Students protest medical entrance test criteria in K-P

Demand increase in weightage for entrance test marks to 70%

PESHAWAR:

Medical students of the province on Monday gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club on Monday to protest the upcoming entrance tests to medical universities, demanding that they should be rescheduled to October owing to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Students hoping to pursue a career in medicine and healthcare held up placards inscribed with their demands.

They claimed that other provinces have rescheduled entrance exams for medical institutions until October while the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has announced a schedule to hold the exams in the province in September. This was unjust, they stressed.

The protesters further demanded changing the entry test criteria. They contended that since most of the students - especially those who had completed intermediate under either the provincial board or under the federal board - were promoted to the next grades based on past results as exams could be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be unfair to students who had worked hard the whole year for better results.

They called on the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to grant greater weightage to the results of the entry test, letting it accounting for 70 per cent in the admissions process instead of the 50 per cent currently.

Further, they demanded to change the entrance test date from September 20 to October 25.Second shifts

Meanwhile, K-P Education Minister Akbar Ayub Khan on Monday directed selected schools in the province to start classes in second shifts when they reopen later this month.

The directions were issued in a meeting chaired by the minister on Monday to review projects of the Elementary and Secondary Education on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2020.