FDE suggests grace marks for athletes

Schools told to add extra-curricular activities in academic calendar

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has directed local educational institutions to upgrade their academic calendar for the upcoming school year.

The FDE has directed the institutions to include teacher training and examination dates in the schedule, along with sports and extra-curricular activities.

The FDE instructed that a one-day educational or recreational visit must be included in the calendar for the next year. According to the quality enhancement letter available with the Daily Express, the school heads have been directed to introduce behaviour and time management training courses for teachers and allied staff in the academic year of 2019-20.

Schools will also submit a schedule of monthly, term-wise and pre-board examinations to the FDE, as well as a schedule of sports activities throughout the year.

As for the improvement in the quality of education, schools have been directed to provide an education in compliance with practical life whereas schools have been issued the directives to make recreational visits, community services as well declamation contests as a part of their extra-curricular activities.

The officials of FDE have also recommended that schools start issuing magazines and newsletters for the students, and have suggested that students’ publications be included in their result. Furthermore, they also suggested that students who participate in sports activities, be awarded grace marks.

The educational institutions have been asked to submit a progress report by Tuesday after inclusion of the aforementioned activities in their academic calendar.

However, the sources revealed that the implementation of these measures was not possible due to the shortage of funds.

Board examinations

The nine educational boards of Punjab have issued roll number slips and date sheet for the matric board examination starting from March 1.

The board has instructed students to download their roll number slips from the board website. However, the students can approach the board office in case they do not receive their roll number slips until February 22.

The spokesperson of Rawalpindi Educational Board Arsalan Cheema stated that some 378 examination centers have been formed including 139 for males, 137 for females and 102 centers would be joint.

Further, 378 invigilators and 480 vice-invigilators have been deployed for the examination.

There will be 97 local examination centers while 68 examination centers in the adjoining are made in suburban areas. The districts of Attock, Chakwal, and Jhelum will have 71, 80 and 62 examination centers respectively.

A control room has also been formed along with the inspectors and mobile teams to increase transparency in examinations. The Board chairman will also monitor the examination.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2019.