KARACHI: Academic year cut adds to students’ woes
KARACHI, Sept 3: The current academic session for first-year students at the city’s government colleges, which is already running a month and a half behind the rest of the country, will shrink to a mere 130 days as against 210 academic days by the time it formally takes off with the start of classes.
First-year classes not only in other parts of Sindh but also in Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan had begun from August 15, whereas regular classes for the Class XI students of the city will, for all practical purposes, start from October 6 even if the placement of students in the city’s 123 government colleges under the Centralized Admission Policy (CAP) is finalized by Sept 15 because after the issuance of placement lists, colleges take at least one more week to complete the entire admissions process before starting XI classes.
A limited number of working days will be available for college administrations to accomplish the task owing to several holidays falling between Sept 23 and Oct 6 on account of Youm-i-Ali (21st Ramazan), Juma-tul-Wida, two Sundays and three Eid holidays.
Myriad holidays
Though there will be in all 177 days if the ensuing academic session for Class-XI students begins from Oct 6, the session will have only 130 academic days because there will be no teaching in colleges for as many as 47 days owing to various holidays which include 10 days for winter vacations ie from Dec 22 to Dec 31; 24 Sundays falling in six months (from October to March) and 13 holidays on account of Allama Iqbal Day (Nov 9); Eid-ul-Azha (December); 9th and 10th Muharram (January); Kashmir Day (Feb 5); Shah Abdul Latif Day (14th Safar-February); Chehlum Hazrat Imam Hussain (20th Safar-February) and Eid Milad-un-Nabi PBUH (March) as well as in-between weekly holidays.
The academic losses that take place in the wake of unforeseen events such as violence and strikes are not included.
The process of admission to the first-year classes under the CAP 2008/09 had begun on Aug 5 and the committee assigned the task of placing matriculates in the colleges is yet to finalize the process of placing students in the city’s 123 government colleges.
Though the CAP admissions committee is expected to complete the task of issuing placement lists belonging to all faculties – Science, Commerce, Arts and Home Economics – by Sept 15, at least one more week will be taken by colleges to get other formalities completed such as issuance and submission of admissions forms by the successful candidates and issuance of fees vouchers for depositing in banks.
In addition to this, claim centres, which the CAP would set up after the issuance of placement lists of successful candidates, will take one week to remove the errors which might crop up during the computerized placement and in settling other admissions-related issues.
It means that if the entire admissions process is accomplished by the end of September and classes for the first-year students begin after the Eid holidays (most probably from Oct 6), there will be around 130 academic days for the students because the academic session 2008, according to a decision of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference, will end in March 2009. As such, the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi (BIEK) will have to conduct the Class XI and XII annual examination 2009 in April.
When BIEK Chairman Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai was asked whether the Board will implement the decision taken at the conference of holding the Intermediate classes’ examinations in April, he replied in the affirmative, saying that a final decision in this regard would, however, be taken by the Sindh education department’s steering committee.
Commenting on the situation that had emerged in the wake of the inordinate delay in starting the academic session for Class XI students, an educationist and a former director of colleges, Prof Haroon Rashid, said that since the academic session has been reduced to just 130 days, neither the teachers will be able to teach the entire prescribed course nor the students will be able to comprehend the same.
Lagging behind
He said that Class XI students of the entire country will have an edge over the Class XI students of the city because it was not possible for the students of the city to complete the entire syllabus in 130 days, which is normally devised keeping in view that there would be at least 190 academic days.
Prof Haroon Rashid was of the opinion that since the number of academic days for the first-year students has been drastically reduced, this year, the Sindh education department will have to curtail the syllabus of Class XI students before the commencement of classes so that all the colleges follow a similar syllabus. Besides, the paper setters will have to be informed accordingly.
He was, however, of the view that the problem of reduced academic days for the students of Class XI had cropped up initially in 2000 when the CAP was introduced for admitting students in the city colleges.
When a leader of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association, Prof Iftikhar Mohammad Azmi, who is also a member of the CAP admissions committee, was asked whether the Intermediate (Part-I) annual examinations 2009 for the students being admitted to Class XI in the city’s government colleges would be held in April 2009, he said that though the examinations – in the light of the decision of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference concerning advancing of the academic session from next year – are to be held in April 2009, its implementation still seems uncertain.
He said that as a matter of fact the SPLA had always been advocating that the Intermediate examinations should either be conducted in March or April when the city’s weather normally remains moderate and the logic behind it is to save the students from hot weather in June and July, when prolonged and frequent power outages become a regular feature in the metropolis, disrupting students’ studies and affecting their performance in the examination.