PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department has decided that from the next academic year onwards, the students will sit board exams in the centres set up in private and government schools other than their own.

It insists that the move to be enforced after the chief minister`s formal approval will help check the use of unfair means in exams.

Officials told Dawn that in future, the students won`t be allotted exam centres in their own schools including both private and government ones.

They said the department had also decided that every examination centre would have students from both private and government schools in future as there`re complaints that private schools obliged supervisory staff of exam centres allotted to their students to allow cheating during the Secondary School Certificate and intermediate examinations conducted by eight education boards inthe province.

The officials claimed that private school administrations offered cash, lavish food and electronic goods to the exam supervisory staff, so students of private schools got good marks through cheating.

They added that the good exam results increased student enrollments.

The officials said sometimes, government schools, too, followed the tactic to show good exam performance to please the education department.

They claimed that schools collected money from students to oblige exam supervisory staff.

Elementary and secondary education secretary Arshad Khan told Dawn that every private and government school was bound by the rules to provide examination halls, chairs and other facilities proportionate to the students sitting the board examinationsandonce thathappened,theeducation boards would shuffle students of private and government schools in examination centres in the nearest schools.

He said in that way, students of a private school would be divided into several schools during board examinations.

Mr Arshad said he had verballyinformed the heads of all education boards about changes to examination centre policy, which would be notified after the chief minister`s consent.

The chairman of an education board told Dawn that the mixing up of private and government school students in examination centres would check cheating and unnecessary interference of school administrations in exams.

`It is good decision of the education department,` he said.

The board chairman said in future, private schools won`t be able to approach the supervisory staff of examination centres allotted to their students to oblige them.

`This move will also remove the impression of giving the maximum marks to the students of private schools during paper checking inside education boards,` he said.

The board chairman said it was believed that influential private schools often managed to check answer sheets of their students through teachers of own choice.

`If the answer sheets of private and government school students are mixed up, then the private schools might not be able to trace those of their students for favourable checking,` he said.