Moalims

Islamabad/rawalpindi - The centralised examination of class-v was cancelled yesterday by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) after the examination staff and many students could not reach the designated centres due to protests and traffic gridlocks erupted against the execution of Mumtaz Qadri.

School buses and children coming with their parents from Rawalpindi remained stranded in traffic jams for hours.
Many returned to their home and those who managed to reach the examination centres were asked to go back as paper was cancelled.

Parents and teachers complained that the FDE failed to announce the decision in time.

Nearly, 30,000 students of class-V from public and private schools as well as seminaries were to take their science paper yesterday.
But the volatile security situation after Mumtaz Qadri’s hanging messed up everything forcing the administration to cancel the paper.

“The children picked up by the school bus at 6:30am remained stuck in traffic near Faizabad for hours as roads were blocked due to protests,” said Farzana Akram, a teacher of a model college.
Officials rang up the FDE to know about the examination staff who were supposed to reach 256 examination centres but in many centres they could not.
The teachers and parents stuck in the gridlock also started calling the FDE officials to ask whether they should return or reach the centres.
Then the FDE announced to postpone the paper, she said.

Later, the FDE also postponed class-viii scholarship exam that was scheduled to be held today (Tuesday).
The cancelled papers of both class-v and viii will now be held on coming Monday and Tuesday.

Final internal exams are also going on in many schools that were cancelled yesterday in colleges situated in sectors I-8, H-8, I-10 as many students could not reach their respective institutions.
Many colleges held the exams as per schedule accommodating the students who even reached late.
But those who come from Korang, Swan Garden, PWD Colony etc.
missed it.

Liaqat Ali, a parent said that he remained stranded on the road for hours but could not drop her daughter to her school.
She studies in class-viii in IMCG F-8/1 and she had to appear in home economics paper that she missed, he said.

The unexpected cancellation of the papers caused chaos and panic in schools as parents in large number flocked to schools to pick up their children.
It was hard to control the parents and students for one guard deployed at each institute, said a teacher.

Owing to uncertain security situation, majority of elite private schools announced closure of their campuses that will remain shut today (Tuesday) as well.
However, Dr Afzal Babur, President of Private Schools Network that represent low-cost schools said their schools will open as per schedule as final exams have been going on.

Major universities also announced to suspend the academic activities on Tuesday as funeral services of Qadri’s will take place on the day.
Quaid-i-Azam University, National University of Sciences and Technology, International Islamic University Islamabad and Comsats Institute of Information Technology will remain closed.

The administration of QAU said all classes and examinations scheduled for 01-03-2016 are rescheduled and now they will be held on Saturday, 5th March 2016 on the same time.
The university will function as usual on Saturday, 5th March.

Meanwhile, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Rawalpindi has announced cancellation of secondary school certificate (SSC) examination in the district.

According to a notification issued by District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Dall yesterday, the papers of matriculation going to be held on Tuesday under the aegis of BISE Rawalpindi have been cancelled.
The new date for examination will be announced later, the notification said.
The examinations were cancelled due to law and order situation emerged after execution of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the notification said.

According to the BISE Rawalpindi spokesman, due to unavoidable circumstances in Rawalpindi, BISE Rawalpindi has postponed SSC Part-II papers of both sessions, to be held on 1st March 2016 in 65 local centres (city and cantonment only) of Rawalpindi only.

These papers will be taken on 4th April 2016, For further detail see website of Education board.

Published in The Nation newspaper on 01-Mar-2016