The A-Levels students of Cambridge International Education in Pakistan have announced holding peaceful protests in three major cities of the country against the unjust grading in their results of 2023.

The students are set to protest on Monday, August 14 at Islamabad Press Club at 4 PM. Another protest will be held at Lahore Press Club at 3:30 PM on Tuesday, August 15, while students in Karachi will protest at Karachi Press Club at the same time.

The announcement came days after the students received their results. Several students showed disappointment through social media after they were awarded lower grades by the CIE, while prominent political and civil society figures also voiced their support for the students.

Journalist Hamid Mir called it unfortunate that thousand of Pakistani students were forced to come on roads to protest against unjust grading in Cambridge exams.

“These exams were cancelled due to May 9th violence,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter while sharing an image of the protest call.

Former PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain also joined the discussion by calling it a misfortune that students are choosing to enrol in the Cambridge programme as Pakistan’s education system is in tatters.

“The real misfortune is that after 72 years of independence, our education system has become so worthless that we spend millions of dollars to make children sit for Cambridge exams just to get a British certificate, but we have not been able to fix our education system,” he wrote.

It is pertinent to mention that several examinations and educational activities were cancelled or rescheduled due to the violent protests on May 9, 10, 11 and 12 owing to political unrest across the country.

The students stated that they were not provided with appropriate options to appear in the examinations in the later days, while several complained of unfair rescheduling of their exam day.

PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz Sharif had also urged the CIE to review the grading system for students who took their examinations in 2023 after countless students complained that they were given lower grades.

“Many hundreds have reached out voicing their dissatisfaction with the CIE grading this year,” she wrote on X.

Maryam endorsed the view that the grading was unfair towards Pakistani students.