KARACHI, April 22: The forthcoming presidential referendum has not only caused a grinding halt to the process of examinations at the government-run institutions, but it is also likely to jeopardize academic activities in the province.

Under the directives of the provincial election commission, all examinations being conducted or scheduled to be held under the educational boards and universities have been put off for at least ten days, which will badly affect thousands of school, college and university students.

Like politicians, who give strike calls ignoring the academic engagements, the present rulers are also proving that they have little considerations for the students, said a a female college student, who has been waiting for commencement of Intermediate examinations.

The Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, has twice postponed its annual examinations, which were supposed to commence on April 15.

Though colleges are receiving the admit cards, it is not certain that it could be delivered to students on time as college staff are being engaged for referendum duties, said a college teacher, adding that before distribution of the cards, the colleges would have to check students’ attendance that would further need a couple of days. Because of this, he said, the colleges have not announced any date in this regard.

At first, the government had decided to defer the schedule examinations from April 25, but now there are directives that the examinations should not be scheduled for a period of ten days from April 22, said an official at one of the educational boards.

A source in the Sindh Education Department said all the universities and education boards had been directed to temporarily suspend all the examinations scheduled between April 22 and May 1, because academic and non-academic staff of grade 5 to 19 were being engaged for referendum duties and their training would commence on April 22.

The students of different boards and universities, including Karachi University, NED University, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Sindh University, Shah Latif University and Agriculture University, besides their affiliated units are likely to be affected.

The prevailing confusion at the education institutions could be assessed by the fact that the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, had announced only three days before the commencement of the SSC practical examinations that programme and materials of the practicals could be collected from the board, but on Friday it deferred the examinations to May 4.

On Saturday, the NED University notified that all the examinations of the university and its affiliated institutions were being postponed from April 22 to May 1. In addition to examinations of various university students, the DCET and GCT examinations were in progress prior to the directives.

The Sindh Board of Technical Education has also announced the postponement of different examinations starting on April 22 and 25. On Saturday it announced that TSC part II annual examination 2002, DBA part II supplementary exams 2001 and short course technical 4th term-2001 papers would be rescheduled with effect from May 6.

The students of government schools maintained that the special but non-academic assignments of teachers in the wake of referendum were surely to give a blow to their education, which started with the commencement of the new academic session on April 1.

Students at colleges said that teaching of Intermediate classes had been wound up and they were preparing for their annual examinations from May 3. However, students of degree classes are worried since the teachers would not be available due to their engagement in referendum duties.