The Sindh High Court (SHC) has adjourned the plea seeking cancellation of the O, A-Level exams till Friday after hearing the arguments in the case for two-and-half hours.
During the hearing, Jibran Nasir said that if the Cambridge exams can be cancelled in India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Oman and Thailand, then why is the Pakistani government insisting on conducting the exams.
He said like the last time, Cambridge can grade students based on the level of achievement that each student has demonstrated.
“Rest of the world have cancelled the examinations, but Pakistan is the sole country where they haven’t been cancelled,” he added.
In response to a question by the court, the counsel representing the students seeking cancellation of the exams, the O and A Level exams can be held in October or November if the government agrees to postpone them.
Jibran also shared the details of the case on his Twitter handle. He said the court adjourned the hearing till 10am (Friday) to complete arguments in the case. According to the lawyer, Cambridge’s case is based on the “April 17 deadline passing for Pakistan”. However, in the case of India, Cambridge was flexible and moved the deadline to April 19, he added.
Jibran also published another tweet to corroborate his claim.
On Wednesday, the Federal Ministry of Education submitted its response to the petition filed by the plaintiff, while the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) also submitted its own decision on exams and relevant information to the court.
Students across the country have been protesting taking exams in the midst of the pandemic. They demand that the government authorises CAIE to switch to school-assessed grading instead of conducting exams, as is being done in multiple other countries where CAIE operates.
Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, after a meeting of the NCOC with all education ministers, announced on Tuesday that all Matric, Intermediate, O and A-Level exams will commence this summer across Pakistan.
Last month, CAIE announced that O and A-Level exams across the country would start on May 10, 2021, after the education minister had requested that the exams be rescheduled in light of COVID-19.
