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Composite exam's controversy ends: but temporarily
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Karachi, Feb (Dawn): FINALLY, a decision has been taken. Governor Sindh, Dr Ishratul Ebad
exercising his right as the Controlling Authority of all examination conducting
boards within Sindh has ordered the continuation of separate examination system
for classes IX and X directing all the secondary education boards of Sindh to
make immediate arrangements for the class nine examinations. |
Though the decision comes precariously close to the scheduled date of April 17 for the
matric exams, it is not as delayed a move as it was last year when the combined
exams decision for class nine was reverted during the summer vacations, much
after the class ten exams had taken place. Last year's class nine students are
still paying the price for the delayed decision, but hopefully the present batch
will have a lesser damage to control since their exams are now scheduled with
only a month's delay.
The Governor should be commended for taking action
to ease the immediate trauma of the 250,000 plus students and families. It is
credible that due notice was taken of the media reports appearing regularly on
the issue and of the wide-scale protest launched by the academia concerned with
this issue. But at the same time it would be prudent to point out that the
situation will in all probability be repeated next year.
While the
students are grumbling about the loss of study time – a delay that could have
been avoided if a definite decision had been taken last year – the Federal
Education Minister, Javed Qazi and Sindh Education Minister, Ms Hamida Khuhro
have both stated that this 'reprieve' is again only for the current year, which
obviously indicates that the controversy is by no means dead, only buried for
the moment.
The entire composite exam debate has become an enigma for all
concerned. In the face of an overwhelming dissent given by individual teachers;
the Private School Management Association; the Sindh University; Sindh
Professors and Lecturers Association, the Sindh Assembly and Cabinet, the City
Council and a number of other academic bodies, the stubborn stance of Mr Qazi
and Ms Khuhro defies all reason.
Most interesting is the fact that even
the Punjab Education Minister has given a statement that his province too is
considering reviving the separate exams policy which was adopted only last year
(2006) on the insistence of the Federal Education Minister. The Punjab education
ministry had reversed the composite exam policy of matriculation initially
followed by the Punjab board, to the separate exam system in 1997 after finding
it to be a weaker structure to follow. And the statistics researched by the
Karachi Board of Secondary Education also point towards its better results under
the separate exam policy as compared to the results achieved by the other boards
in the county conducting composite exams. The Karachi board exams conducted
under the separate exam policy had a pass percentage of 70 percent students
while the pass percentage of students giving composite exams from Lahore,
Peshawar and Rawalpindi was 41 percent, 52 percent and 42 percent,
respectively.
As questioned in the past two reports published on this
issue, why is the shift in policy being undertaken without extended
consultations with academicians and educationists? A system which will not even
be in unison with the system allowed for the private board exams. The only
reason given by the Federal Minister for education is that it was the system in
which HE had given the matric exams and so it should be implemented, though one
must add here again that Mr Qazi has no previous background of academics to his
credit.
The controversy created must be comprehensively shelved once and
for all and the Chief Minister should not allow the Federal government to
infringe on provincial autonomy by playing with students' precious study time
yet again next year. And with the opposition for once in harmony with him, the
issue should be permanently solved right away.
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| Education News | | Updated: 24 May, 2012 |
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