Rawalpindi near bottom in middle school exams

Girls outshine boys in the district, taking all three top positions

RAWALPINDI: The education boards of the most urbanized districts of Punjab, including Rawalpindi and Lahore, showed dismal performance in the Grade-VIII, middle school examination held under Punjab Examination Commission (PEC).

Of the 36 districts in Punjab, Lahore came in at 36 while Rawalpindi was 35 in the ranking, securing 71.12 per cent and 74.62 per cent pass percentage respectively.

Collectively, 1.06 million students appeared in the board examination in the province of which 926,222 passed the exams. As many as 160,110 pupils failed to get through. The overall passing ratio was reported to be 87.33 per cent.

The southern Punjab district of Khanewal excelled in the exams, with a pass ratio of 98.93 per cent. However, the top position was bagged by a student from Bhurewala, Shazil Maqsood, who secured 496 marks.

Pindi girls outshine boys

Despite the poor results, girls in Rawalpindi outshined the boys of the district, securing all top three spots.

Alisha Wazeer from Government Elementary School Salkhater, Murree secured the first position in the Rawalpindi district by obtaining 473 marks.

Muniba Ameer, a student of the Government Girls Higher Secondary Schools Number 2, Murree Road,  was second with 468 marks.

With a difference of just four marks, Aisha Maqsood from the Government Girls Comprehensive School in Rawalpindi stood third with 464 marks.

Students who have failed in one or two papers have been promoted to the next class with grace marks.

Teachers’ performance questioned

Meanwhile, the Punjab education ministry has summoned a list of all those schools whose students performed poorly in the Grade-VIII examination under PEB. The list comprising names of school heads, subject teachers and class teachers have been summoned by the ministry to conduct action against them under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act.

The action under the act could lead to sacking from the job, forfeiture of service and halt in the promotion.

Meanwhile, in Attock, the PEC middle standard exam held in February this year, students of Punjab Danish School (PDS) Jand and a private school shared the first position by obtaining 485 marks each while the second and third positions were grabbed by the students of private schools.

As many as 24,471 students (male and female) from across the district appeared in the exam held in February this year. Out of which 18,941 students were from government schools, 4,140 from private schools and 1,390 in a private capacity.

As per the result announced by PEC, Burhan Ullah from Punjab Danish School in Jand and Khadija Manahil from FJ Grammar High School in Fatehjang obtained 485 marks each, bagging the first position in the district. Eman Afroz from FJ Grammar High School in Fatehjang secured the second position by obtaining 484 marks and Laiba Zia, of Iqra Model Girls High School Kot in Chhaji, secured the third position by obtaining 483 marks. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2020.