Cambridge exams: Five years on, private students bear the brunt of security threats
British Council shifted its operations to Islamabad in 2008.
An official of the British Council, requesting anonymity, said the council had reopened its library in Lahore. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
When the British Council shifted its operations following security threats in 2008, the worst affected were private candidates.
Five years on, the council has yet to move back and hundreds of private students of ACCA, O and A-Levels continue to travel to Islamabad to take their exams. Regular students, on the other hand, have the advantage of taking exams in their respective educational institutes in Peshawar.
Since many subjects, particularly science subjects, have more than one exam, students have to keep travelling between the two cities. Often these exams are on different days.
An official familiar with the matter said since private students have to travel to Islamabad for each paper, it affects their grades adversely. “It is very difficult for students but they have no other choice. The British Council stopped conducting exams in the city after their foreign office advised them to run the programme from the British Embassy instead.”
Nearly 200 students were unable to give exams the year British Council shut down its operations here,” the official said.
Private candidates are also left at the mercy of coaching centres for syllabus preparation. “There are a few coaching centres in the city, but they charge twice as much as the regular fee charged in schools.”
Earlier, students wishing to appear in IELTS, O, A-Levels and ACCA were managed at the British Council. After its closure, CONFED, an education advisory service managed to conduct ACCA exams in 2009, however, that was the first and the last time.
Haris Ahmad Yousafzai, who will appear for his O-Level exam in Urdu this October, said: “Travelling to Islamabad alone is impossible for me, I will take someone along.”
“We will leave a day before the exam is scheduled in order to identify the location as it is a completely new city for us,” Yousafzai added.
His mother added given the law and order condition in the country she cannot let her son go all alone to Islamabad, unsupervised.
An official of the British Council, requesting anonymity, said the council had reopened its library in Lahore and discussions were also underway to restart operations in Peshawar. He, however, declined from specifying a period.
“I cannot say for sure when we will start operating from Peshawar. However, I can say we are in the planning phase to facilitate private students appearing in O, A-Level and ACCA exams,” the official said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2013.
When the British Council shifted its operations following security threats in 2008, the worst affected were private candidates.
Five years on, the council has yet to move back and hundreds of private students of ACCA, O and A-Levels continue to travel to Islamabad to take their exams. Regular students, on the other hand, have the advantage of taking exams in their respective educational institutes in Peshawar.
Since many subjects, particularly science subjects, have more than one exam, students have to keep travelling between the two cities. Often these exams are on different days.
An official familiar with the matter said since private students have to travel to Islamabad for each paper, it affects their grades adversely. “It is very difficult for students but they have no other choice. The British Council stopped conducting exams in the city after their foreign office advised them to run the programme from the British Embassy instead.”
Nearly 200 students were unable to give exams the year British Council shut down its operations here,” the official said.
Private candidates are also left at the mercy of coaching centres for syllabus preparation. “There are a few coaching centres in the city, but they charge twice as much as the regular fee charged in schools.”
Earlier, students wishing to appear in IELTS, O, A-Levels and ACCA were managed at the British Council. After its closure, CONFED, an education advisory service managed to conduct ACCA exams in 2009, however, that was the first and the last time.
Haris Ahmad Yousafzai, who will appear for his O-Level exam in Urdu this October, said: “Travelling to Islamabad alone is impossible for me, I will take someone along.”
“We will leave a day before the exam is scheduled in order to identify the location as it is a completely new city for us,” Yousafzai added.
His mother added given the law and order condition in the country she cannot let her son go all alone to Islamabad, unsupervised.
An official of the British Council, requesting anonymity, said the council had reopened its library in Lahore and discussions were also underway to restart operations in Peshawar. He, however, declined from specifying a period.
“I cannot say for sure when we will start operating from Peshawar. However, I can say we are in the planning phase to facilitate private students appearing in O, A-Level and ACCA exams,” the official said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2013.