20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 19: The president of the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB), Shamsh Kassim Lakha, on Wednesday clarified that affiliation of schools with AKU-EB was purely voluntary and no school, public or private, was under any compulsion in this regard.

He claimed that the AKU-EB had started affiliating only interested non-government schools, and that it had so far received inquiries from over 200 schools, said a press statement issued on Wednesday.

Mr Lakha said that according to the Government of Pakistan Ordinance, under which the board was established, the AKU-EB would follow the national curriculum and; therefore, any syllabi prepared by it would have to be approved by the government. The board would adhere strictly to this curriculum, he added.

He said the AKU-EB was not authorized by the government of Pakistan to change the national curriculum, and it was one of the 27 examination boards already present in the country.

Mr Lakha said that the board's Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate examinations would be based on the government-approved national curriculum. - PPI