Government colleges admissions in Punjab
Admission fee, date vary in government colleges
Lahore, Aug 09: After declaration of matriculation annual examination's results by all
the eight examination boards of the province last week, admissions to
colleges has finally begun in Punjab. Nonetheless, what is
missing in the whole process is uniformity both in terms of prices of
admission prospectus and final dates to submit forms. It is
understandable that the government, as ever, is helpless in bringing
private sector under control but what can be done is not being done as
far as working of public sector colleges is concerned. The
varied dates to submit forms and varied prices of prospectus of the
public run institutions expose well lack of coordination on part of
officials concerned. On the other hand, sale of prospectus on high rates
by private colleges speaks volumes of government's apathy. The
fee charged by colleges working in private sector is certainly a
different thing for which no government ever, even, thought to introduce
legislation or regulations. Another aspect being highlighted by
the stakeholders is demand of more and more seats at the government
colleges so that maximum number of students could be saved from
exorbitant private sector. For this, the academic circles suggest the
government to introduce second shift programmes in as many public
colleges as possible. Similarly another fact worth mentioning in
connection with result of matriculation exam is introduction of Rs 450
as Certificate Fee by the boards. The Punjab government is being
castigated for the new monetary intervention as earlier there was no
such fee and certificates were issued to the successful candidates
without any extra fee. The new fee has been introduced for
students of government and private schools alike. The Punjab government
had taken much pride in waiving off registration and examination fee of
students of government schools appearing in matric exams without
considering the financial constraints the boards had to face. It
was said the government would compensate the boards by providing grants
to the same but to no avail. The stakeholders believe the Certificate
Fee is an effort to avert financial deficit being faced by the boards at
the cost of waiver to the government schools students. They also term
the recent initiative a move to make a fool of thousands of students and
their parents. Similarly, no uniformity was observed in recently
held MPhil admission tests in the Punjab University. While a number of
departments charged Rs 250 or a bit more per student for the test, the
PU College of Earth & Environmental Sciences took a lead and charged
Rs 500 per student for the test. A number of
institutes/departments did not entertain new admissions at all. One such
was the PU Institute of Communication Studies (ICS). It is learnt the
institute did not enrol students this time owing to last year's
controversy over MPhil admissions for which the management is,
reportedly, already facing an inquiry. The ICS management,
however, claims the institute could not manage a new class as there are
already over three different batches of MPhil. Another excuse they offer
is non-availability of senior faculty members saying without them the
admission process could not be handled properly and objections are
raised as witnessed in the past. The news
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BISE errors reflective of government's careless attitude
Lahore: Mismanagement and errors shown in the matriculation examination
results by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE)
administration and "poor performance" by students belonging to the
government schools has clearly exposed the government's careless
attitude towards the education sector. The entire mismanagement
has clearly laid open the fact that none of the government officials is
bothered to sincerely identify and then rectify the mistakes, and thus
work for the betterment of the education sector. Protests being
carried out at various academic set-ups by students, teachers and
employee unions regarding several academic and domestic issues reflect
that the education system is in poor condition and officials concerned
are constantly misinforming and cheating the Punjab chief minister. It
is important to mention here that on the occasion of the announcement
of the matriculation results, students, parents and media likewise
protested against BISE regarding their mismanagement. The next day,
BISE's own employee welfare unions started a protest for the fulfillment
of their demands. There are even rumors that these corrupt BISE
officials are now planning to disrupt and mishandle the upcoming
Intermediate results as well. Disappointed: BISE administration
has not only disheartened the students and their parents by holding an
entirely mismanaged prize distribution ceremony, but it has also annoyed
the educationists by showing several careless errors in the
matriculation results. The tragedy, however, is that none of the
government high-ups or even the education minister has tried to question
the BISE authorities regarding this issue. Even the BISE
administration accepts that there are certain officials within BISE who
are conspiring against the chief minister. Unfortunately, it is not the
first time that the education minister has ignored the corruption and
mismanagement shown by BISE. The minister previously ignored the illegal
appointment of supervisors in matriculation examination centers by the
BISE officials as well. The underlying reason for all the
mismanagement shown by BISE is that most of the officials employed by
BISE were recruited during the tenure of former Punjab chief minister
and were not given posts as per their qualifications. For example, the
post of the public relations officer (PRO) was given to a candidate who
was a graduate of psychology and according to sources, this particular
official was largely responsible for the mismanagement at the BISE prize
distribution ceremony. According to the sources, officials from
the BISE's PRO department have also been involved in the appointment of
fake supervisors. Action: However, despite the BISE chairman and
other officials having knowledge of this corruption, they are unable to
take action against the officials concerned due to their strong
political backgrounds. Similarly, there are several officials
present in the BISE computer departments who allegedly have been
involved in wide-scale tampering of results, an example being the
tampering done with the result of the top candidate last year. The
officials involved are still designated at their posts, as the
administration is unable to remove them due to the shortage of working
staff. Last year, negligent BISE officials had awarded a bronze
medal and Rs 10,000 for the third position in Intermediate's Commerce
Group (among boys) to a private candidate who had secured 914 marks,
despite another student having scored 915 marks. This year again there
were several errors in the results, examples being, the passing
percentage of Persian written as 119.72 percent, and that 507 candidates
appeared in the examinations while 607 were said to have passed it. Another
shameful aspect for the government is the unsatisfactory performance
shown by the students from government schools, all the top positions
being secured by students from private institutions. This shows that the
educational progress in government schools is extremely slow; despite
repeated claims of the government of trying to alleviate the educational
standard in these institutions. It is high time the government as well
as the education minister take notice of the corruption at BISE and
remove all the corrupt officials. Similarly, the education minister
should also inquire the Lahore EDO as to why the students from
government schools are unable to show good performance in matriculation
and Intermediate examinations. Daily times
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BISEs to charge Rs450 for matric certificate
Lahore: The cash-starved boards of intermediate and secondary
education have imposed a Rs450 fee on each student, who has qualified
the matriculation annual examination and wants a certificate. All the eight boards were crying hoarse since the chief minister had
directed the boards not to charge any fee from students appearing from
public sector schools. The financial position of boards further
weakened with the announcement of 50 per cent increase in salaries and
15 per cent in medical allowance of employees. To improve
financial position of boards, the Punjab Boards Committee of Chairmen
decided to impose Rs450 fee for issuing a certificate to successful
students. The Lahore board alone is expected to generate some
Rs57.04 million from private as well as public sector schools' students.
As many as 126,753 candidates have passed the matriculation annual
examination from the Lahore board. Board officials say boards
were autonomous entities and could take measures and charge students to
generate resources and save themselves from going bankrupt. They say the
decision was taken in a recent meeting of the Punjab Boards Committee
of Chairmen. Students of public sector schools have condemned
the boards' decision alleging that the boards had taken the decision in
clear negation of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's vision of supporting
the poor strata of society to seek education without any financial
burden. It is learnt that some students' parents had also
approached boards' offices requesting them to waive off this fee as they
would be required to pay for every service, including purchasing
prospectuses of different colleges and getting admissions to colleges to
seek higher education. Dawn
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FAST-NUCES Convocation
Lahore: The 22nd Convocation of FAST-National University of Computer and Emerging
Sciences (NUCES) was held at the varsity on Saturday. During the
convocation, degrees were awarded to students in MS Computer Science, MS
Mathematics, MS Software Project Management, Master of Business
Administration, MS Electrical Engineering, BS Computer Engineering, BS
Telecommunication Engineering, BS Telecommunication Engineering, BS
Computer Science and Bachelors of Business Administration.
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PEF result
Lahore: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has declared the result of 9th Quality
Assurance Test (QAT) of the Foundation Assisted Schools. According to
the result issued in a DGPR handout, 1,335 partner schools from 29
districts took part in the test and 1,203 schools qualified the test.
The overall passing percentage was 97 per cent. The detailed result is
available at PEF website www.pef.edu.pk. The news
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PU research journals
Lahore: AS research is the buzzword for universities after the latest ranking of
universities issued by the Higher Education Commission, the Punjab
University last week reviewed the status of its research journals with
regard to their recognition by the HEC and their quality. The PU is
currently publishing 31 research journals being brought out by 13
faculties. PU vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran impressed
upon all research journal editors to keep their record up-to-date and
maintain it as per requirements of the HEC. At the meeting,
journals' editors complained about insufficient PU representation in
various sub-committees constituted by the HEC for recognition of
research journals being published by universities. The faculty members
stressed that the varsity administration should hold meeting with the
HEC officials at the earliest for early recognition of the varsity
research journals. Prof Kamran told the meeting participants
that the university had enhanced the spending on research to the tune of
Rs50 million in the current year's budget. He said state of the art
facilities and latest equipment were being installed in varsity
laboratories to facilitate advanced studies and promote research
culture. Dawn
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PU distinction
Lahore: The Punjab University (PU) Oriental College's magazine has earned the unique
honour of being included on the recently published list of 100 most
important research journals identified by the members of Advisory
Committee of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) which is available
on http://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bas/help/fastrac.htm. The news
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