As unfair practices run rampant during the ongoing higher secondary school certificate (HSC) annual examination, as many as 197 cases of copying, 71 of impersonation and one replacement were detected by various teams of Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE), Larkana, during HSC Part-I English paper, here on Saturday. 61 cases of cheating were found in Larkana district while one impersonator and 28 cheating cases were detected in Kambar-Shahdadkot. One replacement and 41 cheating cases were seen in Shikarpur with 34 cheating cases in Jacobabad. In addition, 46 impersonators and 26 cheating cases were detected in Kashmore with 21 impersonators and seven copy cases found in Dadu. This is an alarming situation as the board teams and civil administration appear unable to effectively act against the ongoing practice of using unfair means. This clearly reflects either shortcoming at the hand of students os incompetence of teachers. It means they are not doing the job for which they get huge salaries every month out of hard-earned taxpayers’ money. A retired professor noted that required facilities were unavailable in educational institutions across Sindh. He further added that a lack of science laboratories and shortage of teachers have both added to the misery of teachers and students. How could students sit cleanhanded for exams when no teachers are available to them: academic A large number of vacancies still exist in various schools and colleges of the province, which had not yet been filled. For this, only the Sindh Government was said to be blamed and held responsible. He even made note of sanctioned posts lying vacant for several years, which should have long been filled on merit, as relevant institutions had been allowed to start operations. When schools run without teachers for English, Physics, Chemistry or even Mathematics, how could anyone expect students to appear in the annual exams clean-handed, he wondered. The academic also called the provincial government responsible for these affairs, which seemed to have no interest in improving the educations standards in Sindh. If they were willing, eradicating this menace would be very easy and could help build a healthy and educated society, he remarked. The former professor queried if the crime could be wiped out, why could not copy culture?