Federal education ministry to continue board exams as per schedule

Board examinations will continue as per schedule across the country despite a rise in coronavirus cases, Federal Education Ministry declared on Wednesday.

The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by the Acting Secretary for the Ministry of Federal Education Asif Haider, while provincial education secretaries were also in attendance in the meeting virtually.

The meeting cooperatively opted not to expand the vacations for educational institutions.

Whereas the meeting decided upon performing educational activities at schools under the stringent application of COVID-19 SOPs.

On the contrary, the delegates from the provincial education departments were instructed to make determinations concerning the continuation of schools corresponding to the coronavirus positivity percentage in their corresponding provinces.

Early in July, intermediate exams began in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad during calls for a postponement in the papers anticipated to a short time for groundwork.

The PML-N had further lifted this issue in the National Assembly, insisting the government postpone the inter exams as students did not get sufficient time to prepare for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown ever since schools were primarily closed.

Whereas, the federal government declined to reschedule the papers, saying it is essential to hold exams for the future of students, and condemned it as the “cheap” exam politics of the Opposition lawmakers.

Furthermore, the federal government, in discussion with all the provincial governmental departments, had agreed to perform exams for matric and intermediate students in only elective subjects to accelerate the students amidst COVID-19.