Unfair advantage: Ad seeking MCQ developers alarms authorities

UHS says private institution wants to steal ‘question bank’ of govt institutions.


Ali Usman May 23, 2014
“Immediate action on your part is required to stop such unethical activities and a strict message needs to be given to this group for issuing such a flagrant and brazen advertisement,” the letter urged the Health Department.

LAHORE:


An advertisement by a private educational institution seeking serving or retired teachers who have developed multiple-choice questions (MCQs) has caused concern to the health authorities in the Punjab.


A chain of private educational institutions published an advertisement in an Urdu daily newspaper on May 14, inviting applications from MCQ developers.

It said the applicants should be serving or retired professors with MSc, MPhil or PhD in science subjects.

According to the criterion outlined in the advertisement, the applicants should have authored entry-test books on physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology or English, and developed the question bank for entry tests.

The advertisement said that the applicants who met the criteria should send in MCQs to “earn a handsome amount for each selected item”.

The Health Department has objected to this. “The advertisement amounts to offering bribes to those who have been setting MCQs for entry tests for medical colleges and engineering universities. We have received a complaint from the University of Health Sciences (UHS),” a senior Health Department official said.

A letter sent to the Health Department by the UHS, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, expresses reservations about the advertisement.

“An advertisement like this has never been seen before. It is alarming how brazen and shameless the academy mafia has become,” said the official who did not want to be named.

“We want to bring to your notice that this is, more or less, the same pattern on which universities which have been authorised to conduct medical and engineering colleges’ entry tests develop their question bank,” read the letter written by UHS Vice Chancellor Muhammad Aslam.

He said “honest and above-board teachers” were invited to the university and asked to prepare multiple-choice questions.

“These teachers are paid for this. All this exercise is done confidentially and in complete secrecy. This is how the question bank develops over the years and from this questions are selected for entrance test papers,” the vice chancellor said.

He said it appeared that the private academies were aware of the procedure and were trying to “lure the teachers… into sharing the MCQs with them”. He said encouraging retired and senior professors who might have developed the question bank to apply showed the intention of the academy.

“Immediate action on your part is required to stop such unethical activities and a strict message needs to be given to this group for issuing such a flagrant and brazen advertisement,” the letter urged the Health Department.

Amjad Ali Khan, rector of the private educational institution said that they had no plans to get questions from the question bank.

“We are just developing notes for our students and this is an effort to make comprehensive books for students to prepare for entry tests. Our teachers have their own data bank and the idea is to gather the experts in developing MCQs,” Khan said.

He said they had earlier invited MCQ developers to prepare notes for the 9th and 10th grade. “The UHS must have misunderstood us,” he said. Health (Technical) Additional Secretary Salman Shahid said the department would take action in the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24th, 2014.

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