E-portal launched to issue equivalence certificates

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday announced that the education ministry, in consultation with local and international stakeholders, has developed an e-portal for the Inter Board Commitee of Chairmen (IBCC) that will let students receive equivalence certificates at their doorstep ater completing simple formalities.

The IBCC issues equivalence certificates for A and O levels, International Baccalaureate Programmes, religious degrees and other qualifications.

The minister told reporters that everything from the submission of payment slips to documents had now been digitalised and students would be able to track their application status.

“Previously students used to face extreme difficulty, carrying their original documents to the IBCC office, then queuing up for hours for their turn before making it to banks to submit payment slips,” Mahmood said.

He added that students would brave difficulties because most of them were unfamiliar with the banking process.

Mahmood said the entire process was a burdensome one and there were fears of misplacement of original documents submited by the students.

He said the new system was devised ater meetings with all stakeholders, including the 30 boards in Pakistan and international education boards such as Cambridge.

The minister said students facing issues accessing the online facility could still avail the manual process that was in place already.

He said once the online application had been completed, students would receive a certificate at their address, adding that in future “these certificates will also be given to students in PDF format.”

He said this upgradation was a “revolutionary change,” which aims to create ease for students, adding that several other steps would be taken in the future to facilitate students.

Meanwhile, the physics question paper for class 10 in Karachi has been leaked, generating a big fiasco for the students and parents alike.

The disposable masks, the sanitisers and electronic thermometers all reached the designated secondary education examination centres on time along with the nervous students and invigilators though the same could not be said about the question papers on the first day of the final matric exams.

Many examination centres, where the morning physics exam for class 10 was to be taken, had to wait for the question paper to reach them for over two to four hours. And then when the papers finally arrived, they were snatched from the students’ hands ater a few minutes as it was revealed that the paper had been leaked on social media.