A level vs matric system
The debate over the O/A level system and local examinations bodies seems never ending. As one veteran New Balance Outlet Store teacher put it bluntly, "The parallel educational system which inherently divides our society into classes is so grave that one can't help but talk about it to do the least."
So what's the deal? What makes the Cambridge O/A level education system different from other examination boards in the country?
Sir Ahmed, a senior teacher who taught in several of O/A Level schools in the city, says, "Everything. From course outline, to grading approach, to testing methods, they are worlds apart."
But there are people who believe the very question is out of place. The comparison between the Cambridge board and the local boards is divisive and is meant to provoke a conflict that does not exist.
"I think it is a wrong question to begin with," says, Asif Zaman, a seasoned teacher of local board, who runs a private tuition centre in Gulshan.
"The Cambridge board is internationally recognised and practically out of the reach of the salaried class, whereas the local examination bodies, despite the shortcomings, are catering to the whole country, which, given its scale and the usual limitations that entail institutions in a developing country, is at least functioning. So it goes without saying that the quality of education differs widely, but so do the objectives of Cambridge and the local boards. The former is comparatively exclusive and the later is up for the masses."
But there is a general perception that students of O and A levels are better equipped in terms of general knowledge and overall intellectual vigour than their local boards' counterparts, which provide them with a natural edge in higher education.
"It is true that Cambridge students do get an edge, but I think the edge comes not from what is being taught but the method of teaching and their schooling in English language, which is sadly the passport to success in our country. It has been 64 years and we are still unable to get rid of our colonial hangover," says Attaullah Khan, an educationist, who teaches at a private college in Karachi.
"No successful country in the world instructs their children in a foreign language. But here it is considered a symbol of prestige," he adds.
Sir Ahmed, who himself have been a student of the local board, believes that the ills of local examination board stem from mainly two thing: the culture of copying during exams and the predictability of the question paper.
"The thing is we have a rampant culture of cheating that goes pretty much unabated in exam centres along with the notorious tradition of 'five year' papers the popular idea that exam questions are more or less churned out of last five years' question papers. This practice simply doesn't encourage candidates to dig deep in the course, which naturally produce students who rely on selective studies and rot learning of a handful of pages from the whole syllabus."
But steps have been taken to change in the overall testing method of local examinations. For instance, in the recent past, the multiple choice questions have been introduced by the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) and plans to print five different short question papers in random orders to curb the copy culture are also in the pipeline.
There are also talks swirling over the establishment of a 'Question Bank' to end the culture of guess papers and five year papers. The bank would be responsible for producing different questions every year and make sure that same questions are not repeated.
But given the signature bureaucratic inertia of government organisations, one can only wait and hope to see that these changes come to affect immediately and students of the local board get to prepare for their new balance 574 womens grey pink exams with the same rigour and challenge like their counterparts in the Cambridge system.