Cambridge to grade Pak students as predicted by schools

ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood Monday night announced that Cambridge has decided that grades for June 2020 would not be less than predicted grades sent by schools, and where a grade issued last week was higher than the predicted grade, the higher grade will stand.

He said that the students and government’s tireless effort has been successful. In a message he said: “Cambridge has also said that they will be announcing new grades shortly. To remove any uncertainty they have also asked schools to inform students of predicted grades sent to Cambridge. This information was provided to schools on result day.”

The minister said he was so glad that the issue has reached a successful conclusion and the anxiety caused to students and their parents can now ease. Earlier in the day, dozens of O and A level students staging a demonstration blocked The Mall on Monday and strongly protested against, what they termed, unfair grading by the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) in its recent results.

The students also protested in front of Karachi Press Club against unfair grading in the exams during corona lockdown. Similar demonstrations were also carried in other major cities, including Gujranwala.

Carrying banners and placards, the demonstrators, including male and female students gathered at Faisal Chowk and chanted slogans against the CAIE for awarding unfair grading. They demanded the CAIE authorities do justice with Pakistani students.

It is pertinent to mention that like other parts of the world, a controversy had emerged over unfair grading in the Cambridge results this year as the foreign examination body did not conduct exams and awarded grades to all the students on the basis of previous assessment and school records. However, it turned out that in most cases the new results did not match the students’ previous performance in mock exams and schools assessment which resulted in downgrading of students. After recording their protest the students dispersed peacefully.