Shafqat Mahmood announces decisions regarding examinations, syllabus

KARACHI: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood announced on Thursday that the examinations will be held in May- June under the full syllabus, as well as the schedule of examinations for O and A level will be followed, ARY News reported.

Shafqat Mahmood announced the education-related decisions taken by the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference (IPEMC) held in Karachi today.

“Syllabus will be completed in this academic year,” clarified Shafqat Mahmood.

Coronavirus pandemic has badly affected the education, said the federal minister, said that the government had reduced the syllabus in the previous academic year due to the pandemic.

He urged joint efforts to fully restore the education activities across the country.

Mahmood said that facilities are being provided to educational institutions to take the anti-coronavirus measures. He added that they are trying to further improve contacts between the provinces for education purposes.

He, however, said that the federal authorities wanted the timely examinations and admissions from the provinces.

He said that IPEMC also held discussions over the new procedures of examination envisaged by the federal board. The minister said that they are making efforts to design a combined academic calendar.

Shafqat Mahmood said that the global institutions have reviewed Pakistan’s education system and found out that the learning level of our children was not good. He continued that the learning capacity of the students was affected due to the closure of schools following COVID-19.

The education minister said that the authorities will try to revise the courses for increasing the learning level of Pakistani students. Shafqat Mahmood also thanked the Sindh government for organising the IPEMC.

Moreover, a grant worth Rs810 million was given to Sindh province under the World Bank’s Aspire program.

To a question, Mahmood said that MDCAT has no connection with the education ministry. The matters related to MDCAT are associated with the health ministry. He added that 34,000 children have passed the MDCAT.