Lecturers' boycott of board exams ends: Sindh education minister

KARACHI: Education Minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar on Friday claimed the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) has ended its boycott of inter exams.

He was speaking to the media while visiting an examination centre.

Earlier in the day, students were left in the lurch after learning of exam centres' closures and incomplete preparations owing to SPLA's boycott. 

The teachers associated with SPLA locked the gates of many examination centres to protest allegations of helping students cheat during exams and leaking papers.  

According to the association's president, Ferozuddin Ahmed Siddiqui, Board of Intermediate Education Karachi Chairperson Inam Ahmad is the one actually involved in the alleged crime.

Siddiqui said the board chairperson was also misleading the chief minister and the counter terrorism department (CTD) in the matter.

The association's members claim the board chairman gave the CTD names of 13 lecturers, falsely accusing them of aiding cheating. 

Therefore, members of SPLA boycotted the exams on Friday morning to protest the allegations and demanded Ahmad be dismissed from duty.

The association members also padlocked gates of many centres, while in most of the colleges exam papers had not reached in time.

This left many students wondering whether to keep standing outside the centres, waiting for the gates to open, or to leave.

However, at some exam centres, the non-teaching staff started supervising the exams. 

Later, after assurances from the education minister, the SPLA members ended their boycott and began conducting exams.

The minister assured those students who were unable to take their exams on Friday that they would be accommodated in the coming days.