ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has requested National Information Technology Board (NITB) to create a data bank of all educational boards at the IBCC office in Islamabad for speedy issuance of equivalence certificates and verification of other documents.

According to a press release issued on Monday, NITB will create a data bank of the boards in two phases.

In the first phase, NITB will create a central repository of data of all examination boards at the IBCC and in the second phase, the NITB will support in digitisation of the manual data of all boards in collaboration with the IBCC.

Speaking to Dawn, IBCC Secretary Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah said on the direction of Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, the IBCC has decided to collect data of all boards to make the issuance of equivalence and verification certificates speedy and transparent.

He said following the directive of the minister, the IBCC and NITB held a meeting in which it was decided that in the first phase NITB will create a central repository of data of five boards at the IBCC. These boards are: Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore, BISE Karachi, BISE Peshawar and BISE Quetta.

The secretary said NITB will also provide e-office services to IBCC and its regional offices to automate all internal processes.

The data of the boards will be integrated with the attestation and equivalence e-portals of IBCC to convert the existing hybrid system into complete automation, he added.

Meanwhile, the press release said NITB will also help design software and create a central bank of question papers at the IBCC for all examination boards which will help them shift the assessment from rote learning to concept learning system.

It said focal persons from both the departments have been nominated for initiation of the process and to schedule next meeting for finalising steps to execute the project on priority.

The education minister during a visit to the IBCC last month had directed its management to take steps for automation to put in place a speedy system for issuance of equivalence certificates to facilitate students. The IBCC is the umbrella board of all education boards and issues equivalence certificates against for ‘O’ and ‘A’ level, International Baccalaureate programmes, religious degrees etc. It also attests certificates issued by educational boards.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2021