Zubair Qureshi
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) students in Pakistan will now benefit from the addition of Urdu language to the MYP eAssessment, which will be recognized by the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), Ministry of Education.
According to a press release issued by the International Baccalaureate, the inclusion of Urdu, which students will study under language acquisition, means that MYP students will now only sit for the Pakistan Studies and Islamiyat as additional subjects to their end of school examinations.
They will complete their Urdu studies under the on-screen examinations element of the eAssessment, which includes reading, writing and speaking skills.
The award-winning MYP eAssessment is internationally recognized and combines e-portfolios of coursework with media-rich on-screen examinations that enable creative responses, or responses that require students to manipulate data and present new understandings using much more dynamic methods than on paper, further said the press release.
Uzma Shujjat, Regional Manager of Pakistan for the IB, said: “The International Baccalaureate is committed to promoting mother/native languages. “We have been working hard to ensure that the MYP and its eAssessment matched the national requirement for students to study Urdu in order to progress to higher education, said Uzma.
“This is a significant and much welcomed development for the programme in Pakistan, where students will reap the benefit of studying, and sitting examinations for, 10 instead of 11 subjects. We also look forward to welcoming many more schools on their journey to offering the MYP to students. This year alone, we have seen the addition of four new IB World Schools offering the programme, moving towards the IB continuum of education,” Uzma further said.
