Moalims

ISLAMABAD: Around 80 percent of students of secondary-school age in Balochistan are never enrolled in schools, while the other 20 percent appeared in matric examinations.

This was stated in a report titled “Pass/Fail? Matriculation Examination Results in Balochistan and what they mean for the future”, launched on Thursday. According to the report, every year over 90 percent of students, both male and female, pass the board exams. Of them more than half get the ‘C’ grade or below. The report also reveals that female students do better than their male counterparts in a number of areas. Moreover, female enrolments in schools is increasing rapidly. “The number of females appearing in matric board exams has increased 193 percent from year 2001 to year 2015, as compared to 54 percent increase in the number of males,” stated the report. It added that 71 percent participants of the board exams come from government schools, 26 percent from private schools and 3 percent from other government schools, such as those managed by the armed forces or the Department of Labour.

The low scores of the government schools and private schools point towards generally poor quality of education. This is the first time in Pakistan when the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam results of 37,000 students have been analysed, the report shows.

During his address to the participants of the launching ceremony author of the report Sami Khan said that these exams results were not just a reflection of the students’ academic performance but also of the system of education.

The Balochistan Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education deserves applause for taking the bold step of sharing the data, adding he hopes that they shall analyse the results for effective policymaking.

Most of the students 62.5 percent who scores ‘A+’ and ‘A’ come from category of other government schools while the number of such schools in the province was only three percent. These schools not only ahead in aggregate but also in subject scores, pointed out in the report. Reham Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ambassador for street children and spouse of PTI chief Imran Khan expressed her views on the occasion said that 21.5 billion rupees has been allocated for only 27 government schools in the province.

She said that it was a key to understand that state of education system of the country, its drawbacks and seek the ways to resolves them.

Another speaker of the launching ceremony Dr Shama Ishaq Baloch, MPA National Party said: “Education has remained high on the priority list of the Balochistan government. Unless the federal government ensured that the census would conducted regarding the strength of children in the schools and out of schools in the province”. Alif Ailaan has conducted the study in partnership with Society for Community Strengthening and Promotion of Education, Balochistan (SCSPEB), Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BBISE) and the Secondary Education Department (SED) government of Balochistan. Representatives from the Punjab Examination Commission, Reform Support Unit Sindh, National Education Assessment System, PIFRA and ASER also shared the experiences of respective assessment systems.

News Reference