Matric candidates: request to relax age bar rejected
Karachi, July 19, 2008: The Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), a representative body of all educational boards of the country, has turned down a request from the NWFP for lifting the age bar on the candidates appearing in the matriculation examination.
The request for relaxing the minimum age from 14 years, as fixed recently, to lower side for SSC part-II candidates was forwarded by the NWFP government to the IBCC and was discussed at a recent meeting of the committee. However, the participants did not approve it on the grounds that such a relaxation could encourage the trend of double promotion at schools level and could also affect the quality of education.
An IBCC member who attended the meeting said on Friday that another proposal forwarded by the committee of chairmen of the Punjab educational boards was also rejected by the IBCC. The proposal pertained to allowing Science group students to appear as private candidates in the board's examinations.
The participants argued that the Science group examinations involved practicals and private candidates could not avail such facilities for preparation and practical examination. Moreover, they said, private candidates could not meet the condition of 75 per cent attendance which was mandatory for all the candidates appearing in the board examinations across the country.
The IBCC member said that the meeting was not approve of a request from the Allama Iqbal Open University for the grant of certificate-awarding status for the AIOU in the case of Intermediate Science (Pre-medical) group. It was noted that the university was basically a distant learning educational institution.
He said that although all the IBCC members opposed the proposal on the grounds that such a decision would amount to a violation of the rules governing the educational boards, the meeting decided to refer the matter to its select committee for an advice. It was decided that the matter would be discussed at the next IBCC meeting in the light of the select committee's report.
According to Prof Ahmed Zai, the chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) and also a member of the IBCC, all decisions taken at the IBCC forum are required to be implemented by all educational boards of the country in letter and spirit to ensure a uniform policy to be pursued by all boards. Dawn
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