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&nbsp;LAHORE:THE Punjab government is seriously weighing up an option to abolish practicals from matriculation and intermediate examinations and to replace the same with Alternative to Practicals (ATP) as offered in foreign qualifications like O and A levels. 
An important workshop to contemplate introduction of reforms in practical exams and the possibility of switching over to the ATP pattern was held recently. The workshop &igrave;Reforms in Practical Examinations&rsquo; was organised by Punjab Higher Education Department with the collaboration of GTZ. The event held at a local hotel was chaired by Secretary Higher Education Ahad Khan Cheema while senior officials of different examination boards of the province and representatives of top private institutions also attended. 
The meeting though did not reach any conclusion was unanimous in urgent need of taking steps to stop malpractices and favouritism in practical portion of matriculation and intermediate exams held by Boards of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISEs) of the province. The participants expressed concerns over prevailing system maintaining under this system the examiner conducting practical exams enjoyed maximum discretionary powers while marks awarded by him/her were seldom questionable no matter if a student was awarded 10 out of 25 marks or 20 out of 25 marks etc. &lsquo;It is a fact that this aspect is seldom questioned&rsquo;, a senior official of a board said while seeking anonymity. He further said the possibility of favouring a particular candidate in practical exams could not be ruled out. Therefore there is dire need of addressing this issue, he went on to say. They suggested that efforts should be made to regulate this aspect in order to ensure that neither any student suffer no any get favour. A proposal was also floated to amalgamate marks of practical portion of science subjects into theory portion. 
A participant of the meeting said the option of introducing ATP like practicals was thoroughly discussed and was supported by most of the attendees including government officials. 
It is worth mentioning here that UK boards offering qualifications like O and A level in Pakistan don&iacute;t bar private students from acquiring science education unlike local boards as the issue surfaces raises almost every year before commencement of the exams. The issue surfaces as students who want to appear as private candidates could not avail opportunities of practicals unlike students of government as well as private schools. Addressing the workshop Secretary Higher Education Ahad Khan Cheema said mismanagement in matriculation and intermediate practical examination was a known fact admitting that most of the candidates also used theirs sources to get high marks in the practical examination. &lsquo;Because of this phenomenon poor and eligible students are denied their rights and the failed to get good results&rsquo;, he said adding &lsquo;There are lots of other deficiencies in practical examinations system which makes the position of high achievers doubtful.&rsquo; 
Ahad Khan Cheema further said the government was well aware of the importance of practical of science subjects and wanted it to be the part of examination system but at the same time the government desired to make this system transparent and free from malpractices. 
For this purpose government wants to reduce the discretionary powers of examiner and has a plan to add questions of practical in theoretical papers, he added