PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday suspended a notification of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Peshawar (BISEP) for eighth grade board examination and composite examination of ninth and 10th grades instead of separate examination.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor Khan issued notices to the elementary and secondary education secretary and BISEP chairman asking them to respond to a petition filed by an eighth grader against the board’s notification issued on May 17, 2019.

The bench fixed July 17 for next hearing into the petition asking the relevant authorities that action on the impugned notification should remain suspended until then.

Seeks govt response to petition against board exam for 8th grade, composite exam for 9th, 10th grades

The petitioner is a student of Peshawar Islamia Collegiate School, who filed the petition through his lawyer father, Mian Asadullah Jandoli.

He requested the court to declare that the impugned BISEP notification is illegal and was issued in violation of a high court order.

Currently, the education department conducts separate examinations for both ninth and 10th grades of the secondary school certificate, while eighth graders sit the internal examination, conducted by the administration of respective schools.

Mohammad Irshad Mohmand, lawyer for the petitioner, said it had been a practice in schools here that students of Class VIII were taught the course of Class IX as the same could not be completed in due period.

He said in those schools including that of the petitioner’s, the examination of Class VIII was held as home examination.

The counsel said last year, the provincial government had issued a notification declaring Grade V and VIII assessment mandatory for students of the province and then Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), while all students had to sit the assessment examination and all education boards had to conduct that assessment in their respective jurisdictions.

He said some private schools owners challenged that notification. He added that the high court had disposed of that case with the direction that the impugned notification should remain inoperative for the current year, however, from succeeding year the government could promulgate any notification but with consultation of all the aggrieved persons.

The lawyer said when the petitioner’s academic year 2019 started for Class VIII, the Board authorities did not promulgate any notification for conduct of examination of Class VIII nor consulted with the school administration.

He added that the school administration continued with the existing practice of teaching ninth class course in the VIII Class till the summer vacation by skipping Class VIII course.

The lawyer said the BISEP chairman abruptly issued the impugned notification announcing that from next academic year (2019-20), the Grade VIII assessment would be replaced by the formal board examination, and in lieu thereof, the BISE examination of Grade IX and X would be taken as composite.

He said parents of the Class VIII students had appealed to the relevant authorities to withdraw the decision on board examination as half year had already passed and in the remaining time, it was impossible for their children to complete the course.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2019