KARACHI: Education deptt’s long silence irks students: Composite exam issue
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, March 16: While about 300,000 students of class IX (SSC part-I) in the province are uncertain and confused about their exams, the relevant authorities are maintaining a mysterious silence about actions on a directive of the Sindh governor, who ordered the officials concerned to review the issue of the composite exams.
At a press conference held here on Thursday, Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro and Education Secretary Ghulam Ali Shah Pasha evaded questions seeking information about the follow-up actions taken so far in the wake of a Governor House letter, which was issued about a month back.
The minister, who was flanked by her deputies, was neither willing to update the newsmen on the issue nor would confirm or reject the news reports about a summary sent to the chief minister and its outcome.
About six months back, the federal government had announced to introduce the composite examinations for class IX and X from 2007 and onwards, but students, parents, teachers and educational boards are still unwilling to accept the new system for various reasons. The federal minister for education is believed to be the ardent advocate of the idea of composite exams.
In view of the concerns expressed by the students and teachers, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, who is also the controlling authority of the education boards in the province, had sought a review in the matter pertaining to composite examinations of SSC and HSC.
The reservations expressed by quarters concerned were worth consideration and should be re-examined by the Sindh cabinet at the earliest from all aspects besides keeping in view the interests of students, which was of prime importance, said a letter from the Governor’s House.
As follow-up actions the Sindh education department had moved a summary for Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim conveying the concerns of the quarters concerned and suggesting him a couple of options.
When the minister was told during the conference on Thursday that despite her repeated statements that composite examinations were there to stay students were confused and desiring the reversal to the old system of separate yearly exams at the SSC and HSC levels, particularly when different reports about the status of the education department’s summary for chief minister were also in the press, Dr Khuhro said that she would not like to speak on the issue.
Instead of giving any clear cut statement about the approval or rejection of the summary, the minister added to the confusion by saying it was not possible for the Sindh education department to issue every day the details about scores of summaries sent to the Chief Minister House.
As a matter of routine, these are the provincial ministers who put their signatures on summaries for the chief minister, but surprisingly the education minister passed on the questions about summary to education secretary, who refused to say any word on the issue and left his chair.
Earlier, briefing about the newly established Reform Support Unit of the education department, Dr Khuhro said that the unit, which was being established in the historic NJV building after carrying out some renovation and restoration works, had been aimed at bringing fundamental and revolutionary changes in the education system of Sindh.
She said that three major functions of the RSU would be to make policies and plans, collect and prepare databases of the educational institutions, faculty members, students and related facilities and monitor the educational institutions.
About situation that prevailed before my joining the education department as a minister, I can say that education system was in a mess. We did not have any true picture about facilities and financial resources, but now the affairs are being streamlined, she added.
Dr Khuhro said that in the 70s and 80s many of the uncalled for policies and measures were received from the federal government, but now things had changed and education was a provincial subject.
She was also critical about the performance of the Sindh Education Management Information System (Semis) in the past and said that the old data collection unit had been merged into the RSU in order to maintain correct data for result-oriented planning.
The minister said that the Sindh Education and Literacy Department was also in a process to get the control of education boards from the Sindh governor in order to develop a well-knit and integrated system of teaching, training and examinations under the administrative control of the Sindh education department.
About the composite examinations she said that I had repeatedly said that those were under the directives of the federal government and in view of the developments she could say that the first examination under the system would be held in 2007 for Class IX and X students of the province.
However, she remarked that an inter-provincial conference of education ministers, which was scheduled to be held in Peshawar on April 8, could also consider some inputs on the issue of composite exams, if given by any of the province. The agenda of the meeting has not been received so far, she added.
Dr Khuhro noted that the semester system of education was a system meant for US varsities and had nothing to do with school education. It is our desire that our youngsters should study for two years for SSC examinations without wasting time, she said in support of the composite examinations.
The programme manager of the RSU, Iqbal Hussain Durrani, and another senior official of the project, Dr Roshan Shaikh were also present.
