NCOC decides to hold board exams across Pakistan this year

Provincial education authorities to take final decision about re-opening of schools

ISLAMABAD:

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has decided in principle that board exams across the country will be held this year amid the third wave of novel coronavirus.

The decision was taken in an NCOC meeting held in Islamabad on Tuesday with Planning Minister Asad Umar in the chair. The health ministry officials briefed the participants of the meeting about the current situation of Covid-19 in the country.

However, the NCOC has decided to refer the matter of re-opening the educational institutes to the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC).

All educational institutions across the country were closed earlier this month till May 23 to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Also read: Proposal to promote 9th, 11th grade students rejected

However, the meeting decided that the IPEMC will take decisions regarding holding of examinations and students’ promotion to the next grades.

According to sources, the IPMEC will hold its meeting before May 23 and in the first phase schools would be open for students of classes 9th, 10th, 11th and 12^th.

Earlier this month, the IPMEC had decided that examinations of grade 10th and 12th would be taken in July in the first phase whereas, in the second phase, papers of 9th and 11th grade would be conducted in August or September.

Taking to Twitter, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood also clarified that grade 9th and 11th exams will take place according to the timetable of the respective boards. “No truth in rumours that they will not be held,” he wrote on his official handle.

(With input from DNA)