Various Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education across Punjab have cancelled the results of first year examinations, after thousands of students took to the streets in Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad on Friday protesting against errors in their mark sheets. One is at a loss for words to condemn the incompetence of the officials of these boards that resulted in glaring errors in the mark sheets of thousands of students. That the students precious academic year has been wasted is no joke. In some places trigger-happy police resorted to baton-charges to disperse protestors. In Lahore for instance, disgruntled students besieged the car of a politician. The anger of these students, the majority of whom had burnt the midnight oil to pass their exams in flying colours is understandable. It has also been reported that some of the students who did not even go to the examination centre were declared to have passed. This only points to the fact that corruption like in so many other government departments is thriving here as well. Greatly upset over the fiasco, Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif suspended Secretary of the Lahore Board on Friday but revoked his orders when learnt that the aforementioned had no hand in the debacle. He has launched an inquiry and it is hoped that the officials responsible for dereliction of duty would be brought to book and also the actual cause that led to the omission in the results identified. Fingers are also being pointed at the officials who set up the online computerised system that was recently incorporated into the board exams. Indeed it is not for the first time that the board has declared incorrect results. In the recent past, it had been unable to declare results within the stipulated timeframe. There were many instances of errors that only made a mockery of the authorities conducting exams. As per reports, a student was also awarded 52 marks out of 50. When the boards working has fallen to such low levels, it appears it is bad-governance ruining the department. The consequences of students losing confidence in the education system are obvious. Rather than equipping themselves with knowledge, they would only look for shortcuts like greasing the palm of the examiners or simply throwing the books away. For one thing this resounding failure of the board calls for wide-ranging reforms in the education sector.