SUKKUR, Dec 21: The majority of students belonging to private and government schools have rejected the proposed move of the federal government to hold combined exams for Class IX and X.

According to a survey conducted by this correspondent, most of the students were of the view that the proposed move would put unnecessary pressure on the students as they would have to appear in 10 papers.

Besides, they said, books for the subjects introduced in Class IX were not available even after the passage of five months.

According to the survey, most of the teachers were not aware of even the syllabus and this had led to a state of confusion in all educational institutions of the province.

According to reports, in order to ascertain the popularity of the proposed move, the federal government is planning to hold a mock examination of 1000 students at district level by respective boards of education.

However, the students and teachers say that the result of the mock examination could not be made a yardstick for the entire province, as the most intelligent students of the province are being selected for this purpose and average students have been left out from this exam. Parents and senior educationists, when contacted, reacted sharply to the proposed move and criticized the attitude of the government.