ISLAMABAD: Officials from the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) on Wednesday A assured a parliamentary panel that they would place the issue of discrimination with O/A Level and foundation course students before an upcoming board meeting to solve this problem for good.

The Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), which met with Senator Saud Majeed in the chair, was briefed on the issue by IBCC Chairman Dr Shoukat Ali.

He told members that an IBCC sub-committee had been working on a solution to the problem, adding that the recommendations of this body would also be placed before the next IBCC meeting, which is slated to be held next month.

The issue of discrimination in the award of equivalence marks to O/A Level students was first raised by Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq in the shape of a calling attention notice, moved before the Senate.

NA body defers discussion on permanent CII secretariat after PM’s principal secretary skips meeting

Students who had passed their O/A level with A* grades were being awarded just 90pc marks in equivalence certificates issues by IBCC, while those who cleared their Secondary School Certificate (matriculation) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (intermediate) received over 95pc, or in some cases 98pc marks.

This gap in the marking scheme rendered O/A level students unable to compete with Pakistani board-candidates in competitive tests such as the entry test for medical students.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Senator Farooq appeared satisfied with the assurance given by the IBCC chairman, while Senator Shahi Syed pointed out that the issue of discrimination issue was not limited to O/A Level students alone.

The IBCC, he said, does not even consider students who – on the basis of foundation courses taken after passing their O-Level exams – complete their education from top universities, saying that his son was also facing the same problem.

“After passing O-Levels, my son went to the UK, where he completed a foundation course [instead of A-Levels]. Then, he was offered a place in one of the best universities of UK, where he completed his LLB and bar-at-law. But now, the IBCC is not ready to accept the foundation course, on the basis of which my son was admitted to university,” he told the committee.

The IBCC chairman, however, assured him that the matter will also be laid before the upcoming IBCC meeting for a final solution.

An IBCC working paper, laid before the committee, suggested various proposals for resolving the issue. One of the proposals called on British examination boards to provide the actual mark scheme of students along with their grades, or to use an absolute marking system for Pakistan students, which would enabling O/A level students to directly compete with candidates of local examination boards when seeking admission to higher education institutions.

CCI secretariat

Earlier, the committee also discussed the establishment of a permanent secretariat of the Council of Common Interests (CCI). However, the committee deferred the matter until the next meeting when IPC Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada said a summary to this effect had been with the PM Office for a long time.

At the last meeting, the committee had shown displeasure and summoned Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad to this meeting to brief the committee on the reasons for the delay in the summary’s approval.

However, Mr Fawad didn’t turn up and the committee decided to defer the matter until the next meeting. Committee members again expressed their displeasure and asked that despite Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani’s ruling and a court order, why the government was reluctant to set up a permanent secretariat of CCI.

The government is bound, by Article 154(3) of the Constitution, to establish a permanent secretariat for the CCI with equal representation from all four provinces.

According to the IPC working paper present to the committee, the cabinet decided in principle to establish a permanent CCI secretariat on Dec 15, 2016.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2017