Govt asked to stop conducting aptitude tests for admissions

Islamabad: Parents and students have appealed to the sitting government to stop looting the poor public in the name of ‘aptitude tests’ like the Law Admission Test (LAT), Graduation Admission Test (GAT), National Testing Service (NTS), and newly introduced Undergraduate Studies Aptitude Test (USAT) for admission in universities in the country.

It becomes quite difficult for poor parents to pay a fee for all tests which ranges from Rs1,000 to Rs2,000. Thousands of students fail to clear these tests in the first attempt so poor parents have to pay fees, again and again, to get admission in public and private universities to secure a future for their sons and daughters in this regard.

“If the government really wants to boost the present education system through these baseless tests then it should conduct these tests ‘free of cost’ without any fee,” poor parents have demanded.

‘The News’ collected information from Higher Education Commission (HEC), over 50,000 male and female students appeared in (LAT) to get admission in law colleges and universities this year but less than 20,000 students cleared this test and got 50 per cent aggregate. Over 30,000 students again and again appeared in (LAT) test and paid a fee of Rs1000 every time. After completing their law from any university, it was necessary to appear in (GAT) for getting law graduation degree. Not only HEC was taking ‘aptitude tests’ but all universities were also taking admission test from the students.

Punjab Bar Council (PBC) Vice-Chairman Farhan Shahzad has condemned suck kinds of ‘aptitude tests' in the country. He said that it would be the first and an important agenda in tomorrow’s meeting of the Punjab Bar Council (PBC). “I will raise this issue to end aptitude tests to get admissions in public and private universities because it is a financial burden for poor parents,” he assured. The public and private universities are conducting their own admission tests and do not need to follow these baseless tests in the country, he added.

Punjab University (Registrar) Dr. Khalid Khan said the matter was also discussed in every academic council meeting and they did not approve of any test other than conducting their own tests.

The students and parents were tense due to such kinds of baseless tests like (LAT), (GAT), (NTS) and now HEC introduced another test in the name of Undergraduate Studies Aptitude Test (USAT).

Some five months back in August 2021, the Education Testing Council (ETC) announced that it would hold the USAT, a standardised test, for admissions at the undergraduate level in universities all over Pakistan on September 12, 2021. The last date for online registration was August 30. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) Spokesman Muhammad Jamshed Khan said that currently, this test of Undergraduate Studies Aptitude Test (USAT) was not mandatory. But all other tests like LAT, GAT, etc. are mandatory to get admission in any public and private university, he claimed.