Localising procedure: Cambridge students to find easier to get marks equivalence
Inter Board Committee of Chairmen to issue certificates from Sindh now
Acquiring my equivalence certificate was an agonising experience. The IBCC representatives make us feel as if we have done a major mistake by opting for the Cambridge system," Student Syed Omair Qazi.
KARACHI:
The students pursuing Cambridge International Examination's (CIE) O' and A' Levels are likely to have some ease in getting the much-agonising equivalence certificates.
The Sindh Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has decided to speed up the issuance by processing the certificates in the province instead of its federal offices.
The CIE students, who have passed their O' and A' Levels, are required to get the IBCC equivalence certificates in order to apply for admission at most Pakistani colleges and universities, explained Anwar Ahmed Zai, the chairperson of the federal as well as newly-formed provincial IBCC.
"The equivalence to a CIE qualification is issued after identifying the relevant stage in the Pakistani education system by considering the number of schooling years and subjects of a foreign system," Zai told The Express Tribune. "Generally, O' Levels is considered equivalent to the Secondary School Certificate or Matriculation while the A' Level corresponds to the Higher Secondary School Certificate or Intermediate."
The students applied for the certificates at the IBCC's desk established at the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi's (BIEK) office in North Nazimabad, which in turn used to send the application forms along with the required documents to its headquarters in Islamabad for processing.
"The whole practice involved unnecessarily procedures and dispatches, causing great delays in issuance as well as mental agony to the applicants," he said.
In order to curb the delays, added Ahmed Zai, the IBCC's provincial branch had set up its offices at the Sindh Higher Education Commission - a measure that he believed will reduce the processing time by half. However, the BIEK will continue to serve as the one-window operation centre for receiving the applications as well as dispatching the certificates.
The CIE usually announces the results in the second week of August and the hard copy of students' certificates are sent to the schools after a week through the British Council.
"Most well-known institutions in the public and private sector announce admissions in the two months followed by August," said Syed Omair Qazi, a student who had completed his A' Levels last year and managed to receive the equivalence certificate by the end of October. "Acquiring my equivalence certificate was an agonising experience. The IBCC representatives make us feel as if we have done a major mistake by opting for the Cambridge system."
Farah Imam, who heads the O' Level campus of the Happy Home School, corroborated the student's account of the lethargic process. "We generally receive a very negative feedback from our students regarding the cryptic and complicated procedures being employed by the IBCC in issuing the equivalence certificates," she told The Express Tribune. "The unnecessary delays are on top of that."
Imam believed that the Sindh IBCC should introduce a simple and unproblematic mechanism to issue the equivalence certificates. "They have made the entire process so complicated that the students and their parents keep running from one office to another while striving to furnish a long-list of documents," she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2014.
The students pursuing Cambridge International Examination's (CIE) O' and A' Levels are likely to have some ease in getting the much-agonising equivalence certificates.
The Sindh Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has decided to speed up the issuance by processing the certificates in the province instead of its federal offices.
The CIE students, who have passed their O' and A' Levels, are required to get the IBCC equivalence certificates in order to apply for admission at most Pakistani colleges and universities, explained Anwar Ahmed Zai, the chairperson of the federal as well as newly-formed provincial IBCC.
"The equivalence to a CIE qualification is issued after identifying the relevant stage in the Pakistani education system by considering the number of schooling years and subjects of a foreign system," Zai told The Express Tribune. "Generally, O' Levels is considered equivalent to the Secondary School Certificate or Matriculation while the A' Level corresponds to the Higher Secondary School Certificate or Intermediate."
The students applied for the certificates at the IBCC's desk established at the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi's (BIEK) office in North Nazimabad, which in turn used to send the application forms along with the required documents to its headquarters in Islamabad for processing.
"The whole practice involved unnecessarily procedures and dispatches, causing great delays in issuance as well as mental agony to the applicants," he said.
In order to curb the delays, added Ahmed Zai, the IBCC's provincial branch had set up its offices at the Sindh Higher Education Commission - a measure that he believed will reduce the processing time by half. However, the BIEK will continue to serve as the one-window operation centre for receiving the applications as well as dispatching the certificates.
The CIE usually announces the results in the second week of August and the hard copy of students' certificates are sent to the schools after a week through the British Council.
"Most well-known institutions in the public and private sector announce admissions in the two months followed by August," said Syed Omair Qazi, a student who had completed his A' Levels last year and managed to receive the equivalence certificate by the end of October. "Acquiring my equivalence certificate was an agonising experience. The IBCC representatives make us feel as if we have done a major mistake by opting for the Cambridge system."
Farah Imam, who heads the O' Level campus of the Happy Home School, corroborated the student's account of the lethargic process. "We generally receive a very negative feedback from our students regarding the cryptic and complicated procedures being employed by the IBCC in issuing the equivalence certificates," she told The Express Tribune. "The unnecessary delays are on top of that."
Imam believed that the Sindh IBCC should introduce a simple and unproblematic mechanism to issue the equivalence certificates. "They have made the entire process so complicated that the students and their parents keep running from one office to another while striving to furnish a long-list of documents," she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2014.