Private schools flout govt decision by holding exams in April

KARACHI, Several private schools in violation of a decision of the Sindh education department’s steering committee have decided to conduct the annual examinations of their students of Class I to Class VIII in April instead of March, it emerged on Saturday.

The steering committee at its last meeting presided over by Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq directed all the schools to conduct the annual examinations of their students of Class I to Class VIII in March and announce the results of the examina tions by March 31.

The decision was taken by the committee to ensure that the new academic session in all public and private schools of the province could begin on April 1, 2010.

The schools which have the Cambridge system of education were permitted to conduct the examinations in August.

However, a number of private schools in contravention of the steering committee’s decision informed the parents of their students that the annual examinations of Class I to Class VIII would be held in April and results would be de clared in the last week of the same month.

Criticising the decision of all those schools whose managements had decided to conduct the annual examinations in April, a number of students’ parents who spoke to Dawn said that such a move not only amounted to an open violation of the education department steering commit tee’s decision, but would also delay the academic session of their children by a month.

A woman who rang up Dawn complained that she had planned to visit her ailing mother in Lahore once the annual examinations of their children were over by the end of March, but she was now unable to do so because of the different schedule of exami nations being followed by schools as most of the schools were conducting the exams in March while some in April.

“Such a different policy with respect to annual examinations has upset my plans of seeing my ailing mother as my daughter who is a student of Class VI is nowadays taking her exams while the annual exams of my son who is in Class V in another school are scheduled to be held in April,” she said.

Sources in the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) said that it was mandatory upon all schools to hold the exams of their students of Class I to Class VIII in March and announce the results by March 31 so that schools’ new academic session could start on April 1 across the province.

However, they added that some private schools in their attempt to save their institutions from being selected as centres for the Secondary School Certificate (Class IX and X) annual examinations by the board were deliberately conducting the exams in April.

The sources said that such an act on the part of the private schools was not only against the decision of the steering committee, but also amounted to a violation of the BSEK school recognition rules. However, such schools remained unpunished because of their influence in the education department and the BSEK, they added.