Students say corruption is rampant on the board, saying administration has turned corruption into business
Students from Sanghar, Shahdadpur, Shahpur Chakar and Sakrand districts staged protests against the recently announced Class XI results of the Shaheed Benazirabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, accusing the administration of mismanagement and manipulation.
Shaheed Benazirabad Division (SBA), along with Sukkur and Larkana divisions, have adopted e-marking for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Part 1 and High School Certificate (HSC) Part 1 results, which were announced on Tuesday. Shaheed Benazirabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISESBA) Chairman Dr Asif Ali Memon said the electronic grading system was a major achievement.
However, the results, just like the results of elections in the country, did not please students. Students from various areas of Shaheed Benazirabad took to the streets to protest against the automated results, which involved minimal human interaction.
In Sanghar, students of Pir Syed Sabghatullah Shah Shaheed Government Degree College boycotted classes and took to the streets. The protesters, including Abdul Jabbar Mari, Abdul Rahman Laghari, Siraj Wassan, Farhan Laghari, Sarfraz Bugti, Latif Bugti, Arsalan Jatt, Ammar Lander, Abdul Hameed Bugti and Ayan Ali Jatt, said they were regular students who had performed well in university exams and written good exam answers.
They told the media that despite their performance, the board’s incompetence had ruined their future. With the grades awarded to them, they claimed they would not be able to gain admission to any university. Students said the board was experimenting at their expense.
The students claimed that corruption was endemic on the board and that the administration had turned corruption into business. They rejected the results and demanded the immediate dismissal of the president and controller, as well as a new verification of the papers.
Similar protests erupted in Shahdadpur district, where students of Govt Boys Degree College, led by Nasir Khuso, Younus Sanjrani and Roshan Khaskheli, gathered outside the press club. They shouted slogans against the board and rejected the results, alleging large-scale falsification. The protesters claimed that even meritorious students had failed by getting poor grades.
In Sakrand, hundreds of students expressed their anger after the announcement of the annual results. Ninth and 11th graders said grades awarded in several papers were far below expectations, threatening to ruin an entire academic year. Students of Govt Degree College Sakrand marched from their campus to Sahafi Chowk, chanting slogans and demanding transparency and fresh scrutiny.
At the campus of Govt Boys Higher Secondary School, Panhal Khan Chandio, students and teachers also joined the protests. A rally was held from the school to the MPA House in Panhal Khan Chandio village. The protesters demanded that the president of the jury intervene personally, order a recheck of the papers and investigate the entire marking system in order to correct the alleged injustices.
The protests continued for several hours, drawing support from civil society and educators, who called the students’ demands legitimate and called for immediate reforms to the board’s oversight process.
In Shahpur Chakar, students took out a rally from their college to the local press club, raising slogans against the board. They accused the administration of deliberately awarding low grades to block their access to higher education. “The board committed a grave injustice. By giving us fewer grades, they conspired to close the doors to higher education,” the students said.
The protesters called on the Sindh Chief Minister, Education Minister and senior officials to order re-checking of all answer scripts and ensure transparency in the evaluation system.
