Govt to approach British Council, Cambridge, British High Commission over CIE results

ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood shared on Thursday that the government will approach the British Council, Cambridge, and the British High Commission over the unfair grading in the O and A level meted out to Pakistani students.

The minister said the Pakistani students appearing in the Cambridge exams have largely been graded unfairly which has spoiled their hard work.

"We are approaching the British High Commission and British Council to address this serious miscarriage of justice and hopefully, a redressal mechanism would be found out," said Mahmood, while talking on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’.

Regarding the new unified curriculum, Mahmood said all the schools from classes I to V will follow the curriculum from April which abides by the tenets of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

The federal minister also expressed confidence that once the class XII curriculum is ready and available, students would opt for the domestic system over O and A level courses.

Mahmood said the NCOC has decided to keep all educational institutions across the country closed till September 15 because of health risks to children.

"The private schools and madrassahs must not violate the government's directions in this regard forcing the latter to take action," the minister said. The minister said the government will shut down any schools which open without permission on August 15.

Students claim unfair treatment meted out to them

The Cambridge International had cancelled its May/June 2020 series worldwide with the announcement to award certificates without exams. The CAIE followed a four-step assessment mechanism which included teachers’ predicted grades, ranking order, school review/approval and standardisation. However, after the results were announced on 10 August, students started raising concerns as they got grades against their expectations and previous performance.

Originally published in The News