ETEA haste

Holding the entrance test for admissions to medical and dental colleges under the ETEA (Educational Testing and Evaluation Authority) – scheduled for August 12 – is justified given the unpredictable weather condition and also because the KP intermediate board has not announced results yet.
Many students registered for the test may not succeed in their intermediate examinations when the results are out. The other big hurdle is the monsoon rains. Out of the more than 22,000 registered students, 14,000 students will appear in Peshawar alone and nearly 4,000 in Swat. In both the centres the test will be held in playgrounds in this hot and humid weather. How will the students from Chitral, which is badly hit by floods, reach their test centres? As many thousands students – particularly women – will be accompanied by their parents or guardians on the test day, to facilitate them the test should be held on a Sunday. Another painful aspect of the ETEA is that in Punjab each student is charged Rs500, while in KP the fee is Rs1,600.
Dr Mukhtar Ali
Kurram Agency