ISLAMABAD: Education ministers of the country will give final touches to the new policy on the cancelled exams of sec-Thursday as students were eagerly waiting for it.

The inter-provincial education ministers’ virtual meeting will be held under the supervision of Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood.

Sources said the ministers will discuss various proposals finalised by educational boards under the supervision of Inter Boards Committee Chairmen (IBCC), the umbrella body of all 29 educational boards.

The sources said after the meeting the ministry of education on Friday will announce the final policy on the exams in the light of earlier decision of cancelling all boards examinations.

Earlier, the federal government ended the uncertainty regarding the board exams but students were still confused regarding the future strategy to be adopted by boards.

Following the decision taken by the inter-provincial education ministers’ meeting followed by National Coordination Committee (NCC) the government had cancelled all exams and decided that students will be promoted on the basis of their previous year’s results.

However, the promotion formula is yet to be finalised as there is a lot of questions as what will be the fate of those who had failed in some subjects in 9th and 11th classes and those private students who were all set to appear in the composite exams of matric and intermediate.

Many brilliant and shining students are also puzzled and concerned about their future.

One of such students, requesting not to be named, said that he got 1,011 marks out of 1,100 in FSc (pre-medical) last year but could not get admission to any medical college. Therefore, in accordance with the policy of Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), he registered himself with the board to appear in two additional papers of mathematics to shift from pre-medical to pre-engineering.

“My exams of two papers were slated to be held in April this year. But they were postponed and last week the government decided to cancel all exams. I have no idea what will be my future,” he said and added that if his exams of two papers were not held his entire year will go to waste.

Education minister Shafqat Mahmood said he would look into this issue as well.

Meanwhile, sources at the FBISE said every year a large number of students appeared in additional exams to shift from medical to engineering side.

A senior officer of the education ministry said there was no issue of 80pc students but “Yes, there are issues of 20pc students which will be taken up at the meeting on Thursday. He said that IBCC had already finalised many proposals which will be placed before the education ministers’ conference.

“Since future of students is involved that’s why onthe direction of the federal education minister we are taking utmost care. We are directed to adopt a student-friendly policy. So in proposals we have tried our best to resolve students’ concerns,” the officer said and added that statistics trend of last three year were also kept in view while proposing the new formula.

Every year, around four million students appear in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th class exams.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2020