LAHORE: 11 government colleges have zero-percent passing rates in BA/BSc

* List includes colleges whose principals were suspended last year

* Failing colleges are hubs for student union politics

By Adnan Lodhi

The passing percentage of around 11 government colleges in the province in the BA/BSc annual examinations was zero percent, while that of around 70 colleges in Punjab was below 20 percent.

Three of Lahore’s colleges are also on the list of 11 colleges with zero percent passing rates, while 10 of the city’s colleges showed a below than 20 percent passing rate.

Educationists and students said that it was a tragedy that not a single student from these colleges had been able to pass the BA/BSc exams, and demanded that the higher education department suspend the principals of those colleges whose passing percentage was below 20 percent.

It is important to note that not every BA and BSc student in these colleges failed his or her exams, but that in each college only one of the groups, either BA or BSc, failed completely.

List: Although this year’s overall passing percentage in the BA/ BSc exams is better than last year’s, the fact that 11 government colleges showed a zero percent passing rate and 70 government colleges showed a passing rate lower than 20 percent is still worrying. The situation is even worse because this year, colleges did not allow certain students to sit for the exams just so they could improve their pass percentage. The result however, has still been disappointing. It seems that college principals have not learned any lessons from the action taken by the higher education department last year, when the Punjab Education Department suspended 26 principals on account of the poor performance of their respective institutions in the BA/BSc examinations 2009. This decision was announced at a high-level meeting with provincial Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman after the announcement of the BA/BSc result.

Government colleges in Chakwal, Faisalabad, Okara, Rawalpindi, Shorkot and Lahore are among those with a zero percent passing rate in the exams. In Lahore, Dayal Singh College, Government College Ravi Road, Shahdara, and Mansoora Model Degree College, Wahdat Road, are among those with a zero percent passing rate. Not one student among the 18 who appeared in the exams from the Dayal Singh College could pass the BA exams.

Hubs: According to students and educationists, the colleges that have performed poorly are hubs of student union politics and teachers’ politics, and are lacking in facilities. Wise College, a private college in Lahore, is also on the list of colleges with a zero percent passing rate.

According to students of the Dayal Singh College, the college had gotten a bad name in the past because of student union politics. They said that the situation was now worse, as students were not regularly attending classes. They also complained about the lack of facilities.

Tauseef Ahmad, a college teacher, said that the government’s lack of interest was responsible for the poor performance in government colleges. He said that teacher politics was at its peak in these colleges and that teachers preferred to hold boycotts rather than teach classes.

Colleges run by previously suspended principals are among those with poor passing percentages. Not one student of the 46 government colleges in the city has attained a position in the BA/BSc examinations.

According to a member of a college teachers’ union, the government is planning to start a four-year BSc honours class in 26 colleges in Punjab and is planning to privatise them, but the colleges’ poor performance showed that the government had failed to improve the situation and that colleges did not have proper facilities and were not properly staffed.

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