Sindh’s top education authorities have formulated a proposal regarding the postponement or cancellation of matriculation and intermediate annual examinations in the province in the wake of prevailing situation triggered by Covid-19. A meeting of Inter Board Committee of Chairman (IBCC) – a forum of seven education boards of Sindh – was held at the Board of Technical Education Karachi the other day. It was attended by the chairmen of Sindh Technical Board, Board of Intermediate Education Karachi, Matriculation Board Karachi and Board of Matriculation and Intermediate Education Hyderabad while Board of Matriculation and Intermediate Education Sukkur, Larkana and chairmen of MirpurKhas attended the meeting online. It was decided during the meeting that in case of postponement, the duration of the examinations will be an hour or an hour and a half whereas the student would only be asked multiple choice questions (MCQs) in the papers. In case of cancellation, the students of the class 10th and class 12th will be given average marks on the basis of their results in class 9th and class 11th with 5 per cent grace marks. The proposal was being sent to the Sindh Ministry of Education and a decision regarding the matter is expected next month during a meeting of the steering committee of the education department. A chairman, who was one of the participants, told The Express Tribune that the meeting has considered the options of holding annual matriculation and intermediate examinations or direct grading and release of results in case of cancellation of examinations. He said that all the participants agreed that it is impossible to conduct examinations with social distancing as 500 to 1,000 students appear in one single examination centre. However, he said, it was decided that in a scenario where it becomes imperative to conduct the matric and intermediate examinations, then each paper would be an hour or an hour and a half long while the exams would only consist MCQs. He said that the suggestion was given by the Sukkur Board of Education and all the participants agreed except for chairman of Larkana Board.
