Matric, inter students still awaiting results

Education boards have not received permission to award grades without exams

The Sindh government has miserably failed to tackle the educational challenges that it confronted amid the coronavirus pandemic. Despite introducing new legislation to cope with the situation, the provincial matric and intermediate boards have still not received permission to award grades without conducting exams.

As a result, the preparation of matric and intermediate results for seven education boards in Sindh, including the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Karachi, has not commenced, leaving hundreds of thousands of students in limbo.

The Sindh College Education Department has not started the process of enrolment for over 100,000 matric students from Karachi in the first year of intermediate, nor has any policy for the process been drafted.

What’s more, in violation of the education department steering committee’s decision, the decision to award admissions based on matric results has been taken, which would further delay the commencement of college sessions.

On the other hand, the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) has issued the O and A Level results across the globe, two days before its deadline.

The timely issuance of CAIE results has opened opportunities for these students to pursue higher education and enrol themselves in different colleges and universities, while students from the local boards remain uncertain about their future.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the chairman of an education board in Sindh, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said all the education boards are facing unique challenges in terms of promotion and direct grading without conducting the examinations.

“Despite the challenges, however, the government’s attitude and its callousness is the major hurdle in tackling the issue and preparing the results,” he said.

When contacted, the universities and boards secretary, Riazuddin, refrained from commenting on the issue.

The Sindh Assembly drafted legislation on July 23 to permit promotion without exams in the face of an emergency such as the Covid-19 pandemic. But 20 days on, the province’s education boards have still not received permission from the education department to issue the results.

The Sindh College Education Department is not ready to grant admissions to students in the first year of intermediate without obtaining their matric results even though the education steering committee had granted approval to award first-year intermediate admissions based on the results of Grade 9.

Private colleges in Karachi have already commenced online classes after enrolling students in the first year of intermediate. However, nearly 100,000 students belonging to different government colleges are sitting idle at home, awaiting results and admissions.

Despite repeated attempts, Sindh college education secretary Baqar Abbas, who is also in charge of the Sindh Treasury Department, was unavailable for comment.

Sindh Colleges Director-General Professor Abdul Hameed Channar, meanwhile, said the department had decided to grant first-year intermediate admissions based on matric results, yet the matric results have not been issued.

When reminded that the steering committee had approved the granting of admissions for the first year of intermediate based on Grade 9 results in March, he said that the latest decision was taken by Abbas.

Sharing the reasoning behind the decision, Channar said granting admissions based on Grade 9 results would create issues, and injustice may prevail, hence the admissions would be granted based on Grade 10 results.

“As far as legislation is concerned, Abbas is in a better position to answer the question,” the colleges director-general said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2020.