PESHAWAR: The proposal of Educational Testing and Evaluation Authority (ETEA) to conduct entrance test for admission to professional colleges in April instead of July has created unrest among the owners of private tuition academies, who earn million of rupees by training students for such tests, according to sources.

Dozens of coaching academies have been functioning in big cities of the province, mostly in the provincial capital, wherein the students are trained for entrance test conducted by ETEA for admission to University of Engineering and Technology and medical colleges.

The proposal was floated by the ETEA coordination committee, which is headed by Higher Education Secretary Zafar Ali Shah. The members of the committee include UET Vice-chancellor Prof Iftikhar Ahmed, Khyber Medical University Vice-chancellor Prof Arshed Javed and ETEA Executive Director Prof Israr Ahmed.

ETEA suggests conducting test for admission to professional colleges in April instead of July

Sources said that the proposal of conducting ETEA test in April was put forward in a recent meeting of the coordination committee.

“The coaching academies charge around Rs25,000 from each student for teaching chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and English,” the owner of a coaching academy told Dawn.

He said that besides tuition fee, the students from other districts resided in the hostel for which they paid minimum Rs10,000 to the academies while transportation charges were around Rs5000.

The ETEA usually conducts test on the request of the administration of UET and KMU in July while FSc annual examinations are held in April.

The coaching academies do a roaring business in the period between FSc examinations and ETEA test.

“It is strange that the coaching academies are indirectly owned by the professors of known colleges. If these professors can prepare the students at the coaching academies within two months for ETEA test, why they cannot prepare the students in two years at the colleges,” questioned a professor of Islamia College University.

He termed the preparation in coaching academies an extra financial burden on the students. Unfortunately, there was a big difference in the paper pattern of education board and ETEA, he added.

The professor said that at intermediate level, the college teachers prepared students for the board examinations that were mostly based on the rote learning. While paper for the ETEA test was based on student learning outcome (SLO), where the rote learning couldn’t work until clearing the concept of the students about a topic, he added.

“The student would get rid of the coaching academies and other related problems if the education department changes the pattern of papers by shifting from the rote learning to the conceptual learning,” said the professor.

Expressing concerns over the burden on the students, UET Dean of Engineering Prof Noor Mohammad stressed the need for changing the pattern of papers for the board examinations.

“Teaching at colleges should be for the board examinations as well as for the entry test conducted by ETEA,” he said. He added that teachers should change their teaching methodologies and focus on clearing the concept of students.

Currently, ETEA test is conducted at the end of second year examinations in the courses being taught during the two years in the intermediate classes.

The dean suggested that there should be two ETEA tests for admission to the professional college each soon after the part-I and part-II examinations to avoid burden on the students and save their money.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2018