Streamlining education: Uniform entry test for public and private medical colleges

Forms will be available on Sept 5, deadline to submit Sept 17 and test on Oct 2.

KARACHI:

In a major overhaul of the system, the government has set October 2 as the date for a uniform admissions test to public and private medical schools across Sindh. The matter was decided in principle last year and is being implemented now.

The date was set on Tuesday at a meeting chaired by Sindh Health Secretary Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi and attended by all principals of public medical colleges and vice-chancellors of public universities. Private medical colleges were not part of the meeting.

This change will have a profound effect on students and their parents who otherwise had to fork out non-refundable deposits, some as high as Rs200,000, to private medical colleges and universities that held their admissions tests before government colleges. As students would not want to risk losing their private college seat, they would ‘book’ them. The government college admissions would take place later on and if they failed the test or were not offered admissions for any other reason, then at least they would have the private school as a backup. The problem was that the students would lose their private school deposit if they chose to go to the government college later on.

But now, for the first time, candidates province-wide will sit for a centralised entry test whose answer key will be uploaded on the website the following day. The results will be announced within three days. The content for the test will be prepared by the National Testing Service (NTS) in agreement with the administration of public and private sector institutions. Members who attended Tuesday’s meeting also decided that admission forms for medical and dental colleges and universities will be available from September 5. All forms must be submitted by the September 17 deadline. The entry test has been scheduled for October 2 and the academic year for successful candidates will commence on October 25.

In order to iron out details of the process with private colleges and universities, a meeting will be held prior to October 2. Members of the administration from public and private colleges and universities will be invited. A date is expected to be scheduled soon.

The government had, in principle, decided to pursue this line of action a while ago. It is being implemented finally. An official who attended Tuesday’s meeting told The Express Tribune that several meetings were held last year with the principals and vice-chancellors of each and every medical college and university. “After everyone gave their consent, the decision was made to implement the simultaneous testing from this year,” the official said. “Heads of private medical institutions should honour their commitment.”

For now, private medical colleges have reacted with caution. “On a personal note I think it [uniform testing] is a positive step,” said the vice principal of the Karachi Medical and Dental College and head of the dental school, Professor Mahmood Haider. “Even better would be a national centralised testing policy. But even at a provincial level it will go a long way to start standardising admission into medical schools.” However, Prof. Haider believes the real debate is how much weight private institutions will give to the test scores. “For example a candidate may score well, but you have to pay your way through private [medical] school, so greater emphasis may be placed on admitting those who can afford to pay.”

Director for planning and development at Ziauddin Medical University, Dr Faisal Farooqui, took the same stance. “We definitely see this as a positive move and a great achievement for the medical industry in the province.”

There will be some glitches as certain universities have already held their admissions tests for this year. One private institution tested candidates on April 6 and conducted a first round of interviews. One student, from an A’ Level school told The Express Tribune that they have yet to receive their official letters and were unofficially told that another test may be in the works on a provincial level.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2011.