Provincial govts again get control of colleges

By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Dec 6: A meeting of the education ministers from all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir on Tuesday decided that colleges would be taken back from local governments and given under the administrative control of provinces, which had been in vogue prior to the devolution.

Speaking at a press conference after the 9th inter-provincial meeting of the education ministers, the federal minister for education, Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi, who also chaired the moot, said that the EDOs (education) would only control schools, while colleges would again be handled by the provincial governments.

Replying to a question, he said that the president, prime minister and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) had already been apprised and taken into confidence on the issue and the provincial governments could adopt the colleges after the issuance of the notification.

At present, colleges for general and technical education and comprehensive or higher secondary schools, primary, middle and secondary schools are handled by the EDOs at the local government level. It is still not clear that which of the two governments in question would run the affairs of the comprehensive schools meant for intermediate level education.The education ministers were of the view that the EDOs concerned were under pressure while handling the college affairs, along with the schools, and that had also affected the standard of college education.

The inter-provincial education ministers’ moot was held at the Sindh Secretariat and among others, was attended by Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro, two ministers from the Punjab, Mian Imran Masood (education) and Hussain Jahanian Gardezi (Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education), NWFP’s minister Maulana Fazal-i-Ali Haqqani, Balochistan minister Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddiqui, AJK’s minister Chaudhry M. Aziz, secretary of education departments and other officials.Unfolding the resolutions, the federal minister said that all the decisions of the meeting were taken unanimously and with the sheer objective to improve the educational system and make it as one system.

He said that the meeting had decided that all the exams up to the HSC level would be held in the country in April and May, while summer vacations would be held in June and July.Mr Qazi said that educational boards and departments would hold exams during the two months as per their convenience, while assessment of the answer scripts would be carried out during the vacations and results would be announced during the first half of August.He said that the new academic session would start in the last week of August or first week of September uniformly all over the country from 2006.

Flexibility in the commencement of the academic session, however, can be allowed in the case of educational institutions located in some parts of the NWFP and the AJK keeping in view the severity of cold weather, he added.The meeting also decided to reduce the existing marks of practical exams from 25 to 15 at the SSC level. The marks curtailed would now be added to the theory exams, thus increasing the total theory marks to 85. The rationale for the changes in the distribution of practical and theory exams marks, the minister said that the decision was taken in view of the inadequate laboratory facilities at schools in the rural areas. The decision would be implemented from 2007 throughout the country.

The meeting also decided to change the allocation of marks for three sections of question papers from next year. In future the multiple-choice questions would carry 20 per cent of the total marks, 50 per cent marks would be given for short-answer questions and 30 per cent marks against descriptive answers of questions.

The meeting also rejected the existing system of awarding grace marks to candidates for passing any exam. Under this decision, candidates throughout the country would be allowed a total of 6 marks for two papers. A candidate can be allowed 3 marks in each of the two papers, but if he failed in three papers, he would be declared fail.

It was further decided that both the SSC and HSC candidates would be given a choice of question option up to 33 per cent of the total questions of a paper. The decision would be implemented all over the country from the next academic session.

The minister informed that the meeting also discussed the merger of different education boards for conduct of exams at provincial level. There were two proposals, one to reduce the number of boards and second was to have one master board with some satellite boards.

Majority of the participants of the meeting were in favour of a master board in each province, which would prepare one question paper for SSC and HSC candidates in the entire province and ensure assessment of scripts as well, while the satellite boards would be responsible for affiliation and recognition of institutions and enrolment and collection of examination forms, he added, saying that any decision, however, would be taken after consulting the education authorities and boards of the provinces later.The meeting also deferred a proposal of the Punjab education department regarding the abolition of A and O levels.

We have decided that the ‘A’ and ‘O’ level system should be allowed for another five years as by the time we would be able to shape up and raise our local system of education at par with the international standards, added Mr Qazi.He said that a committee headed by the chairman of National Education Foundation, with one representative from each province and the AJK, had also been formed to formulate a national textbooks policy and standardized the curricula.Under the new national textbook policy no material from anonymous or unidentified authors would be included in the future, he pointed out.

A committee will also carry out works to reduce the number of elective subjects at schools and colleges. Possibility of including technical subjects in the list of elective subjects is also being considered, the minister said.

He said Pakistan would apply for international assessment of its education system in 2012.The federal minister said that the provinces would also prepare plans for the utilization of Rs100 billion allocations for providing facilities like boundary walls and labs, at schools, particularly in the rural areas. The fund will be provided in the next five years, in addition to the routine budgetary allocations, he mentioned.

A presentation on the proposed education policy was also made by Javed Hasan Aly, consultant of the ministry of education, Islamabad, during the meeting.Mr Qazi informed the newsmen that the new education policy would be ready by June 2006 and would be placed before the cabinet and the parliament later.

He said that after the completion of the ongoing educational census, data of all educational institutions would be available at central level by June 2006.

-Dawn