LAHORE: Entrance test weight age reduced to 35pc - Medical colleges
By Our Reporter
LAHORE, May 4: The Punjab government has amended the policy for admission to medical colleges by reducing the weightage of entrance test from 50 per cent to 35 per cent.
The FSc pre-medical marks will now carry 65 per cent weightage in the overall merit for admission to all the public sector medical colleges in the Punjab.
The government has also decided to reserve quota in medical colleges for candidates from Southern Punjab and other backward areas of the province. A policy in this regard will be formulated by the Punjab health department.
Both the decisions were taken at a briefing on entrance test for admission to medical colleges, chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, here on Tuesday.
Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed, education minister Mian Imran Masood, chief secretary Kamran Rasool, health secretary Sohail Ahmad, education secretary Shahid Rasheed and Punjab medical colleges' admission board chairman Prof Dr Mumtaz Hassan were prominent among those present.
Although the government was earlier considering to abolish the entrance test, sources claimed the chief minister had decided to carry on with it because he was not satisfied with the pattern (uniformity) of the question papers and assessment of answer-sheets by the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education in the Punjab, the federal board and those dealing with the candidates from FATA and northern areas.
When contacted, health secretary Sohail Ahmad said the meeting had decided to reserve quota for candidates from the Southern Punjab and other remote areas in the province because the colleges already had quota for candidates from FATA and northern areas. The department would soon formulate a policy in this regard.
The chief minister's spokesman said the reservation of quota would help provide better educational opportunities to the students and minimizing sense of deprivation among those hailing from backward areas.
The chief minister also said the government would again review the matter of admissions to medical colleges next year to take further decisions. It had already abolished the condition of submitting full fee of five years by students admitted to medical colleges on a self-finance basis. Now, they were required to submit their fees annually.
He said the decision was taken to provide relief to the students and their parents. Mr Pervaiz Elahi also directed the education minister to take effective measures to ensure quality and uniform standards by all the boards of intermediate and secondary education.
He stressed that the system of marking answer-sheets should also be made effective and transparent. He also asked the minister to ensure provision of equal opportunities of education to the students of less developed areas.
