Students across Pakistan have taken to Twitter to protest the decision by the Imran Khan-led government and the Cambridge International Examinations to hold exams despite a spiralling coronavirus situation in the country.
The protesting student’s posts led to #ImranKhanCancelEXAMS becoming one of the top 10 trends in Pakistan on Twitter.
According to the Minister of Education Shafqat Mehmood, all Cambridge exams will proceed as scheduled, and will not be making use of teacher assessed grades this year, which means that AS and A Level exam will begin on April 26 and O Level and IGCSE exams on May 10.
Matriculations and intermediate board exams, on the other hand, have been deferred and will take place varyingly across provinces, starting late May.
Students have constantly kept up the pressure on the government to hold off on exams, initially pleading to the education minister to reconsider the decision to proceed as per schedule.
The focus has now shifted to appealing directly to PM Imran Khan, as the trend had made evident.
“Our Covid-19 death rate is more than 100 on average per day, on average 5 000 cases are reported daily. How can we sit for exams in such a situation? Our physical and mental health should be the first priority,” said the account.
