Over 150,000 students to repeat exams

They were failing or were absent from new centralised exams for classes five and eight

KARACHI: For the first time, the Sindh education department has decided to allow over 150,000 students of classes five and eight so that they can avoid being held back. The students either failed or were absent from a compulsory exam.

The decision was taken on Friday in a meeting of which involved the schools director and Provincial Education Minister Sardar Ali Shah, among others.

The exam was the first run of an experiment in Sindh with centralised exams. The exams were prepared by the assessment and research wing of the department of school education and conducted by IBA Sukkur. In the meeting, one officer told The Express Tribune, that there are about 600,000 students enrolled in class five and class eight in government schools, around 100,000 of whom did not sit in the exams and 60,000 of whom failed. The source said that the highest failure rate was in mathematics.

In the meeting, it was made clear that promotions are now dependent on the results, to which some participants pointed out the high risk of over 150,000 students dropping out of government schools. They suggested lowering the passing mark for promotion or allowing students to retake the exams.



Directorate of Curriculum Assessment and Research Chairman Asghar Memon, while confirming that supplementary exams will take place, told The Express Tribune that supplementary papers will only be required for subjects which students failed, while absentees will be given another chance to sit for all subjects.

When asked about the large absentee rate, Memon said that there is a possibility of some students being unable to get into exam centres as three schools were sharing one centre, on average. He said that the objective of the exams was to identify "slow learners", who need more attention, as it would be helpful for both students and teachers.

He made it clear that supplementary exams are only going to be offered this year because it was the first time the centralised exams were taken. "From next year, there will be no supplementary exams," he reaffirmed, adding that the supplementary exams will begin in a few days as the new academic session has already commenced.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2019.