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Academic session rescheduled again
KARACHI, Dec 27, 2007: In a move that is likely to affect hundreds of thousands
of students across the province, the steering committee of the education and
literacy department decided on Wednesday to reschedule the annual academic
session and examinations of matriculation and intermediate classes.
By
revising the academic session back to what it was a couple of years ago, the
committee negated its own decision taken in January 2006, in which the
traditional academic session was stretched to Aug 16. It had extended the summer
vacations for educational institutions to over a period of two and a half
months.
This and other decisions, including the conduct of examinations
for students of schools and colleges and vacations, were taken at a meeting of
the steering committee of the Sindh education department held with the caretaker
education minister, Shujaat Ali Baig, in the chair on Wednesday.
The
committee decided that the academic session of schools would start from April 1.
Besides, the admissions of class XI shall be made through the Centralised
Admission Policy (CAP) for Karachi while in the rest of the province they would
be completed by the first week of Sept, 2008.While deciding to start the new
academic year early in April, the committee observed that it was being done in
the larger interests of the students, teachers and parents at large.
Interestingly, the same observation had been made two years ago when the
academic session had been delayed to Aug 16.
The meeting decided that the
summer vacations would be reduced to two months as had been the case two years
ago before a previous steering committee's decision stretched them to two and a
half months. The vacations would now be observed from June 1 to July 31,
2008.
Holidays
Similarly, the winter vacations would be
observed from Dec 22 to Dec 31 from next year. The other holidays included two
days for Ashura, Kashmir Day, Shah Latif Day, Chehlum, Pakistan Day, Eid
Milad-un-Nabi, Labour Day, Shab-i-Mairaj, Independence Day, Shab-i-Barat,
Youm-i-Ali, Shab-i-Qadr, Eidul Fitr (three days), Iqbal Day, Eidul Azha (three
days) and the Quaid's birthday.
The meeting also decided that the
examinations of up to class VIII would be conducted by May 8, 2008; theory
examinations of SSC would start from April 17 while the boards would decide the
schedule of practical examinations. Similarly, the SSC examination results would
be announced by July 15. The theory examinations of HSC-I and HSC-II would start
from May 13 and the boards would decide about the schedule of the practical
examinations while the results of the HSC and DAE would be announced by Aug
10.
The minister said the department was reviewing the CAP in the light
of the complaints lodged by students and parents. He said information technology
would be included in the course of colleges as a subject and a notification in
this regard would soon be issued.
The committee asked the principals of
colleges and EDOs (education) concerned and boards to ensure implementing the
condition of 75 per cent attendance before the acceptance of examination
forms.
The committee further observed that school and college teachers
should take up examination duties under respective educational boards
compulsorily, otherwise action would be taken under the Sindh government's
employees' efficiency and discipline rules.
The committee also reviewed
the timings of schools and colleges and took the following decisions: for single
shift schools (primary) from April 1 to Oct 31 the timings would be 8am to
1.30pm from Monday to Thursday and Saturday; from Nov 1 to March 31, the school
timings would be from 8.30am to 1.30pm. On Fridays, schools would remain open
from 8.30am to 12 noon throughout the year.
Similarly, the steering
committee approved a schedule for the double shift schools, morning and evening
shift colleges and their timings during Ramazan. Dawn
Your Comments
"when will be the summer vacation off for the schools & colleges for this year?"
Name: Talib
Email: talib.hussain@akesp.org
City, Country: Karachi, Pakistan
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