Confusion prevails over annual exams schedule

Notification ahead of dates advised by NCOC, suspended

LAHORE:

This year’s examinations of matriculation and intermediate classes in Punjab are in jeopardy after top authorities cancelled the schedule issued through a notification by the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC).

The decision came after differences arose among the Punjab Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and the IBCC over the annual examinations of class 9th to 12th.

The IBCC was reportedly prohibited from issuing any notification on its own.

According to sources, the Federal Ministry of Education wants to implement the National Command and Operations Centre’s instructions to hold the exams of 9th and 10th grade in June and 11th and 12th in August and September.

The new academic session in government and private schools should start from April 1, while the academic year of colleges and universities is due to begin on September 1.

It has been pointed out that if the exams are held in September, then the start of the next academic session may be delayed till January.

Thus there will be a difference of about 10 months between the academic sessions of schools and institutions of higher education.

The critics warned that the precious time of millions of students of secondary and higher secondary classes would be wasted if the schedule is implemented.

The sources said that differences among the ministries concerned and the Department of Higher Education, Department of Schools Education and the IBCC have deepened over the issue.

The IBCC decided in a recent meeting that the annual examinations for 9th and 10th classes should begin on May 4 and 11th and 12th classes from June 12.

A notification was also issued in this regard and all the educational institutions were also informed through WhatsApp.

However, within minutes, the notification was cancelled.

The IBCC was directed to withdraw its notification and withhold the exam schedule till instructions were received from the National Command and Operations Centre and the Federal Ministry of Education.

There are also reports that the government plans to drastically reduce the number of essay-type questions in the annual exams of the classes and increase the ratio of objective questions to 50 per cent.

The duration of each exam will be reduced from three to two hours.

However, a notification in this regard is yet to be issued.

The situation has left the school teachers and heads confused. They say that it is not yet known when the annual examinations will be held when and what would be the pattern of the question papers.

A teacher said the students were also facing anxiety because of the conflicting reports successively coming about their exams. The uncertainty making it difficult for them to focus on preparing for the exams.

Replying to a question, an IBCC official said that if the share of multiple choice and objective questions was increased, the examination boards would face difficulties in marking them because the computerised system provided to them was not prepared accordingly.

He expressed apprehension that errors and objections over grading of the answer sheets might also increase if the pattern is changed.

The decisions will have an impact on about 1.2 million students of matriculation and 900,000 of intermediate classes. The schedule of the annual examinations was announced by the IBCC, but it has been suspended.

According to a schedule issued from Islamabad earlier, the government had directed the holding of the intermediate classes’ exams in September.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2021.