Sindh govt postpones matric examinations from March to July

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) annual examinations for grades IX and X, which were to start in March and April, have been rescheduled to be held from July 1 to July 15 across Sindh because the ongoing academic year will be prolonged due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This decision was taken by the education department’s steering committee, who met at the provincial assembly building on Saturday with Education Minister Saeed Ghani in chair.

The committee also decided that the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations for grades XI and XII will be held from July 28 to August 16, while the annual exams of students of nursery to grade VIII will start on June 7.

The body also decided that admissions to the public sector universities of the province will commence on October 15, while the next academic year of schools will start on August 1.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Ghani said that the steering committee has decided to decrease the duration of the annual examinations of grades IX to XII from three hours to two hours.

He informed the media that the rate of positive Covid-19 cases at the colleges of Karachi is 1.7 per cent, while their rate at schools is 5.5 per cent.

He said that the SSC curricula has already been slashed by the government by 40 per cent in view of the coronavirus emergency, adding that this year’s exams have been delayed because it will take more than the usual time to complete the remaining 60 per cent of the courses.

The minister said that the results of the SSC annual examinations will be declared on September 15. He said that the practical exams of HSSC students will be held in June at their respective colleges.

He added that the results of the HSSC annual examinations will be announced by October 15, while the results of the annual exams of the students of nursery to grade VIII will be declared by June 26.

Ghani said that the question papers of the examinations of grades IX to XII were earlier based on up to 20 per cent multiple choice questions (MCQs), 40 per cent short answer questions and 40 per cent descriptive answer questions.

Since this year the duration of the exams has been reduced to two hours, the question papers will be based on 50 per cent MCQs, 30 per cent short answer questions and 20 per cent descriptive answer questions, he added.

He said that 13,709 coronavirus tests have been conducted at Karachi’s colleges, with the results of 12,203 of them having been received. The results of 233 of the tests turned out to be positive, which puts the positivity rate at 1.7 per cent, he added.

He also said that 9,124 tests have been conducted at the city’s schools, with the results of 5,587 of them having been received. The results of 331 of the tests turned out to be positive, which puts the positivity rate at 5.5 per cent, he added.

He pointed out that 14 colleges and several schools were earlier closed for two weeks after several corona-positive results were reported there. He said that two colleges in

the city are closed at present due to the increase in infection cases there.

Replying to a question, the minister said that his department will avail the services of the Sukkur IBA University again to recruit teachers for public schools, pointing out that an agreement has also been signed for the purpose.

He said that the next meeting of the steering committee will devise a strategy to tackle the issue of students cheating and using other unfair means during examinations.