Karachi Matric supplementary results 2009

BSEK announced SSC-II supplementary results
Karachi, Dec 24: Results for the SSC Part-II (Class X) Supplementary Examination 2009, Science and General Group (Regular and Private), were announced on Wednesday by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK).

BSEK Controller of Examinations Kalim Asghar Kirmani said that as many as 16,880 candidates registered for the supplementary examinations in the Science group, while 16,285 candidates appeared; 10, 104 people (62.04 per cent) cleared the exams.

Eleven male and seven female candidates received 'A-1' grades; 181 male and 119 female candidates got 'A' grade; 857 male and 806 female candidates managed 'B' grades; 2,360 male and 1903 female candidates got 'C' grades; 2,771 male and 903 female candidates had 'D' grades; and 147 male and 15 female candidates passed the exam with 'E' grades.

Meanwhile, in the General Group (Regular and Private) category, 5, 457 students registered for the exams and 5, 159 candidates appeared, whereas 2, 929 candidates (56.77 per cent) passed.

No candidate managed to score 'A-1' grade; 19 male and five female candidates secured 'A' grade; 67 male and 112 female candidates had 'B' grades; 262 male and 605 female candidates got 'C' grades; 580 male and 1022 female candidates got 'D' grades; and 134 male and 120 female candidates got 'E' grades.

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FUUAST announced date of admission test-2010
Karachi: The admission test-2010 for D.Pharm, BS and M.Sc Computer Science, and BS and MBA Business Administration at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology (FUUAST) will be conducted on January 3, 2010, the registrar has announced.Admit cards can be downloaded from the National Testing Service (NTS) website. The news

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Schools warned against charging security fee
Karachi: The Sindh education department's directorate of private educational institutions has warned private schools of stern action under the schools' registration act if students are charged any fee under the head of security.

Taking strong exception to reports that some private schools as part of security measures are charging between Rs300 and Rs500 from their students for installing walkthrough gates and cameras in their respective institutions, Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq has reportedly asked the provincial directorate of private institutions to immediately submit a detailed report to him about all those schools which were demanding funds from their students to provide security at their institutions.

The provincial director of private educational institutions, Mansoob Hussain Siddiqui, said that the matter had already been referred to monitoring teams. He said they had started conducting inspections of schools on the basis of complaints they had received from students and their parents about the demand for funds in the name of security. Following the inspections, the teams would submit their reports to the directorate and action would be taken against schools accordingly. Besides, the teams would also identify the schools which had failed to take effective security measures so far, he said, adding that action would be taken against such schools under the private educational institutes registration act.

Mr Siddiqui advised parents of schoolchildren to file written complaints at the private institutions directorate against the schools which are demanding fee under the head of security.

"Private schools can neither demand 'annual charges' nor any other fee in the name of donations and if a school is compelling its students to make payment under these heads, their parents must bring these violations into the notice of the directorate so that such schools can be taken to task," he said. He further said that private schools could not charge any fee except monthly tuition and admission fees. Dawn

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High prices of books
Karachi: The government is yet to make serious efforts towards lowering the prices of books, despite having made tall claims in this regard.

High prices of books are a matter of concern for students and booklovers in general, and Federal Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani had claimed during the Karachi Internal Book Fair (KIBF) in 2008 and 2009 that the government was keen to lower the prices of books, and enable low-income groups to enjoy the pleasure of reading. No efforts have been made, however, towards the materialisation of these lofty promises.

Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA) Chairman Khalid Aziz said that if the government really wanted to improve the situation, it would have lowered the import duty on printing paper. "The government has banned the import of paper to protect the local paper industry. This is fine, but the problem is that local manufacturers - three in Punjab and one in Karachi - are unable to provide the required quantity of paper to the publishers. They monopolise the paper trade, and sell their products at exorbitant prices," Aziz said, adding that this was a paradox.

Moreover, the absence of competition has also led to the production of low-quality paper, which is sold at inflated prices. The government claims to want educate the people of Pakistan, but people cannot be educated if books are out of reach of the low-income and even middle-income groups, Aziz maintained.

Paper issues notwithstanding, other basic tools of the trade, such as chemicals, equipment and ink, are also burdened with taxes, which in turn pull up the prices of books. "No less than 50 per cent of the actual selling price of the book actually goes towards paying a whole bevy of taxes, including sales tax and income tax," Aziz said. "If the government continues to do this, publishers will have to go to India to get their books printed. It is a gloomy scenario."

Welcome Book Port (Pvt) Ltd owner Syed Asghar Zaidi also refuted the general perception that publishers mint money by selling books at high prices. "Contrary to what many people think, we are not devouring fat profits. Raw material for printing a book is expensive and the government levies 14 to 15 per cent tax on paper. It is the government that should take concrete steps to lower the prices of books. Without that, all claims made by officials are shallow, and cannot change the situation," he said.

Mona Shahid, a third year engineering student at the NED University of Engineering & Technology, and an avid book reader, also criticised the government. She further said that the reason for the high prices of books was the low demand for reading material. "People who love to read fiction, biographies, poetry and other books are few. This means that books are published in small numbers, thus catapulting prices," she said.

Course textbooks are relatively cheap, but the quality of paper that they are printed on is very poor, Shahid said. She smiled, however, and added that at the end of the day, the responsibility for the entire situation lies on the government.

On the other hand, a former chairman of the University of Karachi (KU) Department of Mass Communication said that publishers are equally responsible for the high prices of books. "Look at this way. The government is charging taxes, but what about the hefty profit pocketed by the publishers? They are getting 15 per cent profit on course-related books and 33 to 40 per cent on other books. They should act responsibly and lower their profits. Without this, their claims are not valid either," he said.

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KU Patch-Clamp workshop
Karachi: Dr Andrew Moorhouse has travelled a long way to attend the Patch-Clamp workshop at the University of Karachi (KU). He said that when he left his home in Sydney (Australia) for his first ever visit to Karachi, he was apprehensive and concerned about the security situation in the city, but added that he could not have been more wrong.

"It was a complete surprise for me. The colourful buses and the buzz of a whole variety of sounds captivated me. It was like coming to a lively drama where things were moving fast, with lots of people milling around. The warmth oozing from these people, however, was astonishing. I can only say that I am attracted by the Pakistani charm on my first visit and hope to come again," he said.

Dr Moorhouse has a PhD from Sydney University and is currently teaching at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He is an expert on Patch-clamp Techniques and has taught at Oxford University, UK, and the National Institute of Physiological Research in Okazaki, Japan.

"This workshop is a good opportunity for Pakistani students to gain experience in the technique. It will allow them to work independently and train others. I am pleased with the level of intelligence among the students here. I had not expected such academic excellence," he said.

Dr Moorhouse's research deals with ion channels that underlay the processes of neurotransmission and olfaction. "Both involve the use of the patch-clamp technique to directly record currents flowing through individual protein-channels, in order to investigate their channel properties," he explained. "We also utilise site-directed mutagenesis to modify the molecular structure of those channels and to determine how their structure relates to their cellular and physiological function."

He has also worked with Nobel laureates Bert Sakmann and Erwin Neher who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells.

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DUH Masters course
Karachi: The Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Wednesday inaugurated Masters course in Health Professions Education (HPE).

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor DUHS Dr Masood Hameed said that the number of enrollments in medical and dental colleges was increasing by the minute and in such a scenario there was an added burden of appointing professional teaching staff as well as pooling proper resources (by hospitals).

Dr Saleem Ilyas, Director Professional Development Centre, DUHS, said that the MPHE course was going to bring a paradigm shift for the undergraduate students. The news

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