KARACHI, Jan 13: The Sindh education department is likely to defer the idea of compulsory Information Technology examination at intermediate level till next year, said sources in the department.

It was learnt that a review meeting on available facilities pertaining to the IT education at colleges and higher secondary schools of the province would be held at the Sindh Education department’s office on Jan 17.

The meeting, which would involve the chairmen of the concerned educational boards and the district officers, higher education, would be presided over by the provincial secretary for education, and would come up with a final stance on the IT examinations, the source added.

It was learnt that the examinations were on card, but with certain modification in the original plan of the government and the educational boards.

According to the plan, about 90,000 intermediate class students of the colleges in the province, enrolled in 2001, are supposed to take the examination, this year, as compulsory subject, alongwith other subjects. However, some quarters had been expressing their reservations regarding the government’s plan to implement the IT teaching and the compulsory exam of the subject, as, according to them, most of the educational institutions and educational boards were not finding themselves ready for conducting the exam as they lacked the required facilities, including machines and faculty.

Only recently, in a report to the Sindh Education department, the Nazim of Karachi city government, had mentioned that he was satisfied with the arrangements for IT classes in colleges and as such he did not see any reason for not conducting the IT subject examination during the current session, ie 2003 annual examination.

However, there were reports that many of the educational institutions, including the higher secondary schools and colleges, in the province, lacked the facility and equipments.

There is opinion that the compulsory IT examinations at intermediate level could not be conducted evenhandedly through out the province as institutions were not properly equipped for the purpose.

While referring to the controversies and the reported inability of the government in providing required facilities to these institution, an official at the Education department suggested that this year, the subject should be declared optional.

The students could be allowed to take the examination as optional paper only on their choice, with the condition that the marks secured in the IT subject would not matter for their grading in the examination.

This year, IT marks would be mentioned in the mark-sheet as additional subject, while from the next year IT examination would be implemented as compulsory subject, as originally announced by the government, added the official, hinting that students who have taken the IT , theory and practical, education as per educational boards’ course requirement, could appear in the IT annual examination under their respective boards.

In the meantime, according to a senior official of the education department, the government would soon be launching a Rs40 million scheme to equip the educational institutions in the province with the IT teaching facilities. The institutions, which were not in possession of enough money for implementing the IT programmes, would be provided money by the government, which would ultimately be matched by the respective district governments as well, informed the official.