KARACHI, Oct 17: The steering committee of the Sindh education department on Friday decided that the next academic session of schools and colleges in the province would commence, simultaneously, on April 1 2009, and this schedule will remain in force in the future.

Several other issues concerning the next academic session were deliberated upon in the meeting which was chaired by Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq and attended by provincial secretary education Rizwan Memon, chairmen of all education boards of the province, except the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi; district education officers (education), the provincial director-general (colleges), the chairman of the Sindh Text-Book Board, and the director of private educational institutions.

According to a spokesman for the education department, the meeting decided that the next academic session for both schools and colleges of the province would start on April 1 and the annual examinations up to class VIII would be held in February, 2009.

With regards to the schedule of Secondary School Certificate Part-I and Part-II (class IX and X) annual examinations, he said that the meeting had decided that all boards of secondary education of the province would conduct class-IX and class-X annual examinations on March 20, 2009 and would announce the results of these exams by July 15, 2009.

About the Intermediate (Part-I and Part-II) annual examinations 2009, the spokesman said that according to the decision, class XI and XII annual exams would be held on April 28, 2009 and all the provincial boards of higher secondary education would be required to announce the results of these examinations by Aug 16, 2009.

Speaking on the occasion, Pir Mzharul Haq said that though the academic session in the province since the creation of the country had been beginning from April, it was abruptly changed to August by the previous government owing to their unrealistic approach and policy.

The minister directed officials to take all measures to ensure that the next academic session in the province begin from April 1. The minister said the chairman of the Sindh Text-Book Board had assured the availability of textbooks much before the start of the next academic session.

The minister on this occasion asked the provincial education secretary to write a letter to the provincial finance secretary, seeking details concerning financial grants given to the educational boards of the province during the last five years.

However, sources in the education department said that no financial grant had been given to the educational boards of the province as they had been managing their affairs on a self-finance basis.

The chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) was conspicuous by his absence from the steering committee’s meeting though its agenda was to decide the schedule of examinations of both the secondary and higher secondary certificates examinations.

However, inquiries made in this regard showed that he was not invited to the meeting as those responsible for convening the meeting had probably assumed that Karachi too like other cities of the province had only one education board (ie the Board of Secondary Education Karachi and whose chairman was invited to the meeting), whereas there are two separate examining boards in the city — one conducting SSC examinations and the other that of HSC examinations.