Choosing the system of education for secondary and higher secondary schooling poses a tough choice for many students. Those who follow the British system find themselves facing an instant problem.

If they opt for O’ and A’ Levels, due to the fewer allocated seats, chances for them to find a place in the state-run institutions become thin. And if they switch to the local board examinations, they are haunted by tales of cheating and tampering of examination results.

Several decades ago, it was pretty much understood that students who chose the O/A Level system planned to go abroad for professional or higher education. The O/A Level system followed the prescribed conditions that made university admissions accessible in the UK, Commonwealth countries, etc. Until the last quarter of the 20th century, the travel options to these places were normal and aspiring students would find a place in the universities of their choice without much hassle.

But conditions changed drastically during late 1990s in general and the post 9/11 scenario in particular. Travel and admission restrictions increased, creating frustration among many students who studied through the British system. Due to this many parents also changed their initial plan of sending their children abroad for their first professional degree. That’s when these students started looking for admissions in public-sector universities.

But as for their schooling, the declining performance of the state-run boards still made a large number of students adopt for the O/A Levels option.

Some public institutions were accommodating in this respect while framing their admission policies. For instance, the NED University of Engineering and Technology increased the seats for A’ Level students to 117 for 2012-13. The university also intends to increase the seats to any appropriate number in correspondence to the number of admission seekers and criteria of merit to an acceptable status.

The next category of students who now choose the British educational system comprise those who perceive it as a better option in terms of educational quality. Some of them, who wish to seek admission in a local university/professional institution, change their track to Intermediate or HSC examination after O’ Levels. This is done to increase the probability of admission by obtaining the local board qualifications which obviously have a much higher proportion in admission seats. The individual students weigh all their options well before making such strategic choices. Thus the losers may have been those who do not perform well in the subsequent board examinations.

Meanwhile, preference is given to the local board students in public institutions due to the simple reason that the whole pyramid of education was structured to provide admission opportunities to students who subscribe to that system. The externalities to the system are absorbed according to the frequency of application, need and criteria of social justice. For instance quotas are normally allocated for applicants of the Federal Board, students of Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and other disadvantaged locations. This rationale is applicable to almost all parts of the country. If the A’ Levels applicants increase in number, the concerned universities are expected to respond to it according to their respective policies and priorities. However, the conditions of establishing competitive merits are likely to apply in the usual manner.

These days, scores of educational fairs are organised to attract students, mainly those who have done or are doing O/A Levels.

It is not without reason. In professional and higher education abroad, the student bodies from developing countries including Pakistan make up a sizeable portion of the annual intake. Most of these students contribute high tuition fees to universities in the West, which happens to be several times higher than what the local students there pay. Such students constitute a revenue earning stream for the educational services in the West.

The international students are also pivotal in attracting large scale research funds while working as work horses for professors.

These research grants sometimes run into millions of dollars. No wonder that ambitious international academics are keen on hiring research assistants from South or South East Asia, young professionals from where are known for their laborious and persistent hardworking habits. On their account, the students are usually attracted to gain degrees with American, South East Asian or European tags in order to increase their marketability. Only those prospective freshmen, who are not able to make it to foreign universities, resort to local universities as a last resort. Quite often, the students experience disappointments when they fail to obtain admission in institutions of their choice.

A rational approach could be to seek proper and authentic information from the concerned boards and universities before making choices. The trend in allocation of seats, fee structure, scholarships, prerequisites for admission in various categories and many other facts must be acquired from the administrative offices and analysed carefully. While there could be no ideal combinations, student must be aware about their chances and the possibilities of maximising them to their advantage.

The writer is professor and chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University, Karachi.