Cancellation of Board Exams
Board Exams Cancelled due to Coronavirus
On Thursday, the National Coordination Committee extended the closure of educational institutions in the country until July 15 and decided to cancel the exams that the councils will conduct in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Federal Minister of Education and Vocational Training Shafqat Mahmoud announced that the decisions of the National Coordination Committee said that all educational institutions across the country will remain closed until July 15, while all Council examinations have been canceled throughout the country. He added, "Students will be evaluated for their previous performance on the Board exams."
A number of teachers and parents of students who spoke to the news said in closing Punjab Coved 19 and suspending exams when only two sheets of annual exams for Chapter 9 for 2020 were conducted by the nine Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) of the province. They asked how to upgrade children to chapter 10 where they have not yet been tested for grade 9? They also said that due to the lack of homogeneity in schools vs. internal exams, etc., it was impossible to give scores to grade 8 students and justify the same thing for upgrading to class 9.
The Teachers' Union of Punjab (PTU) has also expressed concern about the decision to cancel exams and promote students after assessing their past performance in Council exams.
Rana Liaqat, Secretary General of PTU, said the fate of the candidates who appeared in the annual exams for the ninth grade in the councils is unclear, so the government should review its decision. He said that the promotion of students of Chapter 10 to Chapter 11 was difficult to understand because the practical part of the Chapter 10 exams had not been conducted by exam boards in Punjab.
A number of parents who spoke to The News asked whether the councils would pay the fees that they collected from students to take the exams, saying that they should be compensated if the councils did not take the exams and the students would be evaluated for their past performance in the council’s exams.
Ahmed, the father of the candidate for the tenth grade exams in Lahore Council, said that students have made more efforts in exams and that their assessment based on performance in previous tests (in this case class 9) cannot be justified at all.
Ahmed said: “My son wasn't performing well in Chapter 9 but he was more prepared for the Chapter 10 exams this time,” Ahmed said and asked, "Can you justify his assessment of his previous performance?" He asked the government to review its decision and provide practical solutions in this time of crisis.
Another anxious father, Aaron, said there was a contradiction in the government's approach to tackling the situation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. He said while the constant closure was reduced despite the sudden increase in cases, the examinations were canceled. He suggested that the government postpone the exams and take them after normalizing the situation.
"There is no harm if our academic schedule is disrupted in these exceptional circumstances," he said, and he demanded the government not to cancel exams.
Meanwhile, Punjab's Minister of School Education, Dr. Murad Ras, has declared that all public and private schools in the region will remain closed until July 15, 2020. In a message on social media, the minister said details of upcoming class upgrades and Punjab board exams will be explained in a notice.
