PESHAWAR: The second phase of the matric and intermediate examinations will start from today (Tuesday) across the province.

In the second phase, students of 9th and 11th grade will appear in the examinations under the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education of the province.

In the first phase, students of 10th and 12th grade had appeared in the examinations, which started from July 10 and concluded on July 19.

A total of 411,805 students will appear in the examinations for grade 9th under the eight boards including 62,506 in Abbottabad board; 27,078 Bannu board; 22,866 Dera Ismail Khan board; 42,171 Kohat board; 54,845 Malakand board; 68,353 Mardan board; 86,011 Peshawar board; and 47,975 in Swat board.

Similarly, 25,0454 students will appear in the examinations for grade 11th including 38,790 under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Abbottabad; 16,666 Bannu; 15,492 Dera Ismail Khan; 24,632 Kohat; 31,409 Malakand; 38,590 Mardan; 56,291 Peshawar; and 28,584 will take the examinations under the Swat board.

These students will take examinations in 3,939 halls across the province.

The chairman of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Peshawar, Nasrullah Khan Yousafzai, told Dawn that arrangements were completed keeping in view the standard operating procedures (SOP) against Covid-19.

He said that students would be provided sanitizers and masks to stop spread of Covid-19. He said that the number of invigilation staff and examination halls was increased for the examinations conducted during the pandemic as the space among the candidates was increased as per SOPs.

Mr Yousafzai said that the Peshawar board also installed cameras inside 80 per cent of the examination halls to discourage cheating. In the normal situation, he said, one invigilator was deployed for 40 students but in the pandemic, one invigilator was deputed for 30 to 25 students.

He said that papers for the examinations were set in the light of condensed courses of each subject, framed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Curricula and Teachers Education, Abbottabad.

The DCTE has cut short the courses for the students due to closures of schools most of the time during academic year due to pandemic.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2021