KARACHI: The week has brought with it much trial and tribulation for students hoping to get into their choice of colleges after having completed their Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or Matric.

The students were all taken by surprise when they found out that this year all college admissions in Sindh would be based on their class nine results instead of their class 10 results, which used to be the general norm.

As a result of this, many students still waiting for their Matric Part-II results before applying to college didn’t even apply for admission into their choice of colleges. And most of those who did apply were confused about what marks or grades to put in the admission form and made many mistakes there. Finally, when compared to 2021 when some 176 colleges and higher secondary schools in Karachi gave admission to 120,000 students, this year only 82,000 admissions could take place within the given deadline.

Students expecting high grades in Matric lost out on good colleges

It is for the first time in the history of the province that something like this happened and it happened because Director General of Colleges Dr Mohammed Ali Manjhi was unable to inform everyone about the change in the admissions policy.

He had taken the decision to rely on Matric Part-I results in good faith, to save everyone’s time when applying to colleges. But it all backfired because of his office’s failure to inform the students about it.

Even though after realising the adverse repercussions of the change in college admissions policy (CAP), Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah had issued directives to extend the deadline for the admissions to ensure that all students get into college, things are still not going the students’ way.

Many students expecting good marks in Matric Part-II lost out on the good colleges because they were judged on their Part-I exams.

And what to talk about them when even those students who did well in class nine and filled their forms in time have been dealt with carelessness.

Young Sawaiz Siddiqui, who had 86 per cent marks in class nine, filled his CAP form online. In his five college choices, he put in Adamjee College as his top choice but he was admitted to S.M. Science College, which he had put in as his fifth and last option.

“I had put in Adamjee College as my first choice and a few others too, which were close to where I live. But I have been put into a college which is very far from where I live,” he told Dawn.

“I visited the college with my father today and turns out that it is far away from my home. It took us one and a half hours to reach there. And by the time we reached, the college had closed, too,” he informed dejectedly.

Another student, Ahsan Tariq, had even a worse experience because he was given none of the colleges he had put in his form despite 82 per cent marks in class nine.

And Salman Ahmed, yet another student wronged, was shocked to find out that he had been put into a college that does not even cover his subjects. The boy is a pre-engineering student. But CAP decided to send him to Commerce College again while ignoring all his five choices.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2022