Day: October 26, 2022

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Punjab Launches Online Portal to Generate Balanced Question Papers for Students

The Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) has introduced an online Item Bank System (IBS) in order to evaluate the students from classes 1 to 8 in around 65,000 government schools across the province.

The development comes after the provincial School Education Department (SED) ordered the PEC to monitor technical input on the revision, improvement, and execution of the Assessment Policy Framework (APF), which came into effect in 2020.

In this regard, PEC has created IBS on international standards for the quality evaluation of the students in the province.

According to the details, the new system will generate balanced question papers for each class and subject with universal keys and rules in one click. It is aimed at assuring uniform evaluation of students.

In addition, a comprehensive security feature has been embedded into the system to compel the schools to only use it for generating papers.

PEC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tariq Iqbal, detailed that around 300 questions for each subject have been included in it and added that the system will create 25-question papers for each class and subject. It will comprise both the MCQs and comprehensive-related questions.

Punjab’s Minister for School Education, Murad Raas, inaugurated the IBS and said that it has been introduced for students to develop their skills. He further revealed that the question paper will have 50 percent MCQs and 50 percent comprehension questions.

Source: Pro Pakistan

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Social Media Rules to be Finalized within a Month: IT Minister

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin-ul-Haque Wednesday said that the government will finalize new social media rules within a month.

Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on IT, the minister highlighted that the federal cabinet approved social media rules in 2020. However later, the Islamabad High Court directed the Ministry of IT to revise the rules.

Based on the Court’s direction, the government formed a committee to revise the rules. To make changes to the law, the Ministry of IT has taken suggestions from domestic and global companies, said the minister.

The officials from the ministry of IT, while apprising on the cybersecurity policy, said that the ministry has been amending the Personal Data Protection Bill with significant input from social media and tech companies. A Cybersecurity Authority at the national level will be created under the cybersecurity policy, apprised the officials.

Source: Pro Pakistan

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91% Sexual Abuse Cases Against Women are Not Reported by Pakistani Media

The Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) and the Centre for Research, Development, and Communication (CRDC) compared the actual number of crimes against women across Pakistan and those reported in the media.

According to the survey, the most common incidents of violence against women and children in September were kidnapping, rape, and sexual abuse.

Official police data was gathered by filing a ‘Right to Information request to provincial police agencies throughout the country, and responses were obtained from all provinces except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Furthermore, SSDO performed daily media analysis of 13 of Pakistan’s most popular newspapers to measure the attention dedicated to such problems in the mass media.

In September alone, the Punjab Police recorded an astounding 844 occurrences of female abduction. This number is quite concerning since it implies that 28 women are abducted on average daily, indicating that at least one woman is taken every hour.

According to the Punjab Police, 491 women were raped throughout the province in September, which means over a hundred women get raped per week, with an aggregate of 16 women raped daily. In Punjab, however, only 43 such occurrences were documented, according to media tracking.

The above statistics show that almost 91% of incidences of sexual violence go undocumented in the media, creating a false sense of security despite the high prevalence of the menace, in reality, the News has reported. Approximately 105 incidents of female murder were reported to police across the province, but only six were published in the media.

As with the previously described indicators, media reporting is minuscule compared to the actual number of incidents, showing a substantial gap in coverage, as only 5.7% of cases were reported in news stories.

The Executive Director of SSDO, Syed Kausar Abbas, expressed that the organization is hopeful that by comparing media monitoring statistics with official figures from the police, they can offer a detailed insight into what instances the media is bringing to notice, as well as what proportion of cases reach the mainstream media in the first place.

Source: Pro Pakistan

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Maryam Nawaz Deletes Insensitive Tweet About Arshad Sharif After Strong Backlash

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President, Maryam Nawaz, has deleted her harsh tweet about the assassinated journalist, Arshad Sharif, after receiving severe backlash from the country’s intelligentsia and social media community.

As per the initial police report, the 49-year-old journalist was shot by the policemen while he was traveling in a mobile vehicle, which the police believed to have been stolen.

Following the incident, several political leaders and journalists visited Arshad’s residence in Pakistan and expressed condolences to his mother for the loss of her only remaining son.

However, PML-N leader, Maryam Nawaz, tweeted that the murdered journalist used to ridicule her mother Kulsoom Nawaz’s death during his talk shows and therefore he met a deserving end, adding that mankind should learn from this incident.

Consequently, her insensitive tweet drew strong backlash, which forced her to delete it and issue an apology for her negative remarks.

In her apology tweet, she claimed that her intention was not to mock anyone but to learn lessons from the past.

Moreover, she regretted her comments and apologized for hurting the sentiments of the aggrieved. In addition, she prayed for the journalist’s family.

Source: Pro Pakistan