A tale of two heads: Provincial IBCC gets off to a bad start as conflicting versions emerge

Two press releases by separate government departments spark dispute due to contradictory content.

KARACHI:

The Sindh Higher Education Commission (HEC), which has barely functioned since its formation in February, now seems to be meddling in the affairs of the newly-formed Sindh Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC).

A controversy emerged on Friday when, after the first meeting of the IBCC, two different press releases were issued to purport diametric assertions about the session's details. The meeting of the chairpersons of the provincial education boards as well as the heads of the Sindh Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing and the Sindh Textbook Board was set to be held at the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi (BIEK) and members were informed in advance that the Sindh HEC chairperson, Dr Asim Hussain, will also participate as a member.

The first press release was issued by the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi (BIEK) chairperson, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, who is also the chairperson of the IBCC. It stated that the meeting, presided over by him, had decided that the Intermediate-level students in the province will be able to get their foreign qualifications verified at an accelerated pace through the IBCC's provincial branch that will begin to function from October.

In contrast, the Sindh information department's press release stated that the 'high-level' meeting was chaired by the Sindh HEC chairperson, Dr Asim Hussain, where chairpersons of the provincial education boards decided to merge the pre-engineering and pre-medical groups at the Intermediate level to form a single science group where students will be allowed to opt for their preferred subjects.

The information department's press statement also asserted that the provincial IBCC will begin to function under the chairmanship of Dr Hussain from October, 2014. Paradoxically, Prof Ahmed Zai, through a Sindh government's notification, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, had already been appointed as the chairperson of the provincial IBCC for a year.

When contacted for explanation, Muhammad Yousuf Kabooro, Sindh press information director, said that the press release had been issued as it was received through the Sindh HEC. "Only they can explain the issue," said Kabooro.

Prof Ahmed Zai, on the other hand, said that the meeting did not discuss anything regarding the merger or abolishment of the students' choice groups at the Intermediate level as it was not the purview of the provincial IBCC. "That matter was not even included in the meeting's agenda," Prof Ahmed Zai told The Express Tribune. "I do not know about the Sindh HEC's press statement on the provincial IBCC matters. If they have issued one, I cannot see under what provisions of the provincial HEC Act it has been issued. The tertiary [post-secondary] education is their purview."

He said that the meeting was called to discuss the post-devolution status of the IBCC and the modalities with which its provincial branch would function in collaboration with the federal IBCC. The latter was established in 1972 under a resolution of the then federal education ministry to exchange information among member education boards, coordinate academic activities and to achieve fair measure of uniformity of academic evaluation and curricular standards.

Dr Hussain insisted, however, that the meeting had its consensus over abolishing the existing student choice groups of pre-engineering and pre-medical. "This was suggested to be replaced with the open choice of specified subjects on the pattern of A' Level studies," he told The Express Tribune.

Nevertheless, he refuted the claim in the information department's press release that the provincial IBCC will begin to function under his chairmanship from October.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2014.