RAWALPINDI, Oct 13: Drastic changes should be made in the existing syllabi at the university level to make the courses research and market-oriented.

This was stated by Punjab University Controller of Examinations, Dr Ihsan Malik, while talking to reporters after a local college function here yesterday.

The controller was of the view that the existing courses were designed in a way that forced students to resort to cramming. This is the reason students lack creativity on completing their education, he remarked.

Dr Malik regretted that science was losing its charm for students who were now more inclined to chose Art subjects that did not have any research market value. He said in Rawalpindi division, about 13,000 students had appeared for graduation in Art subjects while only 2,600 had chosen science for graduation.

He made a special mention of English as a subject, saying the subject-specialists should design courses and syllabi to enable the students to develop creativity and communication skills.

The controller underlined the need for the establishment of more universities in Punjab. At least one should be established in every division to decrease the burden on the currently functioning universities, he suggested.

He pointed out that the Punjab University had to take examination of about 100,000 students at the bachelor level annually, for whom as many as 338 centres had to be arranged and 5,000 invigilators deputed. It was a hard job to make all these arrangements, he added.

Dr Malik said students should be allowed to chose subjects only according to their aptitude. He regretted that parents mostly tried to impose subjects on their children for which they had no interest. The result was failure, he added.

About examinations, he said, many steps had been taken to improve the   system. A central monitoring system has been installed which, he said, was responsible for the inspection of all examination centres. Computerization   of the examination system is another improvement, he added.