Daily Times

KHYBER AGENCY: The education department of the Khyber Agency is going to conduct a centralised examination in a state-run school, for both boys and girls, starting from KG to 4th grade.

The exam is to be scheduled from February 19-28, 2018.

The assistant agency education officer while sharing details said that approximately 126,000 male and female students would take their exams and the Education Office of Khyber Agency would supervise the whole activity. For this purpose, duties were assigned to senior and qualified teachers to prepare question papers.

As per official report in the planned areas like Bara,Jamrud and Shalman, the exam will be conducted as per schedule while the hilly areas of Tehsil LandiKotal will carry out these exams after winter vacations.

External invigilators would be deployed on merit in every school to ensure fairness in the exam, the official added, saying that the principals and headmasters of high and middle schools would be granted the responsibilities to arrange an examiners crew in cluster schools and then check the papers and prepare the results.

The students would have to attend the papers of English, Urdu, Mathematics, Science, General Knowledge, Islamiyat and Social Studies. On a query, the official maintained that Rs10 per student were being collected to meet the exam expenditures.

The agency’s Education OfficerJadoonWazir in his comments said that the core aim of the centralisedsystem was to get an actual enrollment from KG to 4th grade in government-run schools.

“Students studying in state-run educational institutions have many deficiencies therefore we want to improve their writing and reading skills and improve their comprehensive and memory abilities,”JadoonWazir remarked.

To ensure that the marking on these papers is correct, top 20 students of every school would have to give the exam once again, the agency’seducation officer informed.

Khyber Agency’s All Teacher Association Senior Vice President Shah Rehman while expressing his views said that it was a good practice initiated by the education office that not only compelled the students to prepare their lessons for the exam but also makes the teachers realise that they have to fulfill all their duties in a responsible manner.

Like private educational institutions, the exams will boost the writing abilities of the students studying in government schools, he maintained, adding that any staff member who does not carry out his/her duty responsibly will be penalised.

The students of the government-run schools and their parents expressed their satisfaction over the initiating of the exam.

Published in Daily Times, February 16^th 2018.