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University of Karachi postpones papers
KU postpones today's papers
Karachi, Dec 01: The University of Karachi on Sunday announced
postponement of the papers of semester examinations; the BA, BSc and BCom
(regular); and the MBBS (professional part-A) which were scheduled to be held on
Monday (Dec 1).
Controller of examinations Prof Maqsood Hussain said in a
statement that the new date for these papers would be announced
later.
Meanwhile, the university has extended the last date for the
submission of LLM admissions in its affiliated law colleges to Dec 3 with a late
fee of Rs1,000.
Chemistry club
The National Core Group in
Chemistry (NCGC) has established the "Systemic Approach to Teaching and Learning
Chemistry Club (SATLC Club) at the Karachi University with an initial funding of
Rs50,000 to promote chemical sciences in the country.
This was stated by
Prof Mohammad Iqbal Chaudhary, Director of KU's International Centre for
Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) while speaking at the concluding
ceremony of a 10-day international workshop on SATLC.
The workshop was
jointly organised by the ICCBS, NCGC and Higher Education Commission (HEC). Over
70 teaching personnel from across the country attended the workshop where
experts from USA, Germany, Italy, Jordan and Egypt, besides Pakistan, imparted
training. App/Ppi
Schools, colleges to remain closed today
Karachi: All private and government schools in the city will be
remain closed today, that is Monday, due to the current tense situation. City
Nazim Mustafa Kamal stated this on Sunday as the overall situation in the city
is not peaceful. The University of Karachi, Dow Medical College and Federal Urdu
University along with private academic institutes, announced that all their
activities will be suspended on Monday. Daily Times
Your Comments
"Please Inform About the new Dates For Remaining Papers. ( and also inform that all the remaining papers have canceled or not?? ) Which has been postponed due to the voilence in karachi city ."
Name: Muhammad Faizan
Email: faizaniqbal289@hotmail.com
City, Country: karachi, Pakistan
"I am student of karachi university, our semester is in progress today again we distured by the fluctuation conditions of the city. Govt. is failed to control on this, it is bad fortunate for the students of all karachi that they are facing such problems. People residing in karachi should take step by thinking because it is our loss who reside in karachi permanantly. May God give courage to control on the harsh conditions of the city. AZIZ AHMED BURCHA."
Name: AZIZ AHMED BURCHA
Email: azizahmed@rockemail.com
City, Country: karachi, Pakistan
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Teachers demand review of MS/PhD admission policy
Karachi: A meeting organised by the Karachi University Teachers'
Society (KUTS) at the Staff Club on Saturday held an extensive debate on what
they deseribe as the recent MS/PhD admission fiasco and demanded a review of the
entire admission process.
Senior KU teachers participating in the debate
severely criticised the university administration for bypassing all relevant
statutory bodies while taking policy decisions and involving a private
organisation to conduct the entry tests for the MS/PhD programme. They observed
that the whole process lacked transparency and caused a lot of hassle and
financial loss to the candidates, who had to pay double fee owing to the flawed
test and mismanagement.
The teachers demanded constitution of committees
comprising research supervisors at department level.
The participants,
speaking on "MS/PhD admission policy and procedures: a lesson from errors",
deplored that the KU administration kept the departments concerned completely in
the dark about the whole issue, and observed that this appeared to be the major
reason behind the fiasco.
"The blunders committed by the administration
one after another have made the university a laughing stock… there was no vision
and no sensitivity demonstrated at any level," remarked a senior
teacher.
Referring to the chronology of events before the deans'
committee decided to acquire the services of the National Testing Services (NTS)
for conducting the entry test, he recalled that preparations for the admissions
were under way and the teachers concerned had also prepared test papers when
"suddenly the entire programme was hijacked and all became a one-man
show."
Most of the speakers stressed the need for some mechanism to
evaluate the eligibility of academic candidates, coming from diverse
backgrounds, since the Masters and PhD studies were mainly based on research and
required a lot of theoretical and practical work.
While some participants
questioned the rationale behind assessing the academic qualifications of the
candidates possessing KU degrees, there were a few who supported the old system
for granting admissions provided that it was implemented in letter and
spirit.
Prof Mutahir Ahmed, pointing out that some students with fewer
marks in the NTS test got admissions and those with higher marks appeared
deprived of the admission after the final list was declared, quoted examples
from the past where some candidates got admission though they could not write
even two sentences correctly.
Prof S.M. Khalid referring to the merit
list held in abeyance by the KU administration wondered if it might be used
again. "It must be declared cancelled in clear terms," he asserted.
Dr
Shakeel Farouqi demanded setting up of a liaison committee to address complaints
against the NTS.
The meeting also criticised the administration for
allowing the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry to conduct another test of the
candidates seeking admission to that institute, and called for a uniform test to
be conducted by the KU for all applicants, arguing that most candidates who took
the NTS test suffered because the questions were not subject-specific. Dawn
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AKU 21st graduation ceremony held
Karachi: Diplomas and degrees in different disciplines of
medicine, science, nursing education and health sciences were conferred upon 276
graduating students at Aga Khan Medical University (AKU) 21st graduation
ceremony on Saturday. AKU School of Nursing awarded 67 Diplomas in General
Nursing, 28 Post Registered Nurse Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN), 33
BScN, and 12 Masters in Science to nursing students.
The medical college awarded
degrees to 80 Bachelors in Medicine, Bachelors of Surgery (MBBS), four Masters
in Science (MSc) of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, four MSc in Health Policy
and Management, six MSc in Clinical Research, and three Doctorates in Philosophy
to Health Science candidates. The Institute for Educational Development awarded
39 Masters of Education degrees. Professor Dr Sheikh Arshad Saeed was conferred
the title of Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, while the Best
Graduate Award was presented to Dr Roomasa Channa, and the Valedictorian was
Institute for Educational Development graduate Shamsah Raheem Dhanani.
Sindh
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah applauded AKU and called it an institute for higher
learning that offered its students a transparent, merit-based admissions
process. "AKU has managed to raise the bar in every aspect and has encouraged
other organizations to do the same," he said adding that the institution has set
very high standards of innovative patient care. In his address, AKU President
Faiz Rasul said that the university has achieved high standards and is providing
quality education. Rasul stated that AKU also benefits from the generosity of
universities around the world who share their knowledge and experience. He
revealed that last week, AKU signed a second agreement in Canada to extend its
partnership with the McMaster University. Daily Times
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AKU-EB: redefining educational standards
Karachi: The declining standards of local examination boards and their
eroding credibility over the years have resulted in parallel examination systems
from private sector. While the successive governments failed to deliver, the
private sector jumped in local market, which made hundred of schools to get
affiliated with it owing to its improved standards.
Aga Khan University
Examination Board (AKU-EB), a federal examination board, best defines the role
that private sector can play in improving the standards of education especially
the examination process. Established in August 2003, the AKU-EB, a reputable
examination board, has now taken over 200 schools across Pakistan and 60 schools
in Karachi including some of the premier schools.
Talking about how the
AKU-EB is different, Karima Kara, Associate Director AKU-EB said, "We not only
test the national curriculum but we also enrich it." While explaining she said,
"The AKU-EB's examination syllabuses include Specific Learning Objectives (SLO)
with cognitive levels, scheme of assessments, teaching strategies, command words
and their definitions. These documents help to regulate and standardise teaching
activities." "We have also linked the syllabus of classes IX and X with classes
XI and XII," she continued, adding, "The current examinations report only total
scores. There is no feedback on what went well and what didn't. The AKU-EB
utilises state-of-the-art public examination practices. Through the introduction
of the e-marking technology it provides the written answer of each question
separately to several evaluators for marking, thereby ensuring that the
evaluators cannot identify the candidate and enabling correlation of the marks
for consistency."
Asked if they are satisfied with the national
curriculum, she said, "There is nothing wrong with the national curriculum. It
is only that the teachers have not seen it and are not aware of it." She further
said that what matters the most is what happens with it in the classrooms and
the type of teaching and learning that goes on. Replying to why the AKU-EB does
not have its own Text Book Board, Kara said, "We do not believe in restricting
students and teachers to one book. We rather encourage them to consult various
books, resources and reference materials that best meet the objectives of the
syllabus. We also work closely with the book publishers to ensure that
appropriate resources are available."
The AKU-EB claims that current
public examinations accord undue value to detailed memorisation of a single text
book. Rote learning of the text book is reinforced by the structure and style of
question papers, which in turn defeats the basic targets of education and of the
national curriculum, which are acquisition, understanding and application of
knowledge. The AKU-EB examinations, they claim, have made information available
to the candidates and ask them to bring their ideas and understanding to bear on
that information.
One of the advantages of the AKU-EB as compared to
Cambridge System is that their students do not require equivalence for
admissions in graduate schools/universities since the AKU-EB is a member of
Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC). Additionally, they are registered with
International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA), which is another
advantage since their students are internationally recognised as well. The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 23 May, 2012 |
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