Public colleges’ performance in Inter exam an eye-opener

LAHORE: THE performance of public sector colleges against private colleges in the Intermediate Annual Examination 2019 should be an eye-opener for those at the helm.

This bad, if not poor, performance on part of public colleges is not just limited to the top positions in the examination as bagged by the students of private colleges but overall pass percentage of the respective institutions.

An analysis of the result shows that, except for Government College University (GCU) and Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, students at majority of the boys’ colleges of the provincial metropolis performed bad in the exams when compared to students of private colleges, particularly with those of Punjab Group of Colleges, Superior Group of Colleges and Beaconhouse’s Concordia Colleges.

While none of the colleges of these private groups in the provincial metropolis has produced less than 50 percentage result, there are many public colleges of Lahore with overall pass percentage below 50 percent. Some of these include Government Shah Hussain College, Township (38%), Government College for Boys, Gulberg (41%), Government Dyal Singh College (43%), Government Islamia College for Boys, Cantt (46%), Government Degree College for Boys, Shalimar Town (46%) etc and Government MAO College (48%). Government College University (GCU) lived up to its name as it had not just its share in the positions in Lahore Board’s Intermediate exams but also obtained maximum pass percentage (93%) in the exams. Of its 1,170 students who appeared in the exams 1,084 passed. Of these, 594 students obtained A+ grade. As against GCU’s 55% students who obtained A+ grade in the exam, 35% students of one of the Punjab Group’s colleges could achieve A+ grade.

Of around 36,000 students who appeared in the exams from Lahore’s public colleges under the administrative control of the Higher Education Department (HED), almost half (around 16,000) had appeared from Punjab Group of Colleges alone. While some public colleges had around or over 1,000 students each appearing in the exams such as Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, (3,142 students) and Government College of Science, Wahdat Road (1990 students), some had extremely low number of students sitting in the exams. These are Government Shah Hussain College, Township (21 students only), Government College of Commerce, Hunza Block, Iqbal Town (26 students) and Government College for Women, Thokar Niaz Baig (59 students) etc.

This is alarming when one notices that from two of the Punjab Group’s women campuses in Gulberg a staggering 5,868 students had appeared in the exam.

The private college does so by accommodating its students in different shifts from morning till evening whereas most of our public colleges are empty by afternoon. And for better results, the recipe of private colleges is simple. They attract high-achievers of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams by offering them scholarships and financial incentives. They form special classes and make their teachers work hard on the students. And in most of the public colleges, students don’t bother to attend classes a couple of months before exams as nobody cares. And sadly this has become a tradition.

Academic circles are of the view that public colleges primarily face management issues and for this the government should come hard on the heads showing laxity. This is true as in terms of human resource and infrastructure most of the public colleges are far ahead than the privately managed colleges—which in cases operate in small and rented buildings and rely on visiting faculty. —lachvee @gmail.com