No student will be promoted without passing exam, summer vacations to be reduced, clarifies Shafqat Mahmood

According to details, the meeting decided that no student would be promoted this year without appearing in the examination while Exams for tenth and twelfth-grade would be held in the third week of June followed by other classes.

Members of the IPEMC rejected the suggestion to promote students of grades 9 and 11. They also gave their approval to hold the exams as scheduled in July.

In case of delay in results, universities will admit based on Provisional Certificate.

It was decided in the meeting that summer vacations would be reduced and decisions would be taken by the provinces in this regard.

The meeting also reviewed the latest COVID-19 situation in the country and then decided about the reopening of educational institutes, exam schedule and summer vacations.

All education ministers, including the Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan ministers are members of the IPEMC, which is responsible for formulating policies related to the education sector.

The federal government has allowed educational institutes to resume in-person learning from May 24 (today) in districts where the COVID-19 positivity ratio is less than 5%.

The vaccination plan for teachers also came under discussion during the meeting.

The Federal Education Ministry, after consultations with the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), had announced that the teachers will be vaccinated for coronavirus on priority to bring an end to the disruption in the education sector and reduce learning losses.

In its previous meeting, the IPEMC had decided to hold exams in the country after June 15.

“The respective boards will announce the exact dates, but in principle, exams will start after June 15 with priority to grade 12 and 10 to be followed by 11 and 9,” Mehmood had said in a tweet.

“Intermediate and Matric exams would be given priority so that results can come in before university admissions,” he had said.