KARACHI, June 26: The Inter-Boards Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), a representative body of all educational boards of the country, on Sunday decided to extend the existing duration of passing out the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examinations from three to four years.

The existing rules require an SSC or HSC candidate to clear all subjects in a maximum of three years and anyone who fails to do so is required to reappear in all the papers of both the parts of the SSC/HSC examination as a fresh candidate even if he/she clears all but one papers. However, the decision will change the rule allowing candidates an additional year to clear the remaining papers.

The decision was taken at a two-day IBCC meeting presided over by its chairman, Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai, which concluded at the Karakoram International University, Gilgit, on Sunday. Besides the chairmen of all educational boards, it was attended by heads of technical boards, textbook boards and Bureau of Curriculum, as well as senior officials of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Division. Vice Chancellor of the Karakoram International University Prof Dr Najma attended one of the four sessions of the meeting.

Giving details of the meeting, Prof Zai told Dawn that anomalies in the scheme of studies pursued by all provinces were highlighted by the officials concerned.

The meeting also urged the education departments of all provinces to have uniformity concerning allocation of marks and weight to same subjects strictly in accordance with the scheme of studies approved by the federal ministry of education in 2006.

At the outset, participants of the meeting deplored that although the scheme of studies was approved by the federal ministry of education more than four years back, Sindh and Balochistan had failed to implement it while Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could introduce it partially.

Discussing some medical colleges' act of giving admission to those students who had not passed their physics paper in their HSC or A-level examinations, they said that since the concession was given only to the wards of overseas Pakistanis only, it amounted to discrimination against the other candidates and, thus, should not be appreciated by the IBCC.