Education woes: ‘Private medical colleges are in it for profit’

Judge wonders about future of students who have already been admitted.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Tuesday told the Lahore High Court that private medical colleges were only doing business and did not allocate any quota for poor students.

The counsel for the PMDC made the statement when a division bench asked him whether private medical colleges allocate an admission quota for poor students. “Private colleges do not allocate such quota. They are totally business organisations,” Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Umar replied.

The division bench headed by Justice Chaudhry Shahid Saeed was hearing several petitions against the University of Health Sciences entrance test for admission in medical colleges and the revised criteria for admissions.

The judge remarked that the government should require that private medical colleges allocate a quota for poor students. If there was no mechanism to govern the private sector, then double shifts should be introduced in public sector colleges to accommodate poor students, the judge said.

The PMDC counsel said uniform admissions criteria were being followed across the country since 2003 and an LHC bench had endorsed it last year.

Justice Saeed said private medical colleges had already completed the admissions process and collected money from potential students. What would be the future of these students if the court gave a decision against the entrance test.

The judge again asked the counsel whether the council could take action against private colleges. The counsel said the PMDC will take action if the court ordered it.

The petitioner’s counsel said that most of the students who appeared in the entrance test had passed the FSc last year. He said lack of a quota for poor students was a violation of Article 25 and 25-A of the Constitution. He said the entrance test system discriminated against poor students.

Advocate Rasaal Hasan Sayed, the counsel for the UHS, said the FSc examination was substandard.

The counsel also requested the court to withdraw the stay order against the October 20 merit list of UHS for admission in medical colleges. The judge turned down the plea. The judge observed, however, that the case would be decided at the next hearing.

The proceedings were adjourned for Wednesday (today) with instructions to the counsel to conclude their arguments. The bench will also take up petitions favouring the entrance test filed by some other students.

The petitioners allege that transparency was lacking in the entrance test and the PMDC had changed the test scheme altogether. They said under Section 33 of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council Act 1962, the Council was duty bound to maintain uniformity of courses in medical colleges.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2011.