Photo: Express
Karachi: The controversial results of the first year intermediate examination of 2023 have been revealed by the Karachi Board of Secondary Education, and as a result of these results, the doors to professional education for Karachi students have almost closed.
In the past and in the coming year, thousands of students will not be able to get admissions in the engineering and medical colleges because the NED University admits students based on the results of the intermediate year.
In order to appear for these admissions, students must be eligible to take the entrance test and must have obtained at least 60% marks in the first year. For the pre-medical entrance test, it is also necessary that the students have obtained 60% marks in their intermediate. Hence the question arises, how will students in Karachi become doctors and engineers?
In the recent results, the number of students who have passed the first year intermediate examination with 60% or more marks is limited because the pass rate for medical is almost 36% and for engineering it is 34%, and in both faculties, only 64% and 66% of students have passed, respectively.
It is clear that the reason for such a large number of students failing is that the students eligible to apply for admissions in engineering are limited.
On being contacted, the Vice Chancellor of NED University, Dr. Tafail Ahmed, not only verified the current situation, but also expressed deep concern about the matter. The Vice Chancellor said that the admissions for engineering and medical disciplines require students to obtain 60% marks or more, and if the pass rate is low, it will affect the future admissions.
It should be noted that students who pass with low marks in the exam and fail will face severe challenges in getting admission to both the MBBS and engineering professional degrees.
The Principal of a government college commented on the situation, saying that the general perception is that students who pass with extremely low marks in the basic science subjects are registered in the top colleges for sciences.
It should be noted that at this time the Chairperson, Secretary, and Examination Controller are all vacant at the Karachi Board. The Chief Minister of Sindh has appointed the Commissioner of Karachi as the Chairperson of the Board, and the Commissioner of Karachi has designated relevant officers as Secretary and Examination Controller for two weeks, and a new office order is issued every two weeks.
It should be remembered that the affected students of the first year intermediate are continuously protesting, and even on Tuesday, hundreds of students demonstrated outside the Karachi Press Club.
Here, on Wednesday, January 17, in compliance with the instructions of the Commissioner of Karachi, requests are being collected for scrutiny at the Inter Board, but it is considered unlikely to get results from this scrutiny without the intervention of a high-level committee.