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Book printing issue & academic year
Karachi, Jan 28, 2008: The caretaker chief minister has finally decided to
settle the controversy about the printing of textbooks, which has been in
jeopardy mainly due to the seizure of the Sindh Textbook Board's (STB) accounts
by the education department, and has called a meeting on Monday (today), which
all the senior officials concerned have been asked to attend, sources said.
Though an official announcement is still awaited regarding whether
the new academic session would commence on April 1, four months before the
schedule, the printing of millions of textbooks is still a far-fetched dream –
let alone their distribution to the remotest parts of Sindh.
Sources in
the education department conceded that had the procurement of paper and
allocation of quotas to the publishers been given by this month (January), they
would have been in the position to provide textbooks to the students by Aug 16,
the starting date of the new academic session as in practice since
2006.
"The printing and distribution of over 30 million books before
April 1 is next to impossible in the given circumstances. The authorities will
have to stick to the Aug 16 date for the new academic session at least for this
year," admitted a senior official.
The head of the STB Shamsuddin Solangi
said the situation was worsening because of lack of interest about education at
the highest quarters. He blamed the education department's constant interference
in the STB's affairs for the present situation.
He said when the
education department's powerful steering committee decided last month to start
the new academic session four months before the schedule, the STB had accepted
the challenge and started its efforts to bring the books out on
time.
"Since then the matter had been constantly deferred by the senior
quarters in the meetings of the board of governors of the STB. We have held six
meetings and all the time the matter had been deferred for no reason," he
said.
He claimed the education department wanted to get hold of the
lucrative dealings concerning the procurement of paper and allocation of orders
to the publishers. "Each of the above dealings is worth Rs300 million," he
said.
Mr Solangi said there was no justification for the seizure of the
STB's bank accounts. The authorities seized the accounts after the board's
building was reportedly ransacked by miscreants during the violence that
followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
"We had already informed the
senior quarters that the violence had caused no damage to the accounts and audit
department," said Mr Solangi.
Sources said that during Monday's meeting,
the cancellation of the tender for the procurement of paper would also be
discussed. Dawn
Demand for reversion to March-April academic year
Islamabad: All the representative school
organisations from private as well as public sector have demanded to revive the
previous academic year of April to March 31, as current session is not
compatible with the weather conditions of the country and effecting the
students' performance.
Malik Abrar Hussain, Chief Organiser, All Pakistan
Private Schools Owners Association regretted that the government is not taking
private sector into confidence, while making policies that is why these policies
do not possess realistic approach.
"If there is one government school in a
town alongside there are four private schools for the people of that area. The
government should make such policies which are acceptable to all and are based
on ground realities," said the Chief Organiser of Association, which represents
the 54000 private schools across the country.
Other representative
organisations of private sector institutions including Joint Action Committee
(JAC), Private School Management Association and Private Schools Association
Islamabad (PSAI) have also demanded the revival of the final examination session
in the month of March for the entire country.
Besides private schools, the
students, parents and teachers of government schools have also same concerns and
don't agree to the decision of commencing new academic year from September 1 to
May 31, which the government had started from the last year in May and
June.
Abdul Rasheed Mirza from Mutahidda Mahaz-e-Asatza opined that before
implementation of current system the students used to take their examination in
March, which was appropriate according to our weather conditions.
Now they
take their examination in the month of May, which is not suitable being hottest
month and load-shedding is routine in these months.
One of the major
concerns is that after the result of new session exams the students remained out
of touch for about three months from their studies during the whole summer
vacation.
The ministry is blindly following the foreign countries' system
including UK, which is not suitable for our country as our weather conditions,
and ground realities are totally different.
They have adopted this system as
spring season prevails in UK these days but here the month of May is the hottest
month of the year so the students face problems during exams.
Last year many
students fell unconscious and became ill due to the severe hot season and could
not perform properly in exams. The Nation
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| Education News | | Updated: 24 May, 2012 |
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