KARACHI, Sept 7: The students of the DHA Degree College for Women shared among themselves the first six positions of the Intermediate second year, Science (general) group, results.

According to the results announced on Saturday by the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi, which declared the results of Science (general) group separately for the first time, Marium Sarwar Khan walked off with the much-coveted first position, securing 968 out of 1,100 marks (88 per cent).

Ambreen Shahid and Sumeeka Farooqui shared the second slot by securing 932 marks (84.73 per cent) each. The third position went to Saira Rashid Shaikh who obtained 921 marks (83.73 per cent).

As the visibly proud DHA College principal sat by, all the position holders declared that they had not gone to coaching centres to have private tuition.

According to the BIEK documents, 1,555 male candidates had registered themselves for the examination. At least 1,544 candidates appeared for the examination but only 402 managed to get through. Therefore, overall pass percentage stands at 26.04 per cent.

The overall pass percentage of female candidates is much higher at 77.24 per cent. At least 480 candidates registered themselves for the examination and except for one drop-out all the candidates did take the examination. Three hundred and seventy candidates managed to get through.

The grades obtained by the students are as follows: 18 (A-1 grade), 96 (A grade), 239 (B grade), 295 (C grade), 117 (D grade) and 4 (E grade). Three private candidates also passed the examination.

The first position holder, Marium Sarwar Khan, said she would opt for chartered accountancy despite the fact that there were only five per cent women in this field.

The second position holder, Ambreen Shahid, also expressed her unwillingness to study science, saying that she would go in for business administration.

Much to the consternation of the BIEK chairman the student said that the O-Level system of examination was much better than that of the Intermediate board. Another second position holder, Sumeeka Farooqui, made no bones about the fact that she had committed quite a few things to memory to obtain good marks.

The third position holder, Saira Rashid Shaikh, underlined the need for having special educational TV channels geared to meet the needs of college and school-going students.

Talking to newsmen, the principal of the DHA College for Women, Tayyaba Mamoon, said the reason why the students of her college did not need extra guidance was that the number of pupils in one classroom was much lower than what it was in public colleges. She added that in this way the teachers could give more attention to those students who needed guidance.