Govt colleges lag in capacity
The petitions were filed by Dr Hassan Amir Shah of Government College University Lahore, Dr Bushra Khan of Lahore College for Women University and others.
Thousands of students will be deprived of admission to first year in government colleges of Punjab this year because resources for limited seats are available in the sector as compared to the number of students.
A tough competition for admission on merit to the reputed public sector colleges is being witnessed in all districts.
Teachers fear that the increasing number of applicants will make tougher the admission to the government institutions and thousands of students will be left at the mercy of private colleges charging high fees. Speaking to The Express Tribune, leaders of the teachers’ community said the government could solve the problem by setting up new colleges and offering classes in two shifts in view of the increasing population of the province.
There are 790 public sector colleges across Punjab, including 120 in Lahore division, of which 60 are located in the provincial capital.
According to sources in the Punjab Higher Education Department, there are around 60,000 seats available in Lahore division’s colleges for admissions in the morning and 17,000 in the evening shift.
A many as 1,120,790 students appeared in the matriculation exams in the province this year and 172,204 cleared the Lahore board examinations.
Almost all of them wish to get admissions to the government colleges in Lahore.
The situation in similar in all districts of the province, where thousands of students want to get admission to the public sector colleges but there are fewer seats than their number.
The admission process for the public sector colleges has started. Many colleges in Lahore are evaluating the applications for admission as per the merit criteria.
A huge rush of applicants was seen at the government colleges in Lahore, especially some historic and reputed institutions.
Lahore is recognised as a city of colleges and students from across Punjab as well as other parts of the country prefer to continue their studies here.
However, a large number of the applicants fail to get admission to the public sector colleges in the district every year.
It is evident from the huge number of applicants for admission to the first year and then fact that thousands of the students had obtained more than 90 per cent marks in the matriculation results announced by the education boards that a large number of the applicants will be left disappointed.
Commenting on the situation, an official of the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) said, “Our college’s pre-medical admission merit level last year was 1,036 marks and pre-engineering 1,000 marks. The reason for the high cut-off mark for the applicants is that thousands of students from the whole country wish to study at the institution due to its best academic repute. Obviously, we cannot accommodate all the applicants and many of them fail to achieve the merit level.”
A student present at the LCWU, Asma Shahzadi, said only the applicants have secured over 1,000 marks in matriculation could expect to gain admission to the reputed government colleges.
She said thousands of students with high marks would also been forced to seek admission in private colleges, incurring substantial expenditure.
She said the government should address the issues of shortage of seats in its colleges and the high cost of private education.
“The simple reason of this situation and limited seats is that we did not build new colleges,” said Punjab Professors and College Lecturers Association president Prof Tariq Kaleem.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2023.