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Sunday December 22, 2024

Online system for Intermediate admissions failing miserably

By Syed Muhammad Askari
August 12, 2024
Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) building. — Facebook/@BIEK Official/file
Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) building. — Facebook/@BIEK Official/file

Severe flaws have emerged in the online procedure for Intermediate admissions in Karachi.

The online system has messed the admissions procedure as the DJ Science College, one of the most prestigious colleges of Karachi, is presently trailing in terms of merit behind a college that has been closed.

Simultaneously, the merit scores for the PECHS girls college and several other reputable colleges have inexplicably dropped. This has created uncertainty and worry among students and parents.

To make matters worse, the college education department has also failed to establish a complaint centre that could receive and resolve complaints related to admissions. Setting up such complaint centre called claim centre has been a practice for years.

Sources told Jang that a worrying anomaly has occurred as a closed institution has unexpectedly topped the merit list, while many students of District East are being led to a college in Nazimabad, which is part of District Central, on the basis of false information that the college lies in District East.

It has also emerged that pre-medical students are being bizarrely enrolled in commerce colleges, and for the first time in 23 years, no students have been admitted to any higher secondary school for Intermediate.

Talking to the scribe, Prof Naveed-ur-Rab Siddiqui, director general of the Sindh colleges, confirmed the stream of complaints and said that the department was looking into the matter.

He assured that a complaint redress system would be active soon, allowing students to file issues. He said an important meeting had been called today (Monday) to discuss the discrepancies in the online system for Intermediate admissions.

This scandalous negligence has come to the fore when the Sindh government claims to have spent billions on education and received dollars from international donor agencies to improve the education sector. The glaring mismanagement and blatant disregard for merit have exposed the system's deep-rooted flaws, leaving many to question whether these funds are being utilised effectively as the future of countless students hangs in the balance.