We are repeatedly contacted by different schools to be taken under their wing but the act of parliament does not allow this, says FBISE Chairperson.
PHOTO: FILE
The Ministry of Education and Training on Tuesday asked the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) to expand its jurisdiction to ensure better service delivery.
State Minister for Education Balighur Rehman in a meeting directed FBISE Chairperson Shaheen Khan to make concrete efforts to change the board’s act.
With regards to the FBISE jurisdiction, Khan said they are repeatedly contacted by different schools to be taken under their wing but the act of parliament does not allow this. To this Rehman said, “There is no harm if the board expands its family if others are approaching it for registration and I will go for amendments (in the act) to open its educational sphere.”
The minister said they will make it easy for the schools and colleges from other provinces for affiliation with FBISE and abolish the no-objection certificates from provincial governments.
He urged Khan to improve the mechanism of exam formulation and make it more conceptual instead of just questions that could be answered by cramming texts.
Khan informed the minister that 0.1million students are enrolled in Secondary School Certificate (SSC) programme while 0.12 million in the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) in 996 institutions of Pakistan. While over 23,000 students of HSSC and SSC are in 50 schools and colleges of different countries, she remarked.
FBISE is a self-reliant government institution which had a budget of Rs800 million in fiscal year 2011-12 and Rs870 million in 2012-13 without any grant from the state, Khan said.
In the meanwhile FBISE chief said she has requested all the military cantonment areas’ concerned managers to allocate space for the board’s offices.
The FBISE chief requested the minister to give the prerogative to formulate curriculum for schools and colleges, control of Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (body to give equivalence to foreign degrees and their attestation) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to the board for better results and coordination as all the bodies are interrelated.
The minister said they will discuss the issue after visiting FBISE and looking over the various legalities involved.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2013.
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