PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah on Sunday said online checking of papers will be started in rest of the education boards on the pattern of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Peshawar.

He made the announcement while speaking at the coordination meeting held at the education board here.

The meeting was convened regarding the preparations and maintaining transparency during the ongoing secondary school certification examinations.

`Soon we will start e-marking in all education boards of the province. The more examinations were conducted with transparency, the more the country and society will progress,` remarked Mr Shah.

The meeting was also attended by Peshawar division commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud, who is also acting chairman of the Peshawar BISE, secretary board Mehdi Jan, additional secretary education Mohammad Shoaib, controller examinations and examination staff of Peshawar, Charsadda, Upper and Lower Chitral, Mohmand and Khyber districts.

The participants reaffirmed their commitments to maintaining transparency and preventing unfair means during SSC examinations to ensure justice for the deserving students.

The chief secretary said the mafia involved in the unfair means during the board examinations would be eliminated and the deserving students would be given their legitimate rights in the shape of marks they obtained.

Mr Shah said that the prevention of unfair means in the examinations was possible only with the cooperation of the staff deployed in the entire process of examination.

He said teachers were the architects of the nation and progress was possible only through them.

`The performance of the Peshawar BISE in preventing cheating and maintaining transparency has been outstanding,` he said, adding other education boards should also follow suit.

He said education had become a business for many people, who were involved in unfair means during examinations as they manipulated the process and deployed the examination staff of their own choice. He said the education department had also been politicised.

`Now we are trying to bring a system that brings transparency and merit in all examinations,` he said.

On the occasion, Peshawar division commissioner Riaz Mehsud said the Peshawar BISE had taken revolutionary steps to maintain transparency in the matriculation examinations by providing facilities to students and preventing cheating.

Cash prizes were distributed among the staff of the examination centres for performing outstandingly in maintaining transparency and preventing cheating in the ongoing SSC examinations.