Students protest against CAIE exams

KARACHI:

Demanding teacher assessed grades, dozens of students of the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) system staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) against planned examination of A and O levels in April and May. After studying online for the whole year, they said that they would not appear for tests in classrooms.

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The protesting students and their parents demanded of the federal government to cancel the CAIE examinations in light of the pandemic.

They have demanded that, like other countries, marking should be done on the basis of teachers assessed grades - the predicted grades sent by teachers based on the student’s performance during the year as opposed to the grade of an individual exam.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, an A-level student, Arshad Siddiqui, said that other countries, including the United Kingdom, have cancelled Cambridge exams. “Our syllabus has not been fully covered due to the pandemic situation and preparation for the exams is not complete either,” he said.

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A-level exams are scheduled at the end of April, while the O-level exams are slated to begin on May 10. Another protesting A-level student, Asghar Zaidi, said the students could not appear for their CAIEs after studying in online classes throughout the year. “We will get low grades and lose the opportunity of going to university of our choice.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2021.