KARACHI, July 15: Students did not turn up at city colleges for admission to the intermediate second year on July 15, the date fixed by the Sindh education department for commencement of the process, said sources in the educational circle. Interviews with some teachers and students gave to understand that most students and even colleges were unaware of the department’s requirement. The reason behind this unawareness could be improper publicity of the policy and notification, as well as absence of an immediate follow-up, they said.
It is learnt that the education department had issued the notification pertaining to the commencement of first and second year admission only on July 14, while till that date most of the city colleges were unable to inform their students of the process of the second year admissions.
With a few exceptions, all the colleges have planned to start the process from Monday next. However, senior teachers hope that any meaningful progress may emerge only when the summer vacation was over.
Talking to Dawn, Dr Mehboob A. Sheikh, additional secretary (A&T) of the Sindh education department, said that as per the notification issued on Thursday, colleges in the province, including Karachi, were supposed to start the second year admission process from July 15 and teaching from August 1 positively.
In the case of first year admissions, colleges in Sindh, excluding those in Karachi, are required to start that immediately and ensure that classes for the newly admitted students commenced on August 1, with the commencement of the new academic session in the province, added Dr Sheikh.
He further said that the education officers of Karachi district had been asked to start the admission process for first year under the Centralized Admission Policy as soon as the results of SSC annual examinations were declared by the educational board and complete the process within a month. Teaching of first year classes at Karachi had to be started from September 1, he added.
He pointed out that there were no changes in the admission policy while the fee structures for intermediate classes were same as they were last year.
Taking plea that colleges were not informed in time about the admissions to second year classes was not sound as the timeframe for admissions to schools and colleges were finalized a few months back by the steering committee of the Sindh education department and were circulated among the quarters concerned, he said in reply to a question.
Referring to the delay often caused in the past in the announcement of results and completion of admission procedures by colleges, Dr Sheikh said that the Hyderabad and Karachi boards were being requested to expedite the process of results and not to ignore the deadlines set by the education department.
In the meantime, a senior education official of the city government said that a meeting of the admissions committee would be held on July 18 to review the development pertaining to admissions.
He said that a schedule for the first year admissions was yet to be finalized, and anything with a degree of certainty could be said only after declaration of the SSC Science group results.
