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Composite exam issue referred to NA body
ISLAMABAD, Feb 22(Dawn): Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Wednesday referred
the matter of holding matriculation level composite examination to the National
Assembly Standing Committee on Education following a criticism from opposition
benches.
The speaker took the decision when four members of the People's
Party Parliamentarians (PPP) through a calling attention notice slammed the
government's decision of holding the matriculation examination on composite
basis instead of separate exams for 9th and 10th.
Nayyar Bokhari of the
PPP moved the calling attention notice and drew the attention of the house
towards the decision to change examination system for 9th and 10th by the
Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) saying the
decision had caused grave concern amongst the public.
Minister of State
for Education Anisazeb Tahirkheli said it was not only the decision of the
FBISE, but the system was being adopted throughout the country by all the
boards. She said the decision was taken at a conference of inter-provincial
education ministers held in Peshawar in June, last year. She said all the three
provinces had decided to implement the system from this year while Sindh had
sought one year time for its implementation. She said the composite examination
system would be implemented in Sindh in 2008-09.
Nayyar Bokhari claimed
that actually the Sindh government had refused to implement the system as it
believed that the students would feel burdened after this decision.
Raja
Pervez Ashraf of the PPP said at a time when other countries were adopting
semester system to assess the performance of students on quarterly basis, the
government was adamant to implement 50-year old system in the
country.
Another PPP MNA Mehreen Anwar Raja requested the speaker to
refer the matter to the committee of the house for further
discussion.
PPP's Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said that Sindh was protesting
over this decision of the government. He asked the minister to explain the
rationale behind this move. He also called for referring the matter to the
committee.
Responding to the points raised by the PPP members, Ms
Tahirkheli said it was a misconception that there was opposition from any
province. She said Sindh had only been given one year concession while other
provinces had already implemented the decision. She said the decision had been
taken to reduce financial burden on the parents and students who earlier had to
pay the examination fees twice to the boards.
Ms Tahirkheli said
institutions would hold internal examination for 9th class and the performance
of students would be evaluated. She said the decision to hold composite
examination was taken after adopting a consultative process. She said the format
of the question paper was also being changed.
Giving details, she said,
there would be 20 per cent marks for multiple choice questions, 50 per cent for
short answers and 30 per cent for descriptive and long replies. She said the
purpose of changing the format was to discourage the trend of passing the exams
by mere memorisation. The minister, however, said that she had no objection if
the matter was referred to the committee.
Parliamentary leader of the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar, whose party is a coalition
partner in Sindh government, said that provincial governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and
Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim had talked to Federal Education Minister
Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi on the issue and now the whole policy would be
reviewed. He, however, did not elaborate his point.
Later, the speaker
referred the matter to the education committee of the house.
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| Education News | | Updated: 24 May, 2012 |
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