KARACHI, Jan 22: Following intervention by higher authorities, the Education department of the city government has dropped the idea of conducting centralized annual examinations of male students of Class V and Class VIII at public schools.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, the Executive District Officer (Education), Prof Muhammad Rais Alvi, said that Class V and Class VIII examinations at government schools would be held as conducted in previous years and there would be no change in the related policy.

Taking note of related news reports, the Education secretary on Thursday directed me not to implement the plan and furnish a report on the matter, Prof Rais added.

According to sources in the Sindh Education department, the secretary was of the view that the steering committee of the department was the right body to take decisions pertaining to school examinations, but so far no such things had been reported to it. More over, two mechanisms could not be applied for the students of Karachi and those in the other parts of the province, the source added.

The district officer, Elementary Education (male), had planned to hold the examinations of Class V and Class VIII students under a centralized system, like that of the Educational board, under which the students were required to appear for examinations at some other examination centres. The examinations, under the newly- evolved mechanism of the city government, were to be held under one question paper for each subject.

In the meantime, the educational circles as well as parents, have rejected the new mechanism, as they feel that it would complicate the system of education at government schools.

Expecting class V students to travel to a new and distant school for the purpose of centralized examinations would be unjust, said a parent, adding that parents, mostly from lower income stratum of the society, would not only have to spare extra money but considerable time as well in order to ensure their children's participation in the examinations.