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Karachi 123 government colleges -vs- 44,000 matriculates
Science seats shortage to wreck thousands of budding careers
Karachi, Aug 07, 2008: Over 44,000 fresh matriculates who have passed their
examinations with flying colours will, through no fault of their own, be denied
the opportunity to pursue Intermediate (science) studies since there are simply
not enough seats available in the city's 123 government colleges.
Under
the Centralised Admissions Policy-2008, the government colleges offer in total
only 36,900 seats in the two branches of Intermediate (science) studies,
pre-medical (15,180 seats) and pre-engineering (21,720 seats).
Meanwhile,
this year 81,692 science group students passed their Matriculation examinations
from the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) alone.
This means
that the seats available citywide for the pre-engineering and pre-medical groups
will mainly be filled by the two highest tiers of the BSEK grading system –
those who achieved A-1 grade (12,284 students this year) and A grade (20,986
students). Once these high-achievers claim their seats, there will be only 3,630
Intermediate (science) group seats left for the 22,846 students who passed their
Matriculation (science) examinations in grade B – by any standards a reasonably
high passing grade.
Therefore, the overwhelming majority of the grade B
(science) matriculates, and all of the 18,004 of the grade C (science)
matriculates, will be forced to switch to either the commerce or arts
(humanities) faculties.
The shortage of seats is so severe that,
concurrently, at least 20,000 fresh matriculates from the science and general
groups will not be able get admission at all in any first year class in any of
the city's government colleges.
This is because over 100,000 students
will this year seek to be accommodated in first year classes in any of the
city's colleges. However, the number of admissions being offered in all the
colleges combined stands at 80,250 – a figure that includes all the offered
faculties of pre-engineering, pre-medical, computer science, commerce, arts
(humanities) and home economics.
According to statistics available with
and examined, 96,918 students cleared their SSC-Part II examinations
this year (81,692 in the science group and 15,226 in the general group as
regular candidates) from the BSEK alone.
Additionally, there are another
estimated 10,000 students who have cleared O'Levels examinations, have come from
abroad or have passed their Matriculation examinations from the city's Technical
Board or other Karachi boards of education. All these students will also apply
to first year classes in the various government colleges in the city. Thus, the
number of students applying for entrance into Intermediate classes in the city
will this year likely exceed 100,000.
There are 33 higher secondary
schools in the city which, though excluded from the purview of the Centralised
Admissions Policy, will also open admissions to first year classes. However,
educationists believe that only a few hundred students will seek admission into
these institutes, since most such higher secondary schools – with three or four
notable exceptions – lack facilities and have ill-equipped laboratories.
Therefore, they argue, the overwhelming majority of recent BSEK or Technical
Board matriculates and O'Levels graduates will seek admissions into government
colleges.
Strange logic
The irony of the fact is that the
authorities concerned have allocated more seats for the commerce and arts
faculties as against both the faculties of science, despite knowing that the
number of students who did their Matriculation with science subjects from the
Karachi Board alone this year is much higher than those passing their
Matriculation examination in the general group, comprising both the commerce and
arts faculties.
Those who have been assigned the task of framing the
Centralised Admissions Policy have allocated 38,155 seats for the science
faculty, which includes 21,720 for pre-engineering, 15,180 for pre-medical and
1,255 for computer science, while a total of 41,470 seats (22,640 for commerce
and 18,830 for humanities) have been allocated for those who did their
matriculation in the general group.
As such, all those 15,225 students
who had passed their Matriculation examination in the general group as regular
candidates from the Karachi Board, will be accommodated in the government
colleges as the number of seats allocated for the commerce and humanities group
for the ensuing academic session is much higher.
However, there will be a
tough competition among those who will be seeking admission to first year
classes in home economics as there is only one college in the city, Ra'ana
Liaquat Ali Khan, which imparts education in the subjects and the total number
of seats available in the college is a mere 600.
Thousands of fresh
matriculates who will fail to get admission in the government colleges will
throng the private colleges, provided their parents can afford the exorbitant
admission and tuitions fees of those institutions. Dawn
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Issuance of scrutiny applications from 15th
Karachi: Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) will issue applications for
the scrutiny of scripts of SSC Part-II (Class X) Science Group Annual
Examination 2008 from August 15. According to a press release from the BSEK, the
candidates can submit their applications to Board office branches of National
Bank of Pakistan, Askari Commercial Back and Board Office/Taimuria Branch of
Habib Bank Ltd from August 15 to September 10 against a fee of Rs100 per
subject. The News
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