ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on Wednesday allowed intermediate part II and A2 students to take ECAT and engineering college admissions tests, before announcement of their final results.

They will also be given provisional admission in engineering universities.

The said decision was taken in a meeting, which was chaired by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood.

The meeting was attended by Vice Chancellors of engineering universities, representatives of Pakistan Engineering Council, HEC Executive Director Dr Shaista Sohail and others. Some participants of the meeting attended it through video link.

The meeting decided that due to Covid-19 pandemic this year annual examination are being held in July-August, instead of March-April, to provide extra time to students to cover their syllabus.

They discussed that due to delay in exams of intermediate class, the students will be unable to sit in entry tests of engineering universities as their annual results will likely to be announced in September (of F.Sc students, who will sit in exams to be conducted by Pakistan Boards) while meeting discussed that results of A2 students will be declared somewhere in January.

So under, these circumstances, the students could not sit entry test of engineering universities. Therefore, the meeting decided that students should be allowed to sit in ECAT and entry tests of engineering universities and they will be given provisional admissions.

After meeting, federal minister Shafqat Mahmood through tweets announced the decisions.

The annual board exams have already been postponed till July 10. This year, the students of intermediate will appear in exams of elective subjects while nine and ten graders will take exams of elective subjects and mathematics.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021