Chaos persists as schools, students struggle to secure matric admit cards in Karachi

KARACHI: A day after the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) postponed the matriculation exams for three days, the administrations of hundreds of schools, mostly privately run, are still scrambling to obtain admit cards for their thousands of students so they can learn about their examination centres.

The matriculation exams, originally scheduled to begin on April 7, were postponed on Sunday night and will now commence on April 10, with approximately 385,000 candidates at 530 examination centres across Karachi Division.

The board acknowledged the issue with admit cards but said that it was currently transitioning from a manual to a digital system. As a result, the software application became overloaded and experienced a temporary disruption.

On Monday, representatives of private schools were seen gathered in large numbers at the board office to obtain admit cards, but received no clear response and were met with disappointment due to the lack of progress.

BSEK issues revised exam schedule; MQM-P warns of protests if issue not resolved in next 24 hours

The uncertainty, coupled with doubts about whether last-minute arrangements can ensure the smooth conduct of exams, is causing significant stress among students and their parents just days before the scheduled papers.

Parents said that before examinations, students’ focus should be on revision and preparation, but they are instead struggling with the mental stress of not receiving their admit cards.

Later in the evening, the BSEK issued a revised schedule for the annual examination of ninth and tenth grade students.

According to the new schedule, the first paper will be held on April 10 and the last paper on May 6.

Science group exams will be held in the morning shift, while general group exams will be in the afternoon shift. All students will take their exams at their previously assigned exam centers.

BSEK slammed for mismanagement

In a statement issued on Monday, the All Sindh Private Schools and Colleges Association said the situation reflected mismanagement at the BSEK.

The association welcomed the Sindh government’s decision to postpone exams by three days but stressed that timely exams were in students’ best interest. They attributed the crisis to the “incompetence of board chairman Ismail Rahoo.”

School representatives also raised concerns over alleged discrepancies in exam centre allocations and questioned the board’s claims regarding data processing issues. They argued that the examination system had already been digitised in recent years, making the explanation of server failures unconvincing.

They said the admit cards should have been issued at least a week before the exams and questioned whether such a hasty arrangement would now ensure accurate records on the admit cards and smooth management of the exams in examination halls.

Separately, MQM-P members of the Sindh Assembly, in a statement on Monday, alleged that the delay is not accidental but a systemic failure of the education board and a result of corruption. They termed the delay an “educational tragedy” and “administrative terrorism”.

The statement said that the world is integrating Artificial Intelligence into education and educational management, whereas the city’s board officials cannot even ensure basic documents ahead of the exams, despite their misleading claims that all preparations had been completed.

The lawmakers demanded that all admit cards be immediately made available in downloadable format and called for action against officials responsible for what they termed “criminal negligence”.

They called for facilitation desks to assist students and parents and warned of protests if the issue was not resolved in the next 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2026