KARACHI: The issue of government college students needing tuitions and private students not really in need of any such thing came up as the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) announced the results for Part II of Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) pre-engineering and science general groups here on Friday.

“I took tuitions. They helped me cover the course better though I tried attending college regularly,” said Adoos Khalid of Begum Amna Majeed Malik (BAMM) PECHS Government College for Women, who stood first in pre-engineering with 1,000 marks out of a total 1,100 with a 90.91 percentage. The student who was hoping to do electrical engineering from NED University said that she thought her course books were perfect.

On the other hand Urooj Nabi of Bahria College Karsaz, who bagged 999 marks to come second in the same group, said that she didn’t feel the need for taking any tuitions. “I thought it better to concentrate on what was being taught in class,” she said though adding that she found reference books more helpful than course books which she thought were outdated and substandard.

“I took tuitions for every subject that I took during my two-year studies as I couldn’t attend college regularly because of transport issues,” said Mohammad Hassaan of Adamjee Government Science College, who came third in the group with 996 marks.

Amna Salam, who stood first in the science general group with 957 out of 1,100 marks to pass with a percentage of 87 and Aiman Muneer of the same college, who got 933 marks and stood second, also said that they had taken no tuitions. Meanwhile, Sana Habib Airri of Government Degree Science/Commerce College Malir Cantt who was third in the group with 929 marks, said that she did welcome the extra coaching as the studies at her college pretty much ended around December in the final year.

“We have to look into this issue of tuitions and coaching as usually it is the college teachers themselves who are running these businesses while not doing their duty in colleges,” said BIEK chairman Muhammad Akhtar Ghori. “We will also take action on colleges persistently giving below average results,” he added.

“There is this impression that out of the four bodies conducting HSSC examinations such as BIEK, AKU Board, Federal Board and Cambridge, we happen to be the weakest as far as standard of education goes. We need to do away with this impression by working hard,” he said.

Commenting on girls bagging most top positions these days, Commissioner of Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, the chief guest on the occasion, said that he was very proud of daughters getting ahead in all fields. “Education is the only thing that will take you forward,” he stressed.

Besides, the usual prizes of books, all the top three positions holders of both groups were also presented with cash rewards of Rs50,000, Rs30,000 and Rs20,000, respectively.

Some 31,241 candidates registered for the pre-engineering exams while 30,903 appeared and 14,037 remained successful with a 45.42 percentage. Of these 1,233 got the ‘A-1’, 2,765 got ‘A’, 3,701 got ‘B’, 4,106 got ‘C’, 2,103 got ‘D’ and 129 got the ‘E’ grades.

Meanwhile, in the science general group, 2,287 candidates registered while 2,250 appeared for the exams while 987 remained successful with a 43.87 percentage. Only 17 students in general science bagged the ‘A-1’ grade as 123 got ‘A’, 290 got ‘B’, 399 got ‘C’ and 158 got the ‘D’ grades.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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