The disconnect between one and the other is not limited to one or a few segments of society. It is all-pervasive and the victim, as usual, is the wonderful fellow called the common man. Though it sometimes gets hard to believe, education remains a social segment and, as such, suffers the fate that is the unfortunate hallmark of most other things in the country.

One would remember that when the universities shifted from a 16-year Masters to a 16-years Bachelors routine, the job market continued to seek applications under its age-old practice of preferring the former over the latter, unmindful of the fact that the BS had nothing to do with the BSc of yore.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that those who decided to revise the routine — the revision being an issue of full-scale debate on its own — had in their infinite wisdom continued with both the two-year BSc and the four-year BS.

As could only be expected, those with BS — though they had studied the same course over the same period of time — faced rejection only because of the change in the nomenclature. The universities had to subsequently issue letters to the effect that even though the applicant had a ‘Bachelors’ on the CV, the degree was actually a ‘Masters’. Subsequently, the University of Karachi offered all students the option to either get a BS or an MSc/MA at the end of their four-year post-Intermediate course work.

One would also remember the admission tests conducted by private and public-sector medical universities where the former used to make it mandatory on the students to submit the hefty admission fee before the latter could conduct its test. Though it was a case of blatant mischief, it was all done behind the façade of disconnect between the two sets of institutions.

Ultimately, the matter resolved after several years of hue and cry.

Recently, the admission test of a private-sector engineering university in Karachi coincided with that of a public-sector entity. And it coincided big time: same day, same time. It was the proverbial Hobson’s choice for the applicants — take it or leave it. The confusion continued till the very end when the public-sector institution moved its test ahead by a few hours so that the applicants could take both the tests on the same day.

It naturally led to another round of confusion and heartbreak. Those who had applied to only one institution, assuming that an application at both will only be a waste of money, felt cheated. Others who had filed their application at both the places were happy, but were worried about making it from one to the other in time.

The test in the morning went fine, but there was chaos in the afternoon because the college kept taking in fresh registrations.

Besides, there were a lot of applicants who had come from outside Karachi. They had to take the test at their designated centres, but with the chance to appear at both the institutions, they had come to Karachi and, naturally, could not return to their centres in time to take the afternoon tests.

As a result, they also wanted to sit the exam at Karachi, but there was not enough space or even arrangements to accommodate all of them. It was chaos worth watching for those who did not have direct stakes, but it was a whole lot different for the applicants and those accompanying them. Nobody was sure if the test would be held on time, or it would be delayed, or, worse still, cancelled for the day.

Apparently, many of the organisers themselves didn’t know what the ultimate fate would be. The independent body that was to conduct the test also had no clue as fresh applicants were allowed to make their way in which hampered the process of things settling down for the test to start.

Delayed by almost a couple of hours, the test was finally held, with those applying against Karachi seats leaving confused if those from the other cities would be considered against their respective quotas or will they be accommodated against seats reserved for the centre where they had taken the exams.

As is always the case, nobody in a position of authority was willing to say anything on the matter and the students left with more confusion than what they had faced while coming in.

While the rest is a subjective discourse, there is one little question the answer to which could have made a massive difference. The fact that the two tests had a timing conflict was known for a month, if not more. Somebody somewhere could have made the adjustment earlier. Why did that somebody somewhere have to wait till the last moment to tweak the schedule?

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