July 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 11, 1429

KARACHI, July 14: The process of admission to colleges in the first year classes under the Centralised Admission Policy-2008 (CAP) begins in the first week of August, said Prof Rafique Ahmed Siddiqui, the director-general of colleges, Sindh.

He said that around 85,000 students will have to be accommodated in the city’s 123 colleges as the 31 higher secondary schools (13 for male and 18 for female students) which enrolled students last year had now been excluded from the purview of the CAP-2008 on the instructions of the Sindh Education Minister, Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq.

As such, he added, provision of admission to the higher secondary schools was the prerogative of the administrations of the higher secondary schools concerned.

Prof Siddiqui was talking to newsmen at the Karachi Press Club where he was invited as guest of honor at a ceremony to honour position-holders of Class X (general group) annual examinations, 2008.

Pointing out that in all, there are 118 colleges (64 for male and 55 for female students) in the city, he said that four colleges for women and one for male students would start functioning from the ensuing academic session. These colleges are located at Orangi, Gizri, Azam Basti, Manzooor Colony and Bihar Colony.

He said that the prospectus containing admission forms would be available at various bank branches in the city in the first week of August.

He said every student would have an option of choosing a college of his/her choice from eight colleges on the basis of their marks.

He hoped that the entire process of admission to Class XI would be completed by the end of August and classes for the new session would begin on Sept 1. However, he added, the classes for Class XII would begin in the first week of August.

He said that all those students who had passed their Secondary School Certificate (SSC)/Tech-nical Board/GCE (O’level) or equivalent annual examinations-2008 would be eligible for admission.

Those who had passed their examinations in the year 2007 (annual/supplementary) or five years earlier would also be eligible for admission but on the condition that five marks for each year or gap would be deducted from their total marks to determine their merit.