Federal Minister for Education, Shafqat Mahmood, has advised students to prepare for examinations instead of running Twitter trends calling for the cancellation of exams.
After several impediments and delays, the Government has finally begun the board examinations in Pakistan. In a stern message, he asked students to prepare as examinations will not be postponed or delayed this time. Its also possible to use helpers such as essayassistant.org if you need some external help
He expressed these views in a TV talk show. He said that examinations have started in Sindh and will commence in Punjab as well. “I would advise the students to stop spending time on Twitter to make trends and that it is better to focus on their education. There is still time left for exam preparation,” he said.
For the past few months, the education minister has been the target of top Twitter trends run by students calling for the cancellation of exams. This also included him being the subject of memes on social media. Undeterred by extensive protests by the students, the education ministry and the government has decided to conduct board examinations this year.
Please @ImranKhanPTI cancel board exams in Pakistan so students can breath and just hold a special exams for those students who don't want number given by educational institutions of Pakistan so everyone will be please.#ImranKhanStudentsKiSunlo pic.twitter.com/tmUauYJgNQ pic.twitter.com/d8wolneaA3
— Abdullah (@Abdullah_3546) July 2, 2021
Now the voice of the students is being heard not only in Pakistan but all over the world so I would urge the students to remain united and never back down from their goal.#ImranKhanStudentsKiSunLo #WewantpromotionStudents pic.twitter.com/dHLWXV6vqA
— Munii 🥀 (@Muniba__) July 3, 2021
Students even called out Prime Minister Imran Khan on social media to intervene and call for the cancellation of examinations. Students posit threat to their lives from COVID-19 while calling for the cancellation of examinations.
In April, Shafqat Mahmood had announced that all exams in Pakistan are canceled until 15th June. Students sitting for the O-Level exams in May/June will now take the exams in the Oct/Nov session.
As per an NCOC meeting earlier in April, authorities stated that they will monitor the Covid situation and decide whether or not Pakistan needs strict measures regarding the containment of the pandemic.
However, recently the country experienced a massive surge in Covid cases which raised government concerns. Authorities urged the public to follow SOPs to prevent a situation like India. PM Khan even asked the help of the Army to assist the local police to enforce strict measures.
Read more: Shafqat Mahmood slams fake image of Cambridge examinations in Pakistan
Shafqat Mahmood’s first stance
In May, Shafqat Mahmood said that promoting students without examinations is almost impossible this year.
Speaking about the issue on a private news channel, the PTI leader said the authorities witnessed several irregularities in the grading system after deciding to promote the students last year. Many performing students had been given poor grades whereas the British Council also agreed to conduct exams following the COVID-related SOPs.
The educational ministers thinks this will happen to Pakistan if they cancel board exams 🙂😂#ImranKhanStudentsKiSunLo #Wewantpromotion @ImranKhanPTI @Shafqat_Mahmood pic.twitter.com/kkJc9sFuyV
— Ahmad (@ahmadch4419) July 2, 2021
“No one could predict the future of the ongoing pandemic. Also, the decisions of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) were not solely taken by me,” he responded to a query.
All provincial ministers attended the NCOC sessions and the decisions have been taken with a consensus.
The ruling party leader also mentioned that several parents also favored examinations and are requesting the authorities to conduct exams as their children have completed their preparations.
Read more: Examinations to be held on schedule in Pakistan: Shafqat Mehmood
Expressing discontent on the matter, he added that at least five million students had been promoted without exams last year and if we continue promoting without taking exams, children will stop continuing to study. Grades will not be awarded to anyone without appearing in the exams, he clarified.