Karachi 123 government colleges -vs- 44,000 matriculates
Science seats shortage to wreck thousands of budding careers
Karachi, Aug 07, 2008: Over 44,000 fresh matriculates who have passed their examinations with flying colours will, through no fault of their own, be denied the opportunity to pursue Intermediate (science) studies since there are simply not enough seats available in the city's 123 government colleges.
Under the Centralised Admissions Policy-2008, the government colleges offer in total only 36,900 seats in the two branches of Intermediate (science) studies, pre-medical (15,180 seats) and pre-engineering (21,720 seats).
Meanwhile, this year 81,692 science group students passed their Matriculation examinations from the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) alone.
This means that the seats available citywide for the pre-engineering and pre-medical groups will mainly be filled by the two highest tiers of the BSEK grading system – those who achieved A-1 grade (12,284 students this year) and A grade (20,986 students). Once these high-achievers claim their seats, there will be only 3,630 Intermediate (science) group seats left for the 22,846 students who passed their Matriculation (science) examinations in grade B – by any standards a reasonably high passing grade.
Therefore, the overwhelming majority of the grade B (science) matriculates, and all of the 18,004 of the grade C (science) matriculates, will be forced to switch to either the commerce or arts (humanities) faculties.
The shortage of seats is so severe that, concurrently, at least 20,000 fresh matriculates from the science and general groups will not be able get admission at all in any first year class in any of the city's government colleges.
This is because over 100,000 students will this year seek to be accommodated in first year classes in any of the city's colleges. However, the number of admissions being offered in all the colleges combined stands at 80,250 – a figure that includes all the offered faculties of pre-engineering, pre-medical, computer science, commerce, arts (humanities) and home economics.
According to statistics available with and examined, 96,918 students cleared their SSC-Part II examinations this year (81,692 in the science group and 15,226 in the general group as regular candidates) from the BSEK alone.
Additionally, there are another estimated 10,000 students who have cleared O'Levels examinations, have come from abroad or have passed their Matriculation examinations from the city's Technical Board or other Karachi boards of education. All these students will also apply to first year classes in the various government colleges in the city. Thus, the number of students applying for entrance into Intermediate classes in the city will this year likely exceed 100,000.
There are 33 higher secondary schools in the city which, though excluded from the purview of the Centralised Admissions Policy, will also open admissions to first year classes. However, educationists believe that only a few hundred students will seek admission into these institutes, since most such higher secondary schools – with three or four notable exceptions – lack facilities and have ill-equipped laboratories. Therefore, they argue, the overwhelming majority of recent BSEK or Technical Board matriculates and O'Levels graduates will seek admissions into government colleges.
Strange logic
The irony of the fact is that the authorities concerned have allocated more seats for the commerce and arts faculties as against both the faculties of science, despite knowing that the number of students who did their Matriculation with science subjects from the Karachi Board alone this year is much higher than those passing their Matriculation examination in the general group, comprising both the commerce and arts faculties.
Those who have been assigned the task of framing the Centralised Admissions Policy have allocated 38,155 seats for the science faculty, which includes 21,720 for pre-engineering, 15,180 for pre-medical and 1,255 for computer science, while a total of 41,470 seats (22,640 for commerce and 18,830 for humanities) have been allocated for those who did their matriculation in the general group.
As such, all those 15,225 students who had passed their Matriculation examination in the general group as regular candidates from the Karachi Board, will be accommodated in the government colleges as the number of seats allocated for the commerce and humanities group for the ensuing academic session is much higher.
However, there will be a tough competition among those who will be seeking admission to first year classes in home economics as there is only one college in the city, Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, which imparts education in the subjects and the total number of seats available in the college is a mere 600.
Thousands of fresh matriculates who will fail to get admission in the government colleges will throng the private colleges, provided their parents can afford the exorbitant admission and tuitions fees of those institutions. Dawn
