cover story
Examining the examination system

  By Perwez Abdullah

To be or not to be was the question that haunted the mind of every Class 1X student of Karachi this year. What happened was blatantly shameful; the honourable education minister decided to implement the Composite Examination system in the province of Sind. According to her, all the provinces should be at par as far as the standard of education is concerned. No one can find fault with this, but was it necessary to impose this system without laying proper foundation? Implementation of this system became a matter of ego to the concerned parties for and against this system. The only sufferers were the students. Perwez Abdullah looks at this problem for Us, and comes up with the news that the provincial minister of education for the Punjab is in favour of the system prevalent in Sind! Read on to find out about the predicament of the students and parents...

The saga of imposing Composite Examinations in place of separate examinations has temporarily come to an end with the news that separate examinations for Class IX in Sindh will be held in the month of May while that of Class X are scheduled for the month of April, 2000.

No to military training in education sector!

The belated announcement has brought a sense of elation to the opponents of the Composite Examinations system. Parents, students and teachers, all heaved a collective sigh of relief while those in favour had to be content with silent anger. The general consensus among the masses concerned with the state of education was in favour of continuation of the separate examination system. The educationists expressed surprise and disgust about the autocratic manner in which the Federal Education Ministry tried to impose the Composite Examination system.

Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Javed Ashraf Qazi, hardly a person to be endowed with the matters of education, seems at ease when applying his military training in this sensitive sector without realising or attaching any importance to the will of the students and other stakeholders. It seems that whims and wishes of some people are allowed to be imposed on the citizens of the country without taking the academics and educationists in confidence.

No feeling for the students!

Students were the main sufferers in the whole episode. No one spared a thought for the 250,000 students and their families who were under tremendous stress. Besides, the Private Schools Management Association; the Sindh University; Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association and the City Council (opposition and government representatives included) had taken a stand against the Composite Exams decision. The decision of holding Composite Examination was only taken back after stiff opposition from the concerned people and the students had reached to the media. The newspapers took up the issue and voiced their disapproval about the dictatorial attitude of the provincial and federal education ministers. These ministers were adamant about having their wishes fulfilled without regarding the adverse effect it would cause to the educational standards, and the countless problems to the poor students.

In this regard, Zarah Nadeem, a student of 1X had this to say: "This tussle between the Federal Education Ministry and the Province was very detrimental for students. The people responsible for creating this confusion looked incompetent to us. Can you believe that our timetable was changed more than three times in the course of the running year? Can't they make up their minds about any thing? First our school got the directive that we were to have Composite Examination. Our administration set our timetable accordingly. After a while we read in the newspapers that the decision had been reversed. Our teachers had to make the necessary changes again. This went on for sometime till our honourable governor intervened and sorted the problem out."

Parents' perspective

"It just shows that our Education Ministry does not believe in proper planning. At the eleventh hour they announced their very faulty decision of holding composite examinations. Why should we have this system? I think that considering the syllabus, and the time span our children have to prepare, separate examination is the only system that can work. If they want to introduce the Composite Examination system, they should give at least three years to our board, and get new books published to complement this system. It was terrible for me as a mother, this uncertainty period. I was very happy when the governor put a stop to this madness."

Input from Islamabad

"I did my matriculation from Islamabad about six years back under the Composite System. Two years ago my father got transferred to Karachi. My younger brother, who was in Class 1X at that time, took his examination under the separate system of examination. I must say that he had a much better time than I had with my exams. However, if I could do it, I suppose the students of Karachi will also be able to cope with it," opined Sana, who is doing engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi.

Interference...

All the interference from the Federal Education Ministry came in utter disregard of the 1973 Constitution that does not allow meddling with the methodology of implementing educational procedures in the provincial governments. If somebody does, he actually violates and infringes on the provincial autonomy.

Shoaib Bokhari, the Sindh Minister for Planning and Development, had rightly pointed out that the interference by the Centre in this case was against President Musharraf's stand on devolution of power to the grassroots level, which he asserted is 'the destiny of Pakistan'. The President had categorically stated that "...any person trying to deviate from that course should be held as a culprit in the history and in the eyes of the Pakistani nation." So it became more astonishing to see the Centre involved in changing education policies which the provinces should be deciding at their own discretion taking into account the merit and justification of each policy separately.

Why separate exams?

The educationists in Sindh have agreed that separate examinations for the classes IX and X are important because many students are bread earners for their families. The separate examination system allows them to work and study without having the pressure to appear for the examinations of IX and X classes simultaneously. Another argument in favour was that a student failing in any subject of Class IX could appear for the failed subject while writing Class X examinations. That would save his precious year and allow him to seek employment while still within the maximum age limit.

The relieving decision

The decision to continue with the separate examination system could only materialise after   Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had directed all the educational boards in Sindh to issue the schedule for Class IX examination, thereby scrapping the plan for Composite Examination of classes IX and X. The governor, who is the controlling authority of the educational boards in Sindh, and Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, had taken up the matter with the President and Prime Minister. Fortunately for students, our President and Prime Minister proved more sympathetic and gave the go ahead for separate examinations. The concern of our rulers is praiseworthy, but the problem should not have cropped up in the first place. The experiments with education are tantamount to playing hide and seek with the future of the students, especially by those who are not entitled to meddle with the educational sector.

What the educationists say

The educationists were of the view that Sindh had been holding separate examinations successfully for the last 30 years and the implementation of a new system would not bring any qualitative change. They pointed out that the two-year academic work could not be attempted in a single term, as it would lead to more supplementary exams. It is also important to note that the examination system all over the world is changing to the Continuous Assessment System (CAS) that allows students to understand and write their papers and retain the information gained. The periodical examinations help the students in grasping the knowledge in a relaxed way and then proceed to study the next stage.

According to research...

The argument in favour of separate examinations gains more credence in the light of the research by the   Research Department of the Karachi Board of Secondary Education that pointed out that the Karachi Board had remarkable results in comparison with other boards that had the Composite Examination system. Department figures for the academic year 2004-05 showed that in Karachi, 183,155 students passed out of a total of 257,972. The pass percentage was 70 per cent.

In Lahore, out of 341,971 students 140,804 passed (41 per cent), while in Peshawar, out of 82,850 students 43,828 passed (52 per cent). And in Rawalpindi, out of 215,925 students 92,021 could clear the examination, a 42 per cent result. The research is the indicator of the performance enhancement in the separate examinations compared to the Composite Examinations system.

Support from Punjab

The popularity of the separate examination system received a boost from an unexpected quarter recently when Mian Imran Masud, Punjab Education Minister, recently said that the provincial government was considering reviving the separate examination system for IX and X classes on the pattern of Sindh.

However, Minister of State for Education AnisaZeb Tahirkheli said that the decision was taken at a conference of inter-provincial education ministers held in Peshawar in June, last year. In this conference, all the three provinces had decided to implement the system from this year, while Sindh had sought one year's time for its implementation. She was adamant that the composite examination system would be implemented in Sindh in 2008-09.

Tahirkheli said the decision had been taken to reduce financial burden on the parents and students who earlier had to pay the examination fees twice to the boards.

Tahirkheli said the decision to hold composite examination was taken after adopting a consultative process and the format of the question paper was also being changed. Giving details, she said, there would be 20 per cent marks for multiple-choice questions, 50 per cent for short answers and 30 per cent for descriptive and long replies. The purpose of changing the format was to discourage the trend of passing the exams by mere memorisation. The minister, however, said that she had no objection if the matter was referred to the committee.

The culture of ad hocism is prevalent in every section of our society, but its presence in the education sector will have adverse effects on the future generations that are the investments of any civil society. The students have been given some respite this year, but the uncertainty about the next year is very much here. This uncertainty has to be removed and the system of examination system should be implemented on permanent basis after consultation with everyone who has any thing to do with education.