KARACHI: The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) will be holding their annual exams for both part-I and part-II starting from next week and there have been some changes announced which many students are not too pleased about.

The exams, which were to commence on June 15, have beenmoved forward by three days to now begin on June 18 and the regular time of starting the morning paper at 9:30am has been revised and moved to an even earlier timing of 9am.

This change in timing has become the source of concern among many candidates.

The students have beenfurther asked by the BIEK to reach their exam centres even earlier than this so that there is no disturbance caused in settling down according to their roll numbers.

`What time do we leave home then?` Asked a worried female student.

She said that she would be nervous and sleep-deprived anyway andthen to hurriedly push down breakfast and get ready around 8am would be adding to her burden.

`I know myself. I would be feeling nauseous as it is and then I will also have to brave the morning rush on the roads,` she shared her concern with Dawn.

Other students also pointed out that they would need to leave home even earlier than usual to reach their exam centres on time because there is the morning rush of office and factory goers to be expected during this time.

Those using public transport were even more upset because they would also have to compete for seats in buses and be facing difficulty in stopping rickshawsand cabs.

Abdullah Zahid, another student, said that the change in timings will affect him and many of his friends badly.

`In the morning, public transport, especially the buses, are bursting at the seams with passengers. Even on regular days it is a game of chance to find a place there,` he said.

`Other transportation alternatives such as Bykea, Uber and Careem are prohibitively expensive for most students. Since the recent spike in fuel costs, their fares have also risen,` he added.

When Dawn contacted BIEK chairman Dr Saeeduddin regarding the matter, he informed thatthe decision to start early was taken in view of the heat by the government of Sindh.

He said that a meeting of interprovincial education ministers held earlier under the chairmanship of the federal minister regarding the timing of the HSC Part-I and Part-II examinations in view of the prevailing hot weather conditions all over the country where it was decided to revise the timings for the morning paper.

As per the revised timings, the morning paper will start from 9am to 12pm in Karachi while in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazir abad, it would be even earlier from 8.30am to 11.30am.