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We will not ‘secularise’ education system: Aga Khan Board

Staff Report

KARACHI: The government decision to set up Aga Khan Education Board has generated a serious controversy.

Federal education minister, Jawaid Ashraf Qazi during a seminar at organized by FPCCI recently in Karachi had informed journalists that setting up of Aga Khan Education Board is aimed at enhancing credibility of different examinations conducted by present educational boards.

The federal minister explained that establishment of Aga Khan examination Board would help save precious foreign currency students pay every year for appearing in O & A level of examinations, conducted under British Cambridge Education system.

Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) which is opposing the Aga Khan Educational Board had taken the plea that its establishment is the agenda of tyrannical powers which was aimed at damaging ideology of Pakistan.

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has claimed that majority of people of Pakistan had unanimously disapproved government decision to set up Aga Khan Educational Board as all religious parties are united to accelerate their efforts to deter government from going ahead with its “imprudent” decision.

Replying to all criticisms and blames published in print media of the country, Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) have come forward with explanations in a question- answer form.

Q. Will Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) change the national curriculum?

A. AKU-EB is not authorized by the Government of Pakistan to change the national curriculum. It is one of the 27 examination boards in the country. AKU-EB’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations, like the others, will be based on the government-approved national curriculum and syllabi for all subjects, including Islamiat and Pakistan Studies. Periodic review and definition of the national curriculum is the responsibility of the Curriculum Wing of the Federal Ministry of Education.

Q. What are the attributes of AKU-EB?

A. AKU-EB will offer high quality examinations in English and Urdu; conform to international standards of examinations, such as the Code of Practice that governs the procedures of all British examination boards; evaluate the higher intellectual abilities of comprehension, logical thinking and problem solving; provide secure, valid and reliable assessments of educational achievement; and serve the purposes of certification of competences for school leavers and preparation for higher levels of education. The SSC and HSC given by AKU-EB will be group certificates in accordance with the practice in Pakistan.

AKU-EB will utilize state-of-the-art public examination practices available in many parts of the world. The new technology will provide the written answer of each question separately to several evaluators for marking, thereby ensuring that the evaluators cannot identify the candidate and enabling correlation of the marks for consistency. The technology will assist the elimination of bias, curb dishonest practices, and greatly speed up the processes of verification and compilation of scorcs so that the result can be announced in six weeks.

Q. Will AKU-EB, or the Government, coerce schools into applying for affiliation?

A. Affiliation of schools with AKU-EB is purely voluntary and no school, public or private, is under any compulsion in this regard. AKU-EB was established by the Government of Pakistan in the private sector in order to provide an option for schools and candidates. AKU-EB has started affiliating only interested non-government schools and has so far received inquiries from over 200 well-known schools, including some that provide preparation for the British ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations offered in Pakistan.

Q. Will AKU-EB gradually take over government education boards?

A. AKU-EB has no intention to take over any board nor does it have the capacity to do so. The government has also made it clear on a number of occasions that it has no plans to hand over any examination board to AKU-EB. In 1998, the government boards served 1.2 million candidates for the SSC and the number increased at the rate of 2.9% per annum during the following five years. AKU-EB does not have the capacity to do the work undertaken by the existing examination boards. The purpose of the AKU-EB is to provide a national model of high quality examinations at the secondary and higher secondary levels of education in order to facilitate the improvement of education in schools. It will also enable development of capacity for educational assessment and tests in the county, which will benefit the functioning of the other examination boards and teachers.

Q. is AKU-EB going to ‘secularise’ the education system in Pakistan?

A. AKU-EB will not ‘secularise’ the education system in Pakistan. Abiding by its Ordinance granted by the Government of Pakistan, AKU-EB will follow the national curriculum. Furthermore, AKU-EB will examine students on all subjects, including Islamiyat and Pakistan Studies, according to the national curriculum and syllabi as approved by the Government. Therefore, by virtue of this fact, the notion of ‘secularisation’ is unfounded.

Q. Has USID created AKU-EB in order to change the education system of Pakistan?

A. The creation of AKU-EB was in response to schools and students nationwide, who appealed to AKU as far back as 1995 for an alternate examination system that encouraged the development of reasoning and critical skills rather than rote learning. Through the past nine years, the Board of Trustees of the University considered this proposal and approved it formally in 2000, following extensive consultations with educationists, policy makers and successive government administrations. Thereafter, on the encouragement of the government of Pakistan, it applied for recognition of AKU-EB and was granted the same through an Ordinance in November 2002.

The cost of implementing AKU-EB over the first five years amounts to Rs. 438 million or US$ 7.3 million. The University has already allocated Rs. 168 million ($2.8 million) from its own resources to support this initiative. For the balance of Rs 270 million or US$4.5 million, in 2003, under its agreement with the Government of Pakistan to support the Governments education sector reforms, USAID agreed to support partially the establishments of the Examination Board with a grant for this amount.

Claims of a hidden American agenda behind the creation of AKU-EB or that of covert addition funding from foreign sources, are therefore without substance and do not reflect the reality on ground. Since the creation of Pakistan and over the past decades, it is well recognized that AKDN including AKU have worked relentlessly to improve the quality of life of Pakistanis. They have done this regardless of religion, gender, and economic standing, relying primarily on the attributes of merit and access for all.

Q. Will AKU-EB cater only to the privileged classes?

A. No. As with all AKU related initiatives, access will be provided to all socio-economic strata of society. AKU-EB will be made accessible to individuals with different income levels through a graduated fee system. The examination fee assigned to not-for-profit schools is Rs. 1,500 per candidate and Rs. 3,000 for other schools. By comparison, the fee for a reasonably comprehensive set of subjects at the ‘O’ level of the British boards is about Rs. 20,000. Moreover, unlike the British boards, AKU-EB will be a national resource based on the national curriculum and established for the benefit of the country.

Q. Why duplicate the existing examination board provision?

A. There is no duplication. The system adopted by public examination boards had encouraged memorization and rote learning. The option provided by AKU-EB, on the other hand, emphasizes comprehension and application of knowledge. Although both systems are based on the national curriculum, the nature of the examinations and the methods of education required to prepare students for the examinations will be different. Preparation of the students for the examinations of AKU-EB will require re-orientation of teachers and schools to this modern method which is used by most examinations systems including ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. AKU-EB will be able to analyse the candidates’ responses to questions and pass on what it learns to schools and teachers. This feedback will facilitate the strengthening of our education system.

Q. Will AKU-EB students gain acceptance from the wider academic community. Will they get admission in the local universities like Karachi University?

A. Yes. By law the certification of students by AKU-EB will be accepted by all academic institutions. The Section 7 of the AKU-EB Ordinance states: “All certification by the Examination Board shall be evidence of the successful completion by the holder thereof of the appropriate level of education and shall be accorded full credit and recognition.”

Q. Why did the Government create examination boards in the private sector?

A. At present the school leaving certificates of the public sector examination boards are neither accepted by overseas nor by many Pakistani universities. In order to make Pakistan competitive, it is imperative that its school graduates gain acceptance into reputed universities at home and abroad.

The setting up a AKU-EB and the Askari Board, the other examination board in the private sector, are thus a logical response by the Government of Pakistan as a part and parcel of addressing quality in the Education Sector Reforms. AKU has track record of being a role model in setting high standards in nursing, medical and teacher education that have been emulated in Pakistan and other Muslim and developing countries. Consequently, the Government of Pakistan encouraged AKU to establish an examination board that would act as a role model for others.

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