PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided that the next annual exams of grades fifth and eighth willbe conducted by education boards and future matriculation and intermediate exams would be held under the `cluster system.
The decision was made during a meeting on examination system reforms here, with chief secretary Shahab Ali Shah in the chair, according to an official statement issued by his office on Monday.
The meeting was attended by the secretary of the primary and secondary education department and chairmen of examination boards in the province. Officialspresented suggestions for reforms in the examination system.
The chief secretary said every board should have a research and development wing and that along with the wings, field surveys should also be conducted.
He said that all board chairmen should continue to consult with each other and keep track of the reforms being carried out under the action plan.
`Only reforms in the examination system will improve the education system,` he said.
In order to facilitate the children of private schools to take examinations in government examination centres, the meeting decided that 1,308 examination centres in government high and higher secondary schools would be upgraded within six months, while examination halls would be prepared before the next examinations.
The meeting decided on regular certification of examination staff by the department of elementary and secondary education, according to the statement.
Itaddedthatdutieswould not be assigned to staff with poor performance, while staff members with good performance would be appreciated.
`Examination papers of top 15 students of all the boards will be crosschecked by the staff ofother boards. Online and on-screen checking and marking willbeintroducedfortransparencyin checking of papers, it said. The meeting decided about regular re-checking instead of re-totaling of examination papers and declared that practical classes would be held regularly under the scheme of studies, while student attendance would be ensured.
It decided to establish research and development wings in all education boards.
The participants also examined a third-party assessment to assess the effectiveness of the exams.
