KARACHI, July 6: The process of admissions to first year classes in city colleges is likely to begin in the first week of August, said sources in the city government's education department.

"We are gearing up for the admissions, but at the same time looking at the educational board for declaration of SSC annual examinations' results," said a senior member of the admission committee constituted by the city government.

These matters pertaining to admissions were discussed at the first meeting of the admission committee on Tuesday, with Prof Raees Alvi in the chair. The constitution of various sub-committees, including the software committee, brochure committee, purchase committee and bank committee, were also finalised during the meeting.

The meeting was told that the admission process would be initiated as soon as the matriculation examination results were announced by the education board concerned. Admission forms would be sold through banks, and all candidates having passed the SSC exam would be eligible to apply for admission to 75,000 seats offered at government colleges and higher secondary schools for session 2004-05, added the member.

The job of preparing the merit list of candidates and and verification of their SSC mark sheets would be assigned to the education board, similar to that done last year.

A source privy to the admission committee said that admission meetings were initiated in the first week of June last year, but they were materialised in July this year.

To avoid any further delay, the convener of various sub-committees had been asked to come up with their final proposals and schedule of work positively in the next meeting of the admission committee to be held next Monday.

The overall policy pertaining to admission would remain the same, but a minor change was likely to be made in the clauses relating to admission of applicants who had passed SSC exams before 2004, said the sources, adding the gap period admissible for admission could be reduced to two years.

Conveners of various sub-committees comprise: Prof Riaz Ahsan Software Committee, Dr Tanveer Anjum Brochure Committee, Manzoor Chisti Bank Committee, and Prof Razia Zafar Purchase Committee.

In the meantime, a senior official of the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, said preparations were under way to announce the results of Class X General group (regular and private) first, ie on or before July 15.