Medical colleges struggle to fill seats

Over 740 MBBS, BDS seats remain vacant across country; new taxes may further reduce enrolment

RAWALPINDI:

Teachers' bodies have expressed grave concern over 743 medical and dental college seats remaining vacant across Pakistan despite relaxed merit criteria and a 45-day extension in the admissions process, attributing the unprecedented situation to the growing inability of parents to bear the escalating cost of higher and professional education.

In a joint statement, representatives of the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association and the Punjab Teachers Union, Basharat Iqbal Raja, Professor Ilyas Qureshi, and Malik Amjad, said the failure to fill MBBS and BDS seats, despite concessions in admission requirements, reflected the severe financial pressures facing families across the country.

According to the associations, Pakistan's 187 medical and dental colleges offer more than 22,300 seats. Of the 743 seats that remained vacant, 608 were in Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programmes and 135 in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programmes.

A provincial breakdown shows that Punjab accounted for 381 vacant seats, followed by Sindh with 295, Islamabad with 50, and Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) with 17. The associations described the figures as deeply troubling and indicative of a widening affordability crisis in higher education.

According to the teacher leaders, professional and higher education had become prohibitively expensive for a large segment of society, forcing many talented students to abandon academic ambitions.

They further noted that a growing number of young people were choosing to seek employment opportunities abroad rather than pursue costly educational programmes at home, citing economic hardship and persistent inflation.

The organisations also voiced concern over the rising number of out-of-school children, claiming that the figure had reached nearly 30 million nationwide.

They warned that any new taxation measures in the forthcoming federal and provincial budgets, particularly proposals to impose an 18 per cent tax on textbooks and stationery, could further discourage enrolment and place additional burdens on families.

They cautioned that continued increases in educational costs could eventually leave schools, colleges and universities struggling to attract and retain students.

The associations urged the government to take immediate steps to make education more affordable.