Exams will be conducted at any cost, Shafqat Mahmood

The Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood reiterated Wednesday that board exams will be held after July 10 at any cost.

While speaking at the National Assembly Budget session, the minister repeated that the decision to take exams is taken mutually keeping all the provincial ministries, NCOC, and health ministry on board and hence cannot be reverted.

“We have altered the course and deferred the exam date to facilitate students. Students will be taking elective courses exams only which will be held regardless,” he stressed.

The minister asked the students to study for exams and said that the majority of the students want exams and are studying for them. He said that the confusion around admissions in medical and engineering colleges has also been sorted and the government will try to support and assist the student and ensure that their academic year is not wasted.

He said that the government has been blamed for being dysfunctional in the education sector.

Answering that the minister said that the former government had spent 4.7 billion Rs. on the education sector in their last term year whereas, the PTI government has a budget of more than 28 billion set aside for education this year. He said that the allocated budget has been raised to 100 percent as compared to last year and 500 percent as compared to what the former government spent on the education sector.

He added that 15 billion were allocated for education in the federal capital of which 95 percent has been spent already. Moreover, Rs. 7 billion has been allocated for Islamabad school for the next year. He further said that 124 billion has been allocated for university higher education which is 30 percent more than what the former government spent on universities. Recurring grants have also been increased from 64 billion to 81 billion in the fiscal higher education commission budget.

He also said that student enrollment has increased to 45 percent in higher education since previous years out of which 32 percent are been given financial assistance. Ph.D. faculty has also increased by 70 percent while overseas scholarships have also increased by 40 percent.