KARACHI, Feb 17: A large number of Class IX and X students may have a hard time doing well in the annual examinations across Sindh, as the provincial education department has so far neither ensured the availability of book-II of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics to them nor curtailed the syllabus despite the fact that the current academic year comprises 155 days, which is the shortest session in the country’s history.

Even senior school teachers, who are usually assigned the task of setting papers for Class IX and X, will find it extremely difficult to cover the entire syllabus while setting papers particularly when the exam pattern has also been changed this year.

According to the new pattern of examinations for Class IX, theory papers will comprise 20 per cent objective-type, 50 per cent short and 30 per cent descriptive answers. Under this pattern, the theory paper will carry 85 marks as against 75 marks carried by them in previous years, while the practical examination marks have been reduced from 25 to 15 marks.

Several college professors said that since the education department has failed to ensure the availability of book-II of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, students taking their matriculation examinations this year would face immense difficulty in intermediate classes where book-III of various subjects was being taught. The students who could not go through book-II of the subjects would be unable to do well in their college exams.

The current academic year for schools that began on August 16 will end by March 15 so that the new academic session could commence on April 1. As such it is mandatory upon all schools to complete the entire process of examinations of Class I to VIII students by March 31 while all the secondary educational boards of the province are supposed to conduct the Class IX and X annual examinations from March 20.

The current academic year initially shrunk to seven months (210 days) as against the normal academic session of around eight-and-a-half months (240/250 days) in the wake of the federal government’s decision to start the schools’ next academic session from April 1, 2009.

However, it has further reduced to over five months (155 days) owing to a staggering figure of 55 holidays during the year. The holidays include

30 Sundays, 10-day winter vacation, three-day Eidul Fitr, three-day Eidul Azha, two-day Muharram, and a holiday on the occasion of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s Urs.

Recalling that the governor secretariat had realised that the current academic year will be the shortest and had requested the provincial education department to curtail the syllabus, well-placed sources told Dawn that Class IX and X students were bound to suffer since the education department had not obliged.

Meanwhile, terming the provincial education department’s act of not ensuring availability of book-II of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at secondary level ‘criminal negligence’ a number of parents apprehend that their children will not be able to cope with the intermediate standard and thus their admission to professional institutions are at stake, just because they have been neither provided book II of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics nor have their syllabus been curtailed.