Unnecessary delays: No progress on ‘direct promotion’ of matric, intermediate students

Bureaucratic hurdles and laid-back attitude of officials has hampered the process, leaving students confused

KARACHI:

The Sindh government's irresponsible attitude and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles have put the futures of more than one million matriculation and intermediate students at stake. Owing to a lack of interest on part of the officials from the school education department, the college education department, and the law department, the promised “direct promotion” of matriculation and inter students have been stuck in limbo.

Since matriculation and intermediate examinations had to be cancelled across Pakistan due to the spread of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown, the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) had earlier drafted a promotion policy for direct grading of matric and intermediate students.

According to the new policy put forward by the IBCC for intermediate and matric students across Pakistan, all regular and private students of grade IX and X would be directly promoted to grade X and XI, respectively. Meanwhile, no especial examinations would be conducted for students of grade IX and XI. However, students of grade X and XII who were to appear for board examinations in 2020 would be promoted based on their performance in the previous year.

In addition to that, the transcripts would only carry an aggregate score and would not include theory and practical numbers for part-II students. In the issuing mark sheet and the certificate, the board would explain that the marks awarded for part-II are in line with a fair estimate, approved by the concerned government and the IBCC.

In this regard, a summary based on recommendations to remove legal hurdles had to be issued by the provincial law department and presented to the Sindh Cabinet.

Sources in the Sindh School Education and Literacy Department, however, said the summary had been in possession of the law department for more than a week after which it sent the summary back to the school education department with some objections.

After several weeks, when a meeting of education officials was convened on Friday, July 10, to resolve the objections, the meeting was adjourned due to the unavailability of Sindh College Education Department’s Secretary Baqir Abbas Naqvi.

Per sources, the next meeting would be held as per the availability of the secretary, and no exact dates could be announced.

As a result, the policy draft could not be submitted to the Sindh Cabinet for approval. Moreover, the process of preparing matriculation and intermediate results in educational boards across Sindh could not start either.

Due to continuous delays in the issuance of results, matriculation and intermediate students in Sindh have been worried about their future, saying they would lag behind students from other provinces of the country as well as their O and A level counterparts if results are not issued in a timely fashion.

It should be noted that the Balochistan government has approved a promotion policy for direct grading of its matric and inter students. Similarly, the Federal Board has also green-lighted the direct promotion of students without examinations.

Under the Cambridge system, predicted grades of O and A level students have been prepared and sent to Cambridge by their respective schools and the date of issuance of result has also been confirmed.

The Express Tribune contacted the Law Department Secretary Mansoor Abbas and asked him about the progress of the promotion policy, in response to which he said he would provide updated information on Friday, July 10. Despite repeated attempts, however, Mansoor Abbas could not be reached.

Attempts were also made to reach out to the College Education Department’s Secretary Sindh Baqir Naqvi, but he did not receive the calls either.