FINALLY the uncertainty shrouding the board exams was removed by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday when it announced that the examinations for class ten and twelve will be held from June 23 to July 29.
The decision has been taken keeping in view the improvement in Coid-19 situation.
These exams have a special significance in determining the future of students.
Due to the breakout of the pandemic last year, the matric and intermediate students were promoted without any examination.
However, this year it was not possible as far as the students of class ten and twelve are concerned as on the basis of their performance in the board exams, their result for the previous class will also be calculated.
Hence, the NCOC has timely announced the dates of the exams so that the students can well prepare themselves for the exams.
Since the students could not spend much time in the educational institutions over the last one year and mode of online education also did not prove as effective as was anticipated, we will suggest that the course work especially of the compulsory subjects including English, Urdu, Islamiyat and Pak Studies should be further reduced.
The students can improve their shortcomings in these subjects in the next classes. As regards the science subjects, the percentage of objective questions could be increased as compared to the subjective ones.
The goal must be to check the concepts of the students whilst ensuring they spend minimum possible time in the examination halls.
It is also because of non-completion of course work that the students resorted to protest at Faizabad interchange on Saturday.
The concerns of the students are genuine and the authorities concerned must look into and trim down the course for the upcoming exams.
Then most importantly, the teaching staff and vigilance teams must be vaccinated on a priority basis so that the board exams could be held in a safe environment without the threat of spread of Covid-19.
Classes for those who will be appearing in board exams next year must also be resumed immediately and that too for full five or six days a week under strict SOPs as these students can better take care of them with the support and guidance of teaching staff.
