Moalims

TAXILA: A student who works as an electrician to make ends meet has blamed management of a private institute for the loss of his academic year.

Abbas Muzammil, a student of the Wah British Institute of Technology (WBIT) Taxila alleged that he was not able to “reappear in the annual examinations” conducted by the Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) since the institute management misplaced his enrolment form.

Abbas said he worked as an electrician to meet his educational expenditure, and enrolled in Diploma of Associate Engineering (DAE) programme at the institute. He said that he took classes in the evening. Due to his tough routine he could not concentrate on studies and failed in two subjects.

Abbas said that he had deposited Rs3,000 along with the form on October 19, 2015 to re-appear in the exam to be held later in December.

When the roll numbers were issued, he visited the institute, but to his dismay the management was ignorant about his roll number slip.

The institute officials claimed that he had not deposited the enrolment form and expressed their inability to help him in the matter, the student claimed.

He asked that if he had not deposited the form than how come he had been issued the deposit slip by the administration.

Abbas alleged that to hide their negligence, the management was not willing to accept responsibility of misplacing the form, which had resulted in him losing an academic year.

He said that the negligence meant extra financial burden on him. Abbas said that now he would have to wait for another year to reappear in the exams, pay the fee again.

He also claimed that the official fee of the technical board was Rs1,202 but the institute was charging Rs1,500 in examination fee.

The institute’s vice-principal, Abdul Jabbar claimed that the form was not deposited by the student. When the original receipt was shown to him, he said that it was fee deposit slip and not form deposit slip.

When asked about the issuance of any form deposit slip by the institute, Jabbar said that the management did not issue a separate form deposit slip and the fee slip was accepted as form deposit slip.

He refused to reply to the question about alleged overcharging by the institute.

Jabber, however, said that the matter would be discussed with the institute’s chairman.

Chairman Waheed Mir also refuted the form’s deposit. He said that the fee receipt was not a proof of depositing the form at the institute.

When asked about mala fide of the institute about non-issuance of the form deposit slip, Mir refused to comment adding no authority including the PBTE or Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) could take action against his institute as he had strong connections in both watchdogs.

Despite repeated attempts, PBTE Chairperson Saima Javed was unavailable for comment.

However, Controller Examinations Engineer Mohammad Irshad said responsibility of misplacing the form lay with the institute.

He said that although the board could not save the student’s academic year but it would hold an inquiry.

The student has called upon Punjab chief minister, PBTE chairperson and Tevta authorities to take necessary action.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2015.