Exam cancellation perturbs students, parents

Islamabad : Students of the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) curriculum schools in Islamabad have expressed concern at the cancallation of the upcoming CAIE exams scheduled from April 27 to May 30 in Pakistan.

The federal education minister had announced on Wednesday that (CAIE) exams will not take place in Pakistan until 1st June.

According to Cambridge Assessment, that provides assessment to over 170 countries said, "The June 2020 exam series time table is global and we work in over 160 countries. It is not possible for us to make changes at once because timetabling across many different countries are so complex."

In a statement, the Cambridge Pakistan had stated that as Cambridge exams work on an international timetable, which takes 18 months to put together, so they are unable to change it. However the exams scheduled for June will take place as planned, said Uzma Yousuf, country director of Cambridge Assessment International Education.

The statement from the country director said, “we note the Pakistan government’s decision that examinations across the country will not take place until 1 June, so the students will have to take CAIE in next term i.e. Oct/Nov this year.

And the students will be deprived of getting admissions in universities according to their academic session which will result in missing a whole year.

Students in Cambridge Assessment curriculum schools in Islamabad are worried this decision would impact their admission to varsities.

Many students and their parents said, “It’s too early to make a decision by the Education Minister. He should not be adamant about his stance and wait till mid-April to decide whether Cambridge exams can be allowed in Pakistan or not in May-June.”

A student said, “It is sheer discrimination that our counterparts(Metric, Intermediate Students) will be taking exams in June/July and we the CAIE students will be compelled to take exam in Oct/Nov. to end this discrimination, the Cambridge should be requested to shift the Cambridge exams to June/July as it was decided in case of metric and Intermediate students.”