The final results for matriculation exams and higher senior secondary exams are made available for viewing online on the official website of your particular Board of Examination. This allows easier access to the results without students having to go to the college like in the old days.
Most education boards in Pakistan it seems, still think it’s the 90s. Their websites go down when results are announced, owing to the traffic they get. If that wasn’t enough, other methods for checking results remotely don’t work out well either such as SMS and direct contact via telephone.
Recently, on the announcement of results for the 2nd year higher senior secondary examinations, the FBISE website went down and was completely inaccessible for 11-12 hours with no cause or explanation provided after it went back up.
This is not the first time the website has gone down on result day. It’s a common occurrence, which is a testament to the outdated servers the government uses to host the FBISE website.
FBISE’s website was not alone in facing this problem with the Rawalpindi Board’s website also meeting the same fate. The Rawalpindi board’s results were uploaded on the website at 10:30PM instead of 10:30 AM, a full 12 hours late. This was followed by similar inaccessibility issues that plagued the FBISE website as well.
The website itself is outdated and that’s apparent when you see the older design language (using gifs and flashing text for example). The website is also laggy which further worsens the experience.
On top of that, the website is available in only 4:3 aspect ratio – the UI appears centered in the middle with bars on both sides – and no option to view it in 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios.
FBISE Website
There is also no mobile optimization for the web pages. You will need to constantly zoom in and out to read and click on the right link.
Finally the website has been blocked by web browsers over the past few years for not having an up to date security certificate. They also trigger anti virus alerts, which block the pages due to potential virus infections. Although this issue has been almost completely resolved by now, its inexcusable for a government owned website to be this lenient when it comes to viruses.
Consistent and periodic updating of the websites owned by the government is vital, not only in terms of its design and UI sense, but also for security and stability. The content and services they provide are essential.
The government can’t claim to be up to date with the latest technology trends until they implement improvements for their websites, social media accounts and other web based resources owned by both the Federal and provincial governments operating in Pakistan.