NO ENTRY TEST MCAT/ECAT TO BE TAKEN FROM NEXT YEAR-SUMMARY PROPOSED

MCAT/ECAT ENTRY TEST  FOR ADMISSION IN MEDICAL COLLEGES WILL NOT BE TAKEN FROM NEXT YEAR, SUMMARY PROPOSED TO CM PUNJAB. ADMISSIONS WILL BE PURELY ON OPEN MERIT:SOURCES

The Examinations and Admissions Reforms Committee on Saturday recommended that entry tests for admission to universities be abolished.

The committee made the suggestion at a meeting chaired by Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan.

Chief Minster Shahbaz Sharif had formed the committee to reform the examination and admission system.

 The committee questioned the need for admission tests given a ‘reformed’ examination system at the intermediate level.

It said that entry tests conducted by medical and engineering universities amounted to no more than a duplication of the exams taken at the intermediate level.

Arif Hussain Bhatti, a spokesperson for the education minister, confirmed that the committee had suggested ending the entry test system.

“The committee has made the recommendation but no final decision has been taken in this regard,” Bhatti told The Express Tribune.

“The matter requires further deliberation,” he said.

Bhatti said a decision in this regard would apply to medical and engineering universities in both public and private sectors.

Saturday’s meeting was attended by University of Engineering and Technology and University of Health Sciences vice chancellors, representatives of the Higher Education Department and the School Education Department and Nasrullah Virk, the head of Punjab Boards Committee of Chairmen.

Virk is also the chairman of the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Higher Education Commission chairman Mukhtar Ahmed said the commission would react once it had reviewed the content of the committee’s proposal.

He said a mechanism to standardise entry into higher education institutions was necessary.

He also said education was a provincial subject after the approval of the 18th Amendment. “It is vital to standardise the process to bring about improvements in higher education. We should ensure that our students are able to compete… at the global level.”

He said while quality of intermediate examinations had improved, ensuring quality at entry to higher education was essential.

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