PESHAWAR, Dec 19: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has stressed the need for continuous efforts to make the entrance tests for admission to professional colleges more transparent and effective.

Speaking at a briefing on the activities of the Education Testing and Evaluation Authority, the governor said that keeping in view the increasing number of candidates entrance tests should be held at different venues simultaneously with the same question papers, said a handout issued on Thursday.

Provincial education minister Maulana Fazal Ali also attended the briefing. The governor said it must continue its efforts to ensure fool-proof arrangements, especially for preparation of question papers.

He allowed the authority to conduct entry test for universities as well as other educational institutions.

He approved the proposal to establish a permanent office structure of the authority through its own resources.

He allowed the authority to give advice to the examination boards and departments to improve the quality of education.

Earlier, Abdul Waheed, chairman of the authority, said 7,141 candidates had appeared in the entry test for admission to medical colleges and the engineering university in the province out of which 2,866 and 1,372 were, respectively, declared successful and the overall result for the two institutions remained 59 per cent each.