Candidates voice concern at exam centre outside Thatta

Thatta: Twelve candidates of MEd have voiced concern against establishing their examination centre at Malir, Karachi. The students, affiliated with Study Centre Government Girls High School Thatta, told reporters here on Tuesday that the examination was to commence from July 17 and they would have to go for eight consecutive days at some academic institution in Malir Karachi.

They said that after completing their four semesters regularly for 18 months at the study centre in Thatta, the examination centre at Malir was unjustified.

They expressed concern over uncertain law and order in Karachi and said expenses of transportation would be unbearable, particularly for the women candidates.

When contacted, Ms Uzma Panhwar, director of the department of distance continuous computer programme of the Sindh University, said that according to the criterion, 35 MEd students were mandatory to establish a study centre. But 31 students had got admission in the study centre and later 11 left for unknown reasons, she said.

Twelve tutors had been employed, four for each semester to teach students, she said and added that for 20 students, the examination of thesis at a small place like Thatta was next to impossible.

But the candidates said Ms Panhwar had made it an issue of her ego to send Thatta students to a far-off Malir college.

They also said only Hyderabad and Thatta centres had been mentioned in the centres manual and not Malir.

They claimed that the examination slip they had received from the department also mentioned Thatta centre.

Students have appealed to the vice chancellor of Sindh University to take notice of their problem and establish an examination centre in Thatta. Dawn