LAHORE, Oct 23: The government’s decision to stick to entrance test for admission to medical colleges for about a decade has been resulting in the mushroom growth of private academies in major cities of Punjab that guide students for securing better marks in the test.

The academies are charging high fees from the students for a short course for the preparation of the entrance test.

“I have paid Rs15,000 for a two-week course offered by a private academy in Defence for the preparation of the test,” says Mayya, who has secured 815 marks in FSc.

She adds that if a student wants to join a long course in this regard, he or she has to pay accordingly. In some cases, such academies are charging more than Rs50,000 for a course guarantees him or her securing full marks in the test.

“The students aspiring to become doctors are left with no other option but to join an academy in order to achieve maximum marks in the test,” she says.

A number of students of the remote areas have to leave their native towns and live in a hostel in big cities for the preparation of the entrance test. In case of female students their parents also have to accompany them there till the finish of the course of a private academy. This is not only causing a great inconvenience to them but also financial burden.

“The government has never bothered to realise the fact and instead of improving the boards’ examination system it is introducing novel methods in the name of merit. The entrance test is not serving any purpose but it is an extra financial burden on parents. It is also depriving many talented students of their right to professional education just because their parents can’t afford lofty fees,” says Ishtiaq Ahmed, whose son is appearing for the test.

The government in the late 1990s had introduced the entrance test for admission to medical colleges on reports that the students of the underdeveloped areas were granted marks graciously by their respective boards to ensure the representation of their areas. The government wanted to ensure that merit must not be compromised and through such tests the ability of high scoring students should be counter checked. Besides this, the booti mafia was quite active and corruption in eight boards of Punjab was also rampant then.

“Since the government has claimed that it has purged the boards of corruption there is no need of such entrance test,” said Pakistan Medical Association secretary Dr Azimuddin Zahid. He said the Punjab government, on the one hand, was conducting the entrance test for admission to medical colleges while, on the other, it was reserving more seats for students of the underdeveloped areas negating its idea of the introduction of the test.

He suggested that the examination system of intermediate boards should be strantardised to dispense with the entrance test. He said the PMA had requested the government several times to abolish the test but to no avail. Even a provincial minister was against it (entrance test) but he was silenced by the architects of the scheme.

A senior doctor told this reporter that the government should form a separate board to test the abilities of those students who secured better marks in FSc. The board should only be authorised to grant maximum 10 per cent marks in such test. He criticised the government for not abolishing the self-finance scheme in medical colleges, saying that it should at least have done away with it to justify its merit policy.

Justifying the government position, a health department official said: “The government cannot fund all needs of the institutions. The self-finance scheme has been introduced to meet the additional expenditure on laboratories and libraries in professional colleges. Merit for the self-finance seats is usually one or two numbers less than the open merit.”

Meanwhile, this year the entrance test in Lahore is being held on Oct 29. The result will be announced on Nov 6 and available on the internet. “Enter you roll number on the given website and you’ll get your result. You’ll have to come to the medical or dental college concerned if you want to know about the performance of someone else,” said the official.

The merit list of top 2,063 candidates would be displayed on Nov 8 and admission applications would be received up to Nov 22.