August 29, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 26, 1429

TOBA TEK SINGH, Aug 28: Public schools have reportedly refused admissions to the students who recently passed primary or middle examinations to class six and nine.

Parents told reporters on Thursday that after the announcement of the results, private schools had published advertisements to attract more students to their institutions. The government schools, however, made a self-set merit for admissions and only those with good marks were being admitted to schools.

Dawn learnt that to show good performance of their school in annual results, headmasters were not giving admission to such children with poor marks in primary or middle examinations. The teachers also think that if slow learners are admitted to their classes, they will have to work hard.

A senior headmaster of a government high school said that he had been authorised by his department to set merit for admissions.

Education Executive District Officer Chaudhry Muhammad Younis said he had not received any complaint about the refusal of admissions from any parent. There were limited seats in some schools, so setting of merit for such schools was unavoidable, he said.

People demanded that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif take note of the merit system in government schools and direct the education department to admit all students to class six or eight.