Steering committee meets: Private schools insist on charging fee for summers

Three-month summer vacation to begin from June 1.

KARACHI:

Private schools have refused to agree with the government’s proposal to exempt students from paying the fee for the summer vacation.

They declined the Sindh education department’s suggestion during the steering committee meeting on Friday. “The proposal was in line with the Sindh government’s commitment under Article 25-A of the Constitution that dictates the right to free and compulsory education to all children of ages between five and 16 years,” explained provincial education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, while talking to The Express Tribune.

“We have, however, issued instructions to the all private schools to collect the fees for June and July from the students in separate months. No school will overburden the parents by demanding a combined three-month fee in one month.”

Earlier, Khuhro presided over the committee meeting at the Sindh Assembly building where public and private stakeholders were present. The meeting is held at the end of every year. The representatives of the private school associations agreed that the schools will collect the fee separately, sometime during the months of January and May, said Sharfuz Zaman, the president of Private Schools Management Association.

Academic session

For the year 2014 and onwards, the academic session of public schools will start on April 1, while the academic session for schools affiliated with Aga Khan University Examination Board will start from May 1. The schools affiliated with the Cambridge International Examinations will, however, commence their academic session from August 15.

Admissions schedule

The admissions process for classes up to IX will begin from April 1. Meanwhile, the admissions to class XI shall be made through the Centralised Admission Policy in Karachi and shall be completed by September 7. The same process will be completed by the first week of September in the rest of the province. As for class XII, admissions shall be completed by September 1.

Examinations schedule

In public schools, students of classes I to III will continue to have the facility of automatic promotion. They will, however, take written examinations at the end of the year to revise what they learned. Meanwhile, the examinations from class IV up to class VIII will be completed by March 15 and the results will be announced within the next 15 days.

As for the class IX and X, the theory examinations will start from April 2, and the practical exams will be held subsequently. All provincial education boards will announce the results of class X by July 15, except for the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi (BIEK), which will announce the results by July 31.

The exams for class XI and XII will start from April 22 and the results will be announced by all provincial education boards on August 31. The BIEK will announce the results by September 15. Meanwhile, public-sector universities across the province will conduct their degree examinations according their own schedule. All public schools and college buildings will be used to conduct examinations. All heads of the institutions, relevant district education officers and education boards will ensure the students have a minimum of 75 per cent attendance before they accept examination forms.

Vacation  schedule

For the year 2014, the steering committee meeting has decided to schedule the summer vacation from June 1 till August 3, while the winter vacations will be observed from December 22 till December 31. Apart from the vacations, a total of 19 public holidays will be observed during the year.

Meanwhile, all educational institutions across the province will dedicate a week for sports and extracurricular activities sometime between December 15 and February 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2014.