Toppers prefer MCQs, objective questions

Karachi: Top position-holders of this year's
Secondary School Certificate (Science) examinations said here on Wednesday that the atmosphere at the examination centres was not congenial as they perspired profusely because of frequent power breakdowns.

"Though we didn't allow the frequent load-shedding to affect our performance in the examinations, we certainly felt uncomfortable while solving papers with sweating hands," they remarked.

All the top position-holders were speaking at a ceremony held in their honour at the Sindh Boy Scouts Headquarters on Wednesday. Karachi University's registrar Prof Rais Alvi presided over the function, where provincial director (literacy) Abdul Wahab Abbasi was the guest of honour.

Sobia Azfer, who topped the examination, said most ills of society could be cured by spreading education in every nook and cranny of the country, adding that by raising the rate of literacy, the nation could overcome a number of problems being currently faced by it.

Replying to a question, she said there was nothing wrong in taking tuitions because by doing so one got additional knowledge of the subject.

Sobia, who intends to become a doctor, said it was for the first time that her school had bagged the first position in the examination.

Both Shahzaib Khan and Komal Wakeel, who shared the second position, said that if the authorities concerned were serious in raising the standard of education, the question papers must contain maximum multiple choice questions (MCQs) instead of questions requiring lengthy descriptive answers.

When asked why boys lagged behind girls in examinations, Komal said probably they were perturbed by the worsening law and order situation in the country.

When the same question was put to Shahzaib, he said boys were unable to concentrate on their studies probably because they took too much interest in movies, the internet and chatting on the phone and the net.

Both second position-holders intend to pursue a career in engineering.

The third position holder, Afshar Qadri, said girls passed their examinations with flying colours because they were more conscious about their studies than boys.

Afshar, who also intends to become a doctor, stressed the need for including more and more objective-type questions in the examinations.

At the outset, all the toppers gave the credit for their grand success to their teachers and parents. Earlier, Prof Alvi and Wahab Abbasi felicitated the top position-holders, their parents and teachers and wished them more success in the future. Dawn