Rationalisation of admission tests

I know a girl who got GPA5 in PSC, JSC, SSC and HSC but could not come through various admission tests in public universities. It sounds incredible that a student with consistently brilliant results in four public examinations could not qualify in admission tests of universities. I asked her about it and she replied that many questions were out of HSC syllabus of all education boards. I personally feel that questions for admission tests should be set according to HSC syllabus. Certain syllabus is a must. Otherwise most of the meritorious students will be in trouble.

As a matter of fact, the questions for admission tests are designed in such a way that private coaching is necessary for candidates and their guardians. It is a huge financial involvement and those who cannot afford such expenses run the risk of being disqualified in public universities and medical colleges. Students who take the help of coaching centres get through and their knowledge of HSC or equivalent studies has very little effect on admission tests. To judge a student certain syllabus is necessary and question setters of university and medical colleges should be asked to follow the same. If the questions are set in this manner then more students with good academic background will get opportunities to study in public universities and in government medical colleges. If this practice is followed for several years students will lose their confidence in coaching centres and the guardians will be relieved of spending a huge amount of money on coaching centres.

Md. Ashraf Hossain

120 Central Bashabo, Dhaka-1214.

[email protected]