ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday announced that the O and A level examinations under Cambridge Board due in May and June this year are postponed amid fear of coronavirus outbreak in the country, ARY NEWS reported.
The decision was made in a meeting chaired by the federal minister and attended by provincial education ministers, Head of the Cambridge in Pakistan Uzma Yousaf and officials from the federal education ministry.
Further, the Higher Education Commission shared in the meeting that due to delay in Board exams, Universities would also delay their admissions to October pic.twitter.com/6H945MpWDv
— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) March 17, 2020
Sharing the decisions of the meeting on micro-blogging site-Twitter, Shafqat Mahmood said: ” To review the latest situation re-closure of schools I held a meeting today with provincial education ministers and senior education officials. It was decided that O and A level exams of Cambridge due in May and June, would be postponed. Cambridge will announce new dates”.
He further announced that upcoming exams to be conducted by the federal and provincial boards would also be postponed and would be held later between June 01 and July 15 as per the discretion of the respective boards.
Re exams to be conducted by the Federal and Provincial Boards, it was decided in the meeting of Education Ministers today that they too would be postponed and would now be held between 1st June and 15th July. Exact time table would be issued by each Board https://t.co/MuzuowDxzE
— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) March 17, 2020
“Further, the Higher Education Commission shared in the meeting that due to delay in Board exams, Universities would also delay their admissions to October,” he said in a Twitter post.
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It is pertinent to mention here that all educational institutes across the country were shut down amid fear of coronavirus as the federal and provincial governments are making all-out efforts to control the spread of the virus that has already seen over 7000 deaths globally and had infected over 170,000 people.