Government colleges admissions in Punjab

Admission fee, date vary in government colleges
Lahore, Aug 09: After declaration of matriculation annual examination’s results by all the eight examination boards of the province last week, admissions to colleges has finally begun in Punjab.

Nonetheless, what is missing in the whole process is uniformity both in terms of prices of admission prospectus and final dates to submit forms.

It is understandable that the government, as ever, is helpless in bringing private sector under control but what can be done is not being done as far as working of public sector colleges is concerned.

The varied dates to submit forms and varied prices of prospectus of the public run institutions expose well lack of coordination on part of officials concerned. On the other hand, sale of prospectus on high rates by private colleges speaks volumes of government’s apathy.

The fee charged by colleges working in private sector is certainly a different thing for which no government ever, even, thought to introduce legislation or regulations.

Another aspect being highlighted by the stakeholders is demand of more and more seats at the government colleges so that maximum number of students could be saved from exorbitant private sector. For this, the academic circles suggest the government to introduce second shift programmes in as many public colleges as possible.

Similarly another fact worth mentioning in connection with result of matriculation exam is introduction of Rs 450 as Certificate Fee by the boards. The Punjab government is being castigated for the new monetary intervention as earlier there was no such fee and certificates were issued to the successful candidates without any extra fee.

The new fee has been introduced for students of government and private schools alike. The Punjab government had taken much pride in waiving off registration and examination fee of students of government schools appearing in matric exams without considering the financial constraints the boards had to face.

It was said the government would compensate the boards by providing grants to the same but to no avail. The stakeholders believe the Certificate Fee is an effort to avert financial deficit being faced by the boards at the cost of waiver to the government schools students. They also term the recent initiative a move to make a fool of thousands of students and their parents.

Similarly, no uniformity was observed in recently held MPhil admission tests in the Punjab University. While a number of departments charged Rs 250 or a bit more per student for the test, the PU College of Earth & Environmental Sciences took a lead and charged Rs 500 per student for the test.

A number of institutes/departments did not entertain new admissions at all. One such was the PU Institute of Communication Studies (ICS). It is learnt the institute did not enrol students this time owing to last year’s controversy over MPhil admissions for which the management is, reportedly, already facing an inquiry.

The ICS management, however, claims the institute could not manage a new class as there are already over three different batches of MPhil. Another excuse they offer is non-availability of senior faculty members saying without them the admission process could not be handled properly and objections are raised as witnessed in the past. The news

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