Islamabad - The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) secrecy staff in the middle of the paper marking process has demanded to increase the rate of the honorarium against each paper, sources said on Friday.  

FBISE every year hires a number of people in its secrecy department and assigns them the duty to maintain the secrecy and record of the papers.

Sources informed The Nation that differences have emerged between board administration and the hired secrecy staff on the rate of the honorarium. The latter body has also threatened to halt work which could result in the delayed announcement of Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) results.

Sources said that the secrecy staff has decided to halt the paper marking in middle of the work and start a movement for increase in the honorarium.

“Any strike or movement will affect the paper marking and delay the result of HSSC and SSC classes,” said the source.

Sources added that the secrecy staff has demanded an increase in the honorarium after FBISE increased the registration and examination fee collected from the students.

“After the increase in fee, the paper marking honorarium should also have also increased but the decision was not implemented,” said the source.

A number of retired and senior teachers are also considering staging a protest outside FBISE to demand increase  in the honorarium.

 Source said that the senior teachers before the starting of paper marking procedure had written an application to the board administration and requested to increase the honorarium on which FBISE gave assurance and convinced the teachers to start paper checking.

Details said that FBISE is awarding Rs02 against each paper to senior officers and Rs1.20 to assistants against each paper. Source said that later on 17 percent tax is also imposed on the final amount given to each official.

Source added that the secrecy officials are demanding from FBISE to raise the rate for senior official to Rs05 and Rs03 to assistant secrecy officials against each paper.

An assistant secrecy officer informed The Nation that secrecy paper checking is a difficult task which takes around six hours.

He said that low income teachers from far-flung areas face a number of problems reaching the center including paying for the transportation.

Chairman FBISE Ikram Malik talking to The Nation said that the fee rate is fixed by the Board of Governors and no issue regarding fee increase has come to his knowledge (BoGs).

He said that there is no chance of delaying the announcement of HSSC and SSC results as number of people are in line to be the part of paper marking system in the board.