11,000 students sit entrance exam

Entrance exam provides opportunity for country's brightest youth to prove their merit and achieve their dreams.

HYDERABAD: Over 11,000 students sat the University of Sindh entrance exam for the bachelors degree programme for the year 2011 on Sunday.

The entrance test was given by 9,038 males and 2,185 females seeking admissions in the faculties of natural science, arts, social sciences, pharmacy, education, Islamic studies, law and commerce and business studies.

Special buses were arranged on different routes in Hyderabad and Kotri for Jamshoro. A separate arrangement was also made near Fatima Jinnah Girls Gymnasium for parents who were waiting for their children.

Candidates were seated in more than 450 examination blocks set up in the faculty of Arts building and its main ground, Department of Mass Communication and Institute of English Language and Literature. Since the candidates were sitting in separate rooms, all exam rooms were connected to the control room from where the students were given instructions in Sindhi, Urdu and English.

Before the test started, admit cards were checked at the main entrance as well as inside the examination blocks.

The invigilator found two cases of boys impersonating someone else in the centre.

After Prof Manzoor Ahmed Shaikh recited a few verses from the Holy Quran with translation, the vice-chancellor Prof Dr Nazir A Mughal welcomed all the candidates. He said that through the entrance exam, they aim to provide an opportunity to the brightest youth of the country to prove their merit and achieve their dreams.

The University of Sindh is the first public sector university to have introduced the concept of entrance tests in 1996 and now this tradition is followed by all institutions in Pakistan, Prof Mughal added.

Several professors performed their duties as invigilators while the university’s security staff, police and Rangers personnel were deployed at the main entrances. The test was also conducted at Sindh University’s campus in Mirpurkhas and Laar College, Badin.

During the admission test last year, a total of 8,376 candidates appeared and 3,686 of them were offered admissions.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2010.