Tougher exams mean less pass
For pre-medical students who are aspiring to be doctors, the long hours of study did not bear well on the day of their Intermediate results. Most of them were disappointed not just with their results, but by the fact that the cut-throat competition for entry in government medical colleges, which has limited seats, may shatter their dreams of becoming doctors.
There were a total of 15,527 students who appeared in the exams from 197 colleges in Karachi. Out of this, only 7,959 could pass. The pass percentage last year was 52.1% and the total number of candidates who sat the exams was 14,812. This included 2,845 boys and 11,967 girls.
BIEK’s chairman, Anwar Ahmedzai, said the result was a positive change. While talking to The Express Tribune, he explained that board reforms had helped. “The change in the pattern of the question paper ensures that only those students who study the whole text will get a good grade,” said Ahmedzai. “The coded evaluation system ensures that there is no trickery or double dealing.” He explained that according to the changes made by BIEK, the question paper now has a lot of short questions instead of longer ones. He also said that the answer papers are checked by a code instead of the roll number of the student which is kept hidden from the examiner and the board also tried to restrict evaluation by telling examiners they could not take copies home to check.
“Although it may seem that the pass percentage has fallen, it is a good indicator because only those who studied hard managed to pass,” said Ahmedzai. “If you stop the papers from leaking, the pass percentages will eventually go down.”
There were four times more girls than boys and the pass percentage of girls was 54.39% as compared to boys which was 38.36%.
All the three top positions were also clinched by girls, two girls were from BAMM PECHS Government College for Women. They managed to achieve 90.36% and 90% and in third was a student from Aga Khan Higher Secondary School who managed to score 89.63%.
This year there are only 800 seats in Dow University of Health Sciences which is the main government-run medical college in Karachi.
Hence, for most of the students, the time to study is still not over. The pre-medical students are preparing for the admission tests to Karachi’s medical colleges which will be held on October 2.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2011.
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According to my information as i have seen that the invigilators conducting papers in most of the colleges were involved in cheating issue separate rooms are provided to those students and a so called teacher is allowed to move in the room with the students to facilitate them cheating and those who work harder are given less grades as fixing is one of the most worst issue in Pakistan. The students who have worked extremely hard and were willing to get good positions, grades and marks have got less marks and most of them are failed i don't know whether board is watching these activities or are involved in this activities with the culprits. Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Islamabad is the best of all the boards in Pakistan which is providing the best and the correct results. I would advise the senior members to recheck the papers by their own without arguing any money from the poor people of Pakistan for better results and i hope that the result will increase upto 75%. If you have any questions so you can send me an email as i have provided my email with the post.
Admissions process and academic requirements to enter medical college need a thorough review.
Minimum requirement to get into a medical school should be M.Sc.
The pre medical curriculum should have a balance of science and humanities subjects, including Master's level physics, Chemistry, Calculus, an A la carte of various biological sciences, advanced English, at least one indigenous languages at advanced level (Urdu is an indigenous language).
Anyone applying must take a course in ethics and after entering medical school should take a course in patient confidentiality, professional boundaries, professional conduct and communication skills to be able to hold a conversation. (Judging from comments published on various fora, it seems that people have lost the ability to converse and know only how to shout).
This would ensure that only truly committed student compete. Also it would raise the age of entrants to about 22 years. This would (hopefully) bring some maturity and improve bedside manners.
Anyone known to have any criminal record should automatically be disqualified regardless of their academic achievement.
Number of seats in Medical colleges throughout pakistan needs to be reduced to a manageable level to ensure that students get proper supervision and training.
Medicine is not only a profession, but is a vocation as well. Producing graduates without proper clinical training is dangerous and waste of time and resources.
Becoming physician is a privilege; not a right.
All special type of seat allocations including governor and minister's discretionary seats should be abolished.
There is lot more to be said but this comment section is not the appropriate forum for policy discussion.