Committee probes harassment of students by invigilator at college in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) formed a committee on Wednesday to probe into allegations by students that they were sexually harassed by a federal board-appointed examiner during their Intermediate examinations a few days ago.

The controller examination is heading the committee, a source privy with the development told Geo News.

On Tuesday, scores of students at a private college in Islamabad came forward with allegations that they were sexually harassed by a federal board-appointed examiner during their biology practical.

After the students' posts went viral, the college administration requested the FBISE to launch an inquiry into the allegations against the biology professor, sources said.

"Inquiry committee members visited the college campus and even questioned the biology professor accused of harassment," the sources further said.

"The professor told the committee that he had been invigilating examinations for the last 12 years in various schools and colleges and this is the first time such allegations have been levelled against him," the sources continued.

The professor has been asked to submit his initial reply to the committee by Thursday, sources informed.

They further said that the federal board approached the students after coming across their posts on social media.

"The students said they were verbally and physically abused by the biology professor and he even threatened them when they protested against his 'vile behaviour'," the sources added.

College administration approaches students

On the other hand, the college administration has approached female students after it came to their knowledge through social media, sources within the federal board informed Geo News.

The principal of the college said the students complained about the professor, who supervised their biology practical.

The students stated that the professor hurled slurs on and sexually harassed them, the principal confirmed, adding that the examiner also allegedly threatened the students for protesting against harassment.

80 students allegedly harassed

A student took to Facebook on Tuesday to share that around 80 of her classmates, including her, were molested by an examiner during their biology practical on May 24.

The student shared horrifying details of the incident and said her teacher had told her not to report the harassment as her marks "were in the examiner's hands".

"Almost all the girls of the first batch became a victim of that paedophile. The girls of the second batch were warned by their friends so they were obviously even more careful but still some of them experienced the same harassment. I am still completely shook that we had to go through this. Approximately 80 girls were sexually harassed that day and our teacher told us to keep quite because she didn't want us to lose marks!" the Facebook post read.

Following her post, many other students from the college also came forward with their accounts most of them posting them anonymously.

Another student compiled 18 anonymous testimonies that she later posted on Twitter.

Many of the victims have claimed that the total number of girls harassed by the examiner was around 80.

The students said the practical spanned over three days, May 24, 26 and 27, and even though some of them warned by their fellow students beforehand there was little they could do during the practical to protect themselves.

Several others claiming to be current and former students of the college also took to social media using the hashtags #TimesUp and #MeToo to report incidents of harassment by the same examiner in the past.