the candidate could apply for rechecking of answer books within 40 days of declaration of result, and after the lapse of that period all answer books, award sheets and other examination-related material, is used to be destroyed.
The Board, however, failed to produce specific rules or instructions about the disposal and preservation of such record.
The Ombudsman observed that absence of any specific rules in this behalf not only tantamount to adversely affecting transparency, but was also not just and fair.
He, therefore, directed the Technical Board to frame specific rules for disposal and preservation of examination-related material.
In compliance with the above direction, the Technical Board has framed rules specifying a certain period for disposal and preservation of various records.