KARACHI, Dec 26: In a move that is likely to affect hundreds of thousands of students across the province, the steering committee of the education and literacy department decided on Wednesday to reschedule the annual academic session and examinations of matriculation and intermediate classes.
By revising the academic session back to what it was a couple of years ago, the committee negated its own decision taken in January 2006, in which the traditional academic session was stretched to Aug 16. It had extended the summer vacations for educational institutions to over a period of two and a half months.
This and other decisions, including the conduct of examinations for students of schools and colleges and vacations, were taken at a meeting of the steering committee of the Sindh education department held with the caretaker education minister, Shujaat Ali Baig, in the chair on Wednesday.
The committee decided that the academic session of schools would start from April 1. Besides, the admissions of class XI shall be made through the Centralised Admission Policy (CAP) for Karachi while in the rest of the province they would be completed by the first week of Sept, 2008.While deciding to start the new academic year early in April, the committee observed that it was being done in the larger interests of the students, teachers and parents at large. Interestingly, the same observation had been made two years ago when the academic session had been delayed to Aug 16.
The meeting decided that the summer vacations would be reduced to two months as had been the case two years ago before a previous steering committee’s decision stretched them to two and a half months. The vacations would now be observed from June 1 to July 31, 2008.
Holidays
Similarly, the winter vacations would be observed from Dec 22 to Dec 31 from next year. The other holidays included two days for Ashura, Kashmir Day, Shah Latif Day, Chehlum, Pakistan Day, Eid Milad-un-Nabi, Labour Day, Shab-i-Mairaj, Independence Day, Shab-i-Barat, Youm-i-Ali, Shab-i-Qadr, Eidul Fitr (three days), Iqbal Day, Eidul Azha (three days) and the Quaid’s birthday.
The meeting also decided that the examinations of up to class VIII would be conducted by May 8, 2008; theory examinations of SSC would start from April 17 while the boards would decide the schedule of practical examinations. Similarly, the SSC examination results would be announced by July 15. The theory examinations of HSC-I and HSC-II would start from May 13 and the boards would decide about the schedule of the practical examinations while the results of the HSC and DAE would be announced by Aug 10.
The minister said the department was reviewing the CAP in the light of the complaints lodged by students and parents. He said information technology would be included in the course of colleges as a subject and a notification in this regard would soon be issued.
The committee asked the principals of colleges and EDOs (education) concerned and boards to ensure implementing the condition of 75 per cent attendance before the acceptance of examination forms.
The committee further observed that school and college teachers should take up examination duties under respective educational boards compulsorily, otherwise action would be taken under the Sindh government’s employees’ efficiency and discipline rules.
The committee also reviewed the timings of schools and colleges and took the following decisions: for single shift schools (primary) from April 1 to Oct 31 the timings would be 8am to 1.30pm from Monday to Thursday and Saturday; from Nov 1 to March 31, the school timings would be from 8.30am to 1.30pm. On Fridays, schools would remain open from 8.30am to 12 noon throughout the year.
Similarly, the steering committee approved a schedule for the double shift schools, morning and evening shift colleges and their timings during Ramazan.
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