Define secondary education. Draw organizational structure of secondary education?

If you want to view other related topics. Click Here.

Secondary education in Pakistan begins from grade 9 and lasts for four years. After end of each of the school years, students are required to pass a national examination administered by a regional Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (or BISE). Upon completion of grade 9, students are expected to take a standardized test in each of the first parts of their academic subjects. They again give these tests of the second parts of the same courses at the end of grade 10. Upon successful completion of these examinations, they are awarded a Secondary School Certificate (or SSC). This is locally termed a ‗matriculation certificate‘ or ‗matric‘ for short. The curriculum usually includes a combination of eight courses including electives (such as Biology, Chemistry, Computer and Physics) as well as compulsory subjects (such as Mathematics, English, Urdu, Islamic studies and Pakistan Studies). Students then enter an intermediate college and complete grades 11 and 12. Upon completion of each of the two grades, they again take standardized tests in their academic subjects. Upon successful completion of these examinations, students are awarded the Higher Secondary School Certificate (or HSSC). This level of education is also called the FSc/FA/ICS or ‗intermediate‘. There are many streams students can choose for their 11 and 12 grades, such as pre-medical, pre-engineering, humanities (or social sciences), computer science and commerce. Each stream consists of three electives and as well as three compulsory subjects of English, Urdu, Islamiat (grade 11 only) and Pakistan Studies (grade 12 only). Alternative qualifications in Pakistan are available but are maintained by other examination boards instead of BISE. Most common alternative is the General Certificate of Education (or GCE), where SSC and HSSC are replaced by Ordinary Level (or O Level) and Advanced Level (or A Level) respectively. Other qualifications include IGCSE which replaces SSC. GCE and GCSE O Level, IGCSE and GCE AS/A Level are managed by British examination boards of CIE of the Cambridge Assessment and/or Edexcel International of the Pearson PLC. Generally, 8-10 courses are selected by students at GCE O Levels and 3-5 at GCE A Levels. Advanced Placement (or AP) is an alternative option but much less common than GCE or IGCSE. This replaces the secondary school education as ‗High School Education‘ instead. AP exams are monitored by a North American examination board, College Board, and can only be given under supervision of centers which are registered with the College Board, unlike GCE O/AS/A Level and IGCSE which can be given privately. The bulk of the secondary schools come under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. They follow a common curriculum, imparting a general education in languages (English and Urdu ), Pakistan Studies, Islamiyat and one of the following groups: Science, ―General‖ or Vocational. The Science group includes Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology; the ―General‖ group includes Mathematics or Household Accounts or Home Economics, General Science and two general education courses out of some 40 options. The Vocational group provides choices from a list of commercial, agricultural, industrial or home economics courses. There are also ―non-examination‖ courses such as Physical Exercise of 15-20 minutes daily and Training in Civil Defense, First Aid and Nursing for a minimum of 72 hours during grades 9 and 10. The Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) taken at the end of the tenth grade is administered by the government‘s Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. Admission to the ―intermediate‖ colleges and Vocational schools is based on score obtained at the SSCE. The grading system is by ―divisions‖ one to three. In order to be placed in the First Division, a student must score a minimum of 60 percent of the total of 1000 ―marks;‖ those obtaining 45 to 59 percent are placed in the Second Division ; and those getting between 264 and 499 out of 1000 are placed in the Third

Division, while below 264 are declared failed. For those accustomed to U.S. grading, these norms would appear low. Those in the First Division would compare favorably with A students in American schools.