The Sindh College Education Department has said there has been an increase in preferring Science, particularly Computer Science, over Arts by students as the first choice while taking admission to government colleges.
According to the statement issued by Director General Colleges-Sindh Dr Muhammad Ali Manjhi, in the 1st phase students who passed their matriculation with A, B, or C grades got admissions to 358 colleges and higher secondary schools in Pre-Medical, Pre-Engineering, Computer Science, Commerce, Arts, and Home Economics through the Sindh Electronic Centralised College Admission Program (SECCAP).
He said there was a higher demand observed in choosing Science than in previous years, particularly in Karachi. To cater to the need, the College Education Department introduced faculty of Computer Science to 18 more Colleges in Karachi this year.
Dr Manjhi, who is also the chairman of the SECCAP, said they had observed a decline in admissions to Arts but the reports that were spreading on media that all of the admissions in Arts would be canceled were baseless.
For the second phase, the College Education Department had opened the admission portal for students, and the candidates could apply for admissions in subjects of their choice, including Arts, online irrespective of their merit till August 20.
On the other hand, some college principals have written complaints to the director general of colleges, stating that recently admissions in the arts faculty were deliberately stopped.
The principal of the Government College for Women located on Chand Bibi Road, in her complaint, said: “Our college admissions for new year 2022-23 are being deliberately stopped due to unknown reasons. An admission for arts subjects has awarded to one student, while last year the number of students in humanities subjects was three hundred.”
She wrote that “our college is offering admissions in an associate degree program as well. Therefore, the DG colleges should restore arts faculty as it is important and necessary for local girls of Karachi South areas.”
Another principal of the Government Degree College for Women North Nazimabad said in her complaint: “The college has been running satisfactorily in both science and arts faculties, but unfortunately, in the current academic year 2022-23, the arts faculty has been removed from this college, which is very surprising for the college management and community.
“Last year, the college had enrolled around 300 students and this year a huge rush of parents and students is being seen asking for admissions to the arts faculty. However, we have no satisfactory answer. We have no knowledge why the arts faculty had been removed for admissions to our college.”
However, officials of the college education department denied the allegations and said that the department had not stopped admissions to colleges in arts subjects.
Teachers of various colleges say thousands of students are asking for admissions in humanities, but they have no answer why the department has stopped admissions.
They claim that inexperienced staffers are using a faulty software, which doesn’t accept admission applications as per the new study scheme. Also, the director colleges has started the Computer Science faculty at 11 colleges and directed the principals to discourage admissions top the arts faculties.