KARACHI, Feb 4: The Sindh Education department on Friday decided to abolish the system of examinations for the students of classes I to III of governmentand private schools from this year.

Sources privy to the meeting of the education department's steering committee which was held on Friday with Minister for Education, Dr Hamida Khuhro in the chair, said that now the eligibility for promotion of class I-III students to the next higher classes would be determined on the basis of their attendance and classroom performance during one academic year.

Under the system of examination effective until now, the students in question had to appear in written and oral examinations for promotion. As per the approval of the steering committee, the students would now be promoted on the basis of attendance and oral assessment, said a spokesman for the department.

The committee also endorsed the academic calendar for schools and colleges as prepared by a sub-committee in consultation with the chairmen of educational boards and EDOs (education) in the province.

The committee resolved that the SSC (Class IX and X) annual examination would commence on April 5 and their results would be declared latest by July 31. The HSC (Class XI and XII) annual examinations would commence on May 17 and results would be announced by August 31.

In the case of primary and middle schools examinations, it was confirmed that these would commence on May 10, whereas their results would be released latest by May 30, following which a summer vacation of two months (June and July) would be observed.

The winter holidays would be observed from December 24 to January 2. In addition, due to annual examinations of class IX and X, the teaching for students of class I to VIII would remain suspended from April 4 to April 23 this year. The teaching will resume on April 25 and continue till May 8. The new academic session, both for schools and colleges, would commence on August 1.

Speaking at the meeting, Dr Khuhro urged the authorities concerned to dovetail the examinations, admissions and teaching process in line with the new academic calendar and ensure that the teaching process commenced on time.

She observed that the decision of starting the academic calendar from August, instead of April, from 2005 would benefit both the students and educational system of the province, as teaching and learning process would be continued without any interruption, said a handout.