Karachi colleges admissions: B-graders ineligible

Over 16,000 B-graders ineligible for Inter science education
Karachi, July 28: More than 16,000 B-grade matriculates will be among the thousands of aspirants for science education set to be deprived of studies in any of the three science groups — pre-engineering, pre-medical and computer science — in the city's public sector colleges and higher secondary schools due to the limited number of seats in the discipline.

The C and lower grade candidates stand no chance of getting admission to the government science institutions. These candidates number over 23,000 — 18,178 in C grade, 5,120 in D grade and 95 in E grade. They would have no choice but to seek admission to the science faculty in private colleges.

In all, more than 39,000 matriculates are unlikely to be accommodated in the pre-engineering, pre-medical and computer science groups in the city's government colleges and higher secondary schools.

A cursory look at the number of seats allocated by the CAP committee in its 2010 academic year's brochure, containing placement forms for admission to first-year classes, shows that of the total 42,165 seats allocated for admission to the science faculty, in all 23,830 seats (15,250 for boys and 8,580 for girls) will be offered in the pre-engineering group; 16,835 (5,740 for boys and 11,095 for girls) in the pre-medical group and 1,500 (800 for boys and 700 for girls) would be accommodated in the computer science group.

Statistics of the fresh science matriculates provided by the BSEK indicate that of the total 81,981 (45,403 boys and 36,578 girls) candidates who have passed the examination in different grades, 10,524 candidates (3,951 boys and 6,573 girls) obtained A-1 grades; 21,862 candidates (10,599 boys and 11,263 girls) secured A grade and 25,965 candidates (14,563 boys and 11,402 girls) got B grade; 18,178 candidates (11,937 boys and 6,241 girls) secured C grade; 5,120 candidates (4,105 boys and 1,015 girls) got D grade whereas 95 candidates (82 boys and 13 girls) got E grade.

As such, the number of candidates having passed their matric examination-2010 with science in A-1, A and B grades from the Karachi board alone comes to 58,351 as against a total of 42,165 seats available in all the three faculties of science in the city's public-sector institutions for the coming academic session. It means that not only all the C, D and E graders but even 16,186 B graders would not be able to get admission to the science faculty in government institutions this year unless more colleges are opened in the city and the required number of teachers is provided there on an emergency basis.

Asked about the future of those who might not be accommodated in the science faculty, sources in the CAP committee said they would be offered admission to the commerce faculty and if they did not want it, they could seek admission to any private college to pursue their studies in the discipline of their choice.

However, the students who passed their matric examination with general group as regular candidates would not face any difficulty in getting admission to their discipline as the total number of admissions being offered in government colleges and higher secondary schools in commerce and humanities groups are 34,470 seats (20,300 for boys and 14,170 for girls) and 22,780 (5,400 for boys and 17,380 for girls), respectively, the sources added.

Meanwhile, senior college teachers who in the past remained associated with CAP committees apprehended that the admission process would be delayed considerably as a large number of candidates would throng the CAP claim centres after failing to get admission to the science faculty despite having B and C grades.

They said though the government higher secondary schools of the city had once again come under the purview of CAP, the previous experience was that a vast majority of the aspirants wanted to study in colleges rather than higher secondary schools and, thus, a large number of those who were previously accommodated in higher secondary schools left for private colleges.

The process of admissions to 132 government colleges and 25 higher secondary schools in the city under CAP began on Friday with the sale of brochures, containing placement forms, at 52 branches of the Allied Bank.

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KU unable to raise salaries, pension
Karachi: Karachi University has decided not to raise its employees' salaries, despite the government announcement of a 50 per cent hike in public sector employees' perks and pension, owing to its weak financial position.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui on Tuesday.

According to a KU statement, the meeting observed that the university found it very difficult to implement the government decision in the present circumstances as its grant had been drastically slashed by the Higher Education Commission.

"The university wants to immediately implement the government's decision, but since the HEC has drastically slashed the budgetary allocation for the year 2010-2011, the university is going through a severe financial crisis and unable to meet the regular salary, pension and other expenditure bills," said the statement, adding that a number of developmental schemes had been severely affected by the budgetary cut.

The meeting discussed the issues impeding the implementation of the government's decision. Prof Siddiqui appreciated the timely announcement to provide relief to those overburdened by the rising cost of living, and said the increase would surely benefit people in this time of global recession. "However, it is very unfortunate that the university has not received HEC's allocated grant and the KU is going to pay the salaries of this month by in-house borrowing. Keeping in view the situation, it can be said that it will be very difficult for the KU to meet the expenses after implementing the increase in salaries," he said.

The HEC had allocated Rs981.27 million for the financial year 2010-2011 (same as 2009-2010) against the KU's demand of Rs1,969 million, he told the meeting, and said that the expected income from its own sources would be Rs566 million, and the total payroll pension and other expenditure bill appeared to be much higher than the total available allocations. The available funds would not be able to meet KU's financial needs as that the total financial burden due to the recently announced salary enhancement, pension and medical allowance by the government would be around Rs288.415 million per annum. "We have requested the government and the HEC to release additional grants," he said.

Meanwhile, a committee has been constituted to look into the university's financial matters. The committee comprises Pro-Vice-Chancellors Prof Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, Prof Dr Nasiruddin Khan, Dean of the Management and Administrative Sciences Prof Dr Abuzar Wajidi and KU Finance Director Syed Masood Abbas Rizwi.

The committee would meet from time to time to discuss the short- and long-term measures and would also formulate a strategy for initiating revenue generation projects and cut down expanses under different heads.

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Lecturers challenge minister to dialogue
Hyderabad: Four lecturers observed a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Tuesday in protest against what they termed unjustified transfer of college teachers to remote areas.

Talking to reporters, Prof Haq Nawaz Abbasi, Prof Imtiaz Ali Soomro, Prof Anwar Mansoor Mangrio and Prof Tariq Mansoor Qureshi challenged Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq to hold a dialogue with the SPLA leadership at an open forum on the victimization of college teachers.

They said that 3,600 posts of lecturers were lying vacant in different colleges of Sindh, but 100 'favourite' teachers were working in different departments as officers.

They accused the Sindh government of following the destructive educational policies of Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and alleged that favourite college teachers in grade-17 and 18 were holding posts of principals.

On the other hand lecturers were being transferred to remote places for no reason, they said.

They demanded that a permanent transfer policy should be devised and victimisation should be stopped.

They threatened with an extreme action if their demands were not accepted by Aug 2. Dawn

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