PESHAWAR: The students of FSc pre-medical and pre-engineering groups are troubled by the two different examination systems prevailing in the province as they prepare first for board examination, which is based on rote learning, and then for the entrance test of professional colleges, which is based on conceptual learning.

The rote learning is in practice in the public and private educational institutions as their teachers prepare students for the board of the intermediate and secondary education examination, the chairman of an educational board told Dawn.

He said after the intermediate students qualified the annual exam, they had to sit the entry test conducted by the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency for admission to the University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar and medical colleges.

Board exam is based on rote learning and professional colleges entrance test on conceptual learning

The board chairman said the ETEA examination was based on the student learning outcome (SLO) or conceptual learning with the entrance test paper comprising multiple choice questions unlike the board examination in which 85 per cent part of the papers was descriptive with long questions and the rest consisted of short questions.

He said as the papers for board examination and entrance test were different from each other, even the board examination high-achievers failed to qualify the ETEA entrance test.

“It is embarrassing for all from teachers to students to education department when a position-holding student fails the entrance test,” he said.

The board chairman said it was an injustice with the students to teach them the same course in two different ways first in colleges and then in private coaching academies, which charge them too much.

A professor teaching in a coaching academy told Dawn that many academies had been functioning in the provincial capital and other major cities charging the students around Rs50,000 as tuition and transport fee.

He said such coaching lasted two to three months after the intermediate examination and that it covered the entire FSc course helping the students fully understand educational concepts.

The professor said the teachers of government colleges ‘actually’ taught in coaching academies for money.

He said the MCQs were tricky and needed more attention of the students to have a clear understanding of the topics.

The teacher said the coaching academies paid a teacher Rs1,700 for a student, while the rest of the big amount paid by students went to the pockets of their owners.

“Every class consists of 60 to 70 students,” he said.

The board chairman said the coaching academies didn’t benefit the students, who were poor at studies.

A senior official of the elementary and secondary education said it was the responsibility of the government to take the issue seriously and change the pattern of board examination.

He said the education department had decided last year to replace the existing long question papers with MCQs in the secondary school certificate examination.

“The department intended that if the decision was successfully implemented, then it would be extended to the intermediate examination. However, the decision was withdrawn on the pressure of private schools and teachers of government schools, who feared high failure rate due to the new exam pattern.

Ruqia Ihsan, who recently sat the intermediate examination, complained she was a poor girl but had to pay a coaching academy Rs43,000 to prepare for the entrance test of a professional college.

“My father didn’t have money and therefore, he took a loan to help me join a private academy for good entrance test results,” she said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2018