No summer vacations in Sindh this year

The annual examinations for the ninth and 11th grades in Sindh will be held in July and August respectively and practical examinations will be also held. Moreover, there will be no summer vacations in the province this year.

This was decided in a meeting of the steering committee of the provincial school education department held on Wednesday in the committee room of the Sindh Assembly. Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani chaired the meeting.

The meeting endorsed the earlier decision of holding the board examinations only for the elective subjects. However, it was decided that any student who failed in these subjects would be given passing marks.

According to the steering committee’s decisions, the exams from grades one till eight would be conducted by the schools on their own. The meeting decided that due to long interruptions in the academic year owing to the Covid-19 lockdown, there would be no summer vacations in the province this year; however, in case the temperature rose drastically, the decision could be reviewed.

The steering committee also approved the minutes of its last meeting. The participants also agreed on announcing the results of the grades 10 and 12 after 45 days of the respective examinations. It was decided that the results of grades nine and 11 would be announced later but the result dates were not finalised in the meeting.

Ghani said three proposals had been received regarding the annual examinations of the grades one till eight. One was to promote the students of the grades one till four, and six and seven without examinations and hold examinations for the grades five and eight.

Another proposal was to promote all the classes to the next grades without examinations and the third proposal was to conduct examinations of all the classes. After a discussion, the steering committee decided that the examinations of the grades one till eight would be held this year by the schools on their own.

The education minister remarked that due to the pandemic situation, the government had to make some decisions that were not ideal for education but they were the need of the hour. “The teaching process in pre-primary and primary classes will start on June 21. However, if the pandemic situation, which is still under control, deteriorates, we would be forced to close educational institutions again,” he said.

The meeting was attended by the secretaries of the school and college education departments, Universities and Boards Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, Sindh Assembly members Tanzeela Umme Habiba and Rabia Azfar Nizami, Private Schools Director General Mansoob Siddiqui, Additional Education Secretary Dr Fauzia Khan, chairpersons of all the boards, and representatives of private school associations.