Varsities entry test: Sindh, federal HECs at loggerheads – again

New Education Testing Council becomes a bone of contention

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC) and the federal Higher Education Commission (HEC) have come at loggerheads again, as the latter has started requesting universities to hold entry tests through the Education Testing Council (ETC), a new testing body.

This is a fresh episode in the tussle between the two bodies dating back to the establishment of SHEC in 2013.

In the recent disagreement, the SHEC sent a letter to its federal counterpart and senior heads of the bureaucracy in Sindh about the entry tests being conducted under the ETC, the new testing body for which the government is paying a subsidy.



The HEC had announced the formation of ETC last year, and this year the council has conducted tests of about 66,000 students in 28 cities for about 54 public and private-sector universities. Of the mentioned number of students, 34,000 appeared for medical, 30,000 for engineering and the rest for general admission tests. About 70,000 candidates will appear for tests in October.

The HEC took the decision after it failed to justify in Lahore High Court that holding the ‘mandatory’ tests under the National Testing Service (NTS) was formally approved by its governing body. The court also ordered HEC to constitute its own testing service and termed NTS an illegal body for conducting tests.



The SHEC deputy director, in its letter to the HEC, said that it had invited students to participate in entry tests for universities in Sindh without consulting them. “The advertisement was issued without consulting the Council of Common Interests and the SHEC,” the letter said, calling the advertisement “coram non judice” and “not in conformity with the cannons of justice and fair play”.

The deputy director added that given the circumstances, “I am directed to convey the instructions that the contents of the advertisements are not to be implemented in the universities under the administrative control of the Government of Sindh.”

The letter is a serious blow to the HEC which is hoping to make it mandatory for all public universities to carry out tests under the ETC from spring 2018 onwards.



The letter is also more worrisome as the major universities in Punjab – including the Punjab University, the University of Engineering and Technology, the University of Health Sciences and the Government College University – have already expressed their inability to adopt ETC tests for various reasons.

In a bid o resolve the impending crisis, HEC chairperson Mukhtar Ahmed called on SHEC Secretary Muhamamd Hussain Syed and informed him about the gravity of the situation.

Ahmed said that during the meeting, he conveyed to the SHEC secretary that the HEC was sending him a legal notice for stopping it from functioning according to its ordinance.

The HEC chief told The Express Tribune that ETC was protected as per the Ordinance and Supreme Court’s 2011 order where it was said that the HEC will function until an amendment is proposed in the HEC ordinance.