The sub-committee formed by the Sindh Education Department’s steering committee has finalised the academic calendar for the current academic session 2021 and the next academic session of 2022, and proposed that annual examinations should begin in July with a delay of two months.
These two academic calendars will be presented in the steering committee’s meeting slated for January 30 for approval.
A meeting of the sub-committee, headed by Secretary School Education Ahmed Bakhsh Narejo, was held at the Scouts Headquarters, Karachi on Monday.
The meeting agreed to start the annual examinations of matric and intermediate across Sindh in July with a delay of two months. Earlier, it was decided to start the examination after Eid-ul-Fitr, for matric from May and for intermediate in June. However, it has now been decided to give more time to students to study, while summer vacations for students of Grades I to VIII students of private and public schools across the province will be given only a month off, in July.
It was also suggested in the meeting that the duration of examination of matric and intermediate students should be limited to a maximum of two hours and practical examination should be terminated. Instead of conducting practical examination, the share of its marks should be split in two and 50 per cent of them should be included in the theory examination while the remaining 50 per cent in Constructed Response Questions.
Read More: Schools bound to call in students on alternate days
Last week, after a meeting of the education department’s steering committee, Sindh Education Minister had stated that no student will be promoted this year without sitting for the examinations. He had further said that the annual examinations would be conducted after 60 per cent of the syllabus is complete. Schools across the province are set to resume on campus classes from February 1 for Grades I to VIII, as decided earlier by the National Command and Operating Centre. But, said Ghani, every child will be on school premises only three days a week as educational institutes are to call students in two groups, on alternate days.
The meeting also agreed that the new academic session of 2021-22 should start from August 2, 2021 while admissions in colleges should start from October, 2021 after matric results. In addition to this, the schools should be closed for 6 days in the current academic session, which will continue in the next session. It was suggested that the winter vacations this year should last for only eight days, that is from December 25, 2021 to January 1, 2022 and the schools should be reopened from January 2, 2022.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2021.
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