Balochistan’s education: Experts call for revamping examination system

Suggest data can be used to determine state of education

ISLAMABAD: Legislators, education experts and campaigners highlighted the importance of education and called for reforms in the examination system.

They called for sharing of data on examination to analyse the overall situation.

“Unless the federal government ensures that a Population Census is conducted, how we will know how many children are in and out of school,” Balochistan Assembly Member Dr Shama Ishaq Baloch said on Thursday during a panel discussion on matriculation examination results of the province and their repercussions for the future.

A recently published report by AlifAilaan, a British-funded education campaign, on the respective theme was also discussed.

“It doesn’t matter how much I am attacked, what matters is that we are focusing on the cause of education in Balochistan, and that’s why I will continue my support,” said Reham Khan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s ambassador for street children and the wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

According to the report, only 20 per cent of secondary school-age students in the province appear in the matric exams. About 80 per cent students either drop out during earlier years or never enroll.

AlifAilaan representative Abdus Sami Khan said a student’s confidence is shattered if he scores anything below grade B and 50 per cent students score grade C or less, which is a matter of concern for educational system of the country.

“The matric exams are not just a reflection of students’ academic performance but also of the education system,” he said

The Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education deserves applause for taking the bold step of sharing the data. We hope that they will analyse the results for effective policymaking,” said Sami, who is the lead author of the report. He also stressed that examinations need to test cognitive abilities instead of rote learning abilities.

The report revealed that girls outshine their male counterparts in a number of areas including some aspects of academic performance, and overall rate of increase in participation as the number of students appearing in matric exams increased 193 per cent in 2015, compared to 54 per cent increase in the number of male students.

He also highlighted that private schools were only slightly ahead in aggregate as well as subject scores. “The low scores of government and private schools point towards generally poor quality of education,” he said.

“This is the first time in Pakistan when the secondary school certificate exam results of 37,000 students have been analysed,” he shared further.

“Examination results can be used as a tool to determine the state of education,” said Society for Community Support for Primary Education in Balochistan Managing Director and co-author of the report Irfan Ahmed Awan.

Every year, over 90 per cent of students, male and female combined, pass the board exams. More than half of these students score at the ‘C’ grade level or below.

According to the report, 71 per cent of participants of the board exams come from government schools, 26 per cent from private schools and three per cent from other schools managed by the armed forces or the department of labour.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2015.