Sindh prepares proposal to award ‘average marking’ to students if matric, inter exams cancelled

Students of 10th and 12th will be given average marks on the basis of previous results with 5% grace marks

KARACHI: Sindh's top education authorities have formulated a proposal regarding the postponement or cancellation of matriculation and intermediate annual examinations in the province in the wake of prevailing situation triggered by Covid-19.

A meeting of Inter Board Committee of Chairman (IBCC) – a forum of seven education boards of Sindh – was held at the Board of Technical Education Karachi on Monday.

It was attended by the chairmen of Sindh Technical Board, Board of Intermediate Education Karachi, Matriculation Board Karachi and Board of Matriculation and Intermediate Education Hyderabad while Board of Matriculation and Intermediate Education Sukkur, Larkana and chairmen of Mirpur Khas attended the meeting online.

It was decided during the meeting that in case of postponement, the duration of the examinations will be an hour or an hour and a half whereas the student would only be asked multiple choice questions (MCQs) in the papers.

In case of cancellation, the students of the class 10th and class 12th will be given average marks on the basis of their results in class 9th and class 11th with 5 per cent grace marks.

The proposal was being sent to the Sindh Ministry of Education and a decision regarding the matter is expected next month during a meeting of the steering committee of the education department.

A chairman, who was one of the participants, told The Express Tribune that the meeting has considered the options of holding annual matriculation and intermediate examinations or direct grading and release of results in case of cancellation of examinations.

He said that all the participants agreed that it is impossible to conduct examinations with social distancing as 500 to 1,000 students appear in one single examination centre.



However, he said, it was decided that in a scenario where it becomes imperative to conduct the matric and intermediate examinations, then each paper would be an hour or an hour and a half long while the exams would only consist MCQs.

He said that the suggestion was given by the Sukkur Board of Education and all the participants agreed except for chairman of Larkana Board.

No national consensus

Earlier, a meeting of the Federal IBCC was held under the chairmanship of Dr Shehzad Jeeva, current chairman and head of the Aga Khan Board.

According to a chairman of the meeting, the participants agreed to cancel examination in case of any untoward situation. However, a joint proposal could not be formed between all four provinces.

A source privy to the development told The Express Tribune that a few boards in Punjab had already started taking matriculation examination even before the lockdown began.

The boards were of the view that they had already printed copies of the rest of the examination papers, therefore, it would be difficult for them to cancel but they agreed for the postponement to some extent.

A meeting of the Federal IBCC has also been reconvened on May 4 in which efforts will be made to reach a joint decision in consultation with the boards of all provinces.