ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Wednesday expressed concerns over discrimination against `O` and `A` level students in the allocation of marks in the equivalence certificates issued to them by the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC).

The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Educational and Professional Training met with Senator Rahila Magsi in the chair to discuss the matter.

Earlier, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq had raised the matter in the upper house of parliament through a calling attentionnotice, which referred it to the standing committee.

Briefing the committee, Senator Farooq said the IBCC issued equivalence certificates to students who passed the `O` and `A` Level exams and awarded just 90pc marks to those who obtained A*.

On the other hand, she said, students appearing in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) held under different boards of intermediate and secondary education got more than 95pc or in some cases over 98pc marks.

The senator also cited results of a board exam in which the topper had obtained 98.8pc marks followed by 98.7pc and 98.6pc.

`On the one hand, students appearing in the board exams get 98pc and on the other the IBBC gives only 90pc to the toppers of the O/A level exams. This is discrimination against the `O` and `A` level students,` said the senator, adding the IBCC`s step was making the students getting educationunder the world class system less competitors.

`When students who hold `O` and `A` level certificates compete with the SSC and intermediate passed students for higher education, they face difficulty because of this discrimination,` she said.

The committee members, including Minister of State for Federal Education Balighur Rehman, endorsed the concerns raised by Ms Ayesha.

However, the minister informed the committee that the IBBC did not fall under the administrative control of the ministry of education rather it worked under the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), whose officials had not been invited to the meeting.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and others asked the committee chairman to direct the officials of the ministry of IPC and the IBCC to explain their position in the next meeting.

`This is a serious issue and we will take it again at the next meeting where the IBCCwill explain its position,` said the committee chairman, Rahila Magsi.

HEC Executive Director Prof Dr Arshad Ali told the committee that it was a wrong notion that those who held O/A level certificates were superior to the SSC and FA/FSc students. He said once a survey was conducted at Nust which showed that 90pc students held intermediate certificates while 10pc had the O/A level.

Earlier, the state minister briefed the committee about the steps being taken for improving the higher education sector.

Talking about out-of-school children and missing facilities in educational institutions, he said provinces were taking steps for making an improvement but the progress in Sindh was not very much satisfactory.

Senator Khushbakht Shujaat asked why Sindh was not a part of the National Curriculum Council. The minister requested the committee to recommend to the Sindh government to join the NCC, which the committee did.