Separate entry test for A level students

LAHORE - Meeting a longstanding demand of the A level students, the Punjab government has notified that evaluation of A level students for admission in medical colleges would be undertaken separately by university of Health Sciences from their own syllabus. A notification issued by provincial health department said that from now onwards, A level students would take a separate entry test, selected from their own syllabus and not from the FSc as was the practice in the past. In the notification, the Punjab government directed the University of Health Sciences to conduct separate entrance test for the A level students from A level syllabus. Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif took this decision on the recommendations of a high level inquiry committee constituted under the supervision of the Chairman Planning & Development comprising Punjab Health Secretary, vice chancellors of the medical universities and other senior health officers. The inquiry committee was constituted on the strong agitation of the parents and students studying in various English medium schools. The A level students will be given necessary papers of separate colours at the examination centres for entry test scheduled for September 27 this year. Previously, A level students were asked to either appear in the examination taken according to old FSc course or new FSc course instead of A level pattern. The UHS has announced September 27 for the entry test exams this year. The government, however, is yet to meet another related demand of A level students pertaining to determine an equivalence formula of their marks with those of FSc students. According to existing formula, the highest marks given to an A-level student are 935/1100 by Inter Board Committee Of Chairmen (IBCC). On the other hand, highest marks of an FSc student can be as high as 1000 and above. This formula equates straight As with only 935 marks of FSc. Thousands of A level students become disappointed and feel discouraged when they are denied admission in medical colleges and other professional colleges on the basis of this formula, as so many students of FSc are now securing more than 1000 marks. Due to unjust examination system, out of 430 A-level students who passed the entrance test last year only seven per cent could get admissions in medical colleges while the rest had to adopt other professions against their choice. On this, A level students had complained to Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to allocate separate quota of seats for them in medical and dental colleges as current admission policy unfairly favoured the FSc students. They had further pleaded that Medical Colleges Admission Test (MCAT) was purely based on FSc textbooks and pattern, which is quite different from that of A levels. In their presentation made to the Punjab CM, they pleaded that majority of A level students could not get admission in medical colleges due to unfair admission policy. They expressed concern that as a consequence of current unjust system of evaluation, even the brilliant students of schools or colleges fail to get admission in government medical colleges.