August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 23: A large number of students who have passed their matric exams from an educational board other than the Karachi boards would not be able to qualify for admission to the city colleges as the formula to determine their merit does not favour them.

The formula, mentioned in the prospectus of the Centralized Admission Policy-2008 for admission to Class-XI in the government colleges of the city, multiplies the marks obtained by a candidate with the total marks of the examination fixed by the board concerned. It has now been pointed out that total marks of the boards of Sindh and those of the other provinces are not the same and this may affect the merit for candidates’ placement in a college.

The discrepancy has created a lot of confusion among the students coming from a board other than the Karachi boards.

Referring to the relevant conditions for eligibility of admission seekers, some students pointed out that as many as 16 per cent of those who had passed their matric exams from a non-Karachi board would be left out under the CAP-2008-09 policy despite having met the merit on percentage basis.

They pointed out that the condition No.8 of the eligibility column in the prospectus read: “The marks of the matriculates from other boards rather than Karachi shall be converted according to formula: (marks obtained x 850/ 1050).”

Terming the formula “unfair”, they argued that their eligibility would be affected seriously if they are also bracketed with the students who had passed their matriculation examination from any board of Sindh owing to the difference in the total marks fixed by other boards of the country.

All the educational boards of Sindh have fixed 850 as the total marks for matriculation examinations while the boards of the Punjab and NWFP have fixed 1,050 as the total marks for the same examinations.

The students who have passed their matriculation examination from any of the Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana boards, have also demanded that the CAP’s admission committee should treat them on a par with those who have done their matriculation from the Karachi board, instead of bracketing them with those coming from a non-Sindh educational board.

They argue that their boards had the same number of total marks.

Restriction

Members of the CAP’s admission committee have informed students of General Science (Computer), Home Economics, O’levels, technical boards and those having passed their matriculation from a board other than the Karachi boards (including foreigners), that they must submit their placement forms only at the authorized bank’s Karimabad branch or Mansfield Street branch.

However, they clarified, such candidates could get the forms from any of the bank’s authorized branches.