Lahore – Students seeking professional education have started preferring Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) system and have started opting for Matriculation and Intermediate instead of General Certificate of Education (GCE), O and A-levels, has learnt.
Various families, especially of doctors and engineers, are forcing their children to follow the Pakistani educational system as they consider that the course taught in engineering and medical colleges are based on the BISE’s course. They said that GCE was meant for those who planed to study abroad.
Some teachers and parents claimed that this British educational system was running an ‘international agenda’; in order to ‘inject’ their own course, and thousands of students send billions of rupees abroad to appear in the exams, which was proving to be a financial burden on the financially weaker country as well.
Parents argued that entry tests course was also not based on the GCE system. Abrar Tauheed, who did O and A levels in engineering from Beaconhouse School System, told Pakistan Today that doing O and A-levels was his biggest mistake. He said his friends who went for Fsc were more easily getting admitted in engineering universities. He said he gave engineering tests continuously for two years but was not able to get admission even though he attained 3 A grades in A-levels. He said more than 90 percent questions in the entry tests were generated from Pakistani books.
Another student, Rabia Siddiqi, daughter of a lady doctor and who shifted from O-levels to Intermediate, said, “My mother wanted me to become a doctor as well, therefore she insisted me to do Faculty of Science (Fsc) rather than A-levels.” She further said that she was anti-Fsc at one time but now she thinks that she took the right decision. She said students who had an ambition to study abroad should go for O and A-levels while others should follow the Pakistani system.
Saad Saeed, an Fsc (pre medical) student at Forman Christian College and a son of a famous doctor, said he did O-levels from SICAS, but he and his parents realized that Fsc will prove to be much better for him for medicine. He said he should have had opted for matriculation than O-levels. He said the Cambridge system was also proving to be a huge financial burden on parents. He said that if he was doing A-levels from SICAS, it could have cost him around Rs 0.3 million whereas the expenses on Matriculation and Intermediate system were far lesser. He said his sister was already in the last year of O-levels and she also plans to shift to Fsc.
Another student, Saher, said that there should be a single education system in the country and GCE was creating a gap between upper and lower classes. She said she opted for matriculation even though her friends were insisting to go for GCE.
Harris Mirza, who did O and A-levels from a famous school, argued that this system helped him a lot to get an admission abroad. He confessed that even though he studied business subjects but the quality of education given in the GCE system was much better.
A mother of two and wife of a doctor, Mrs Saeed, said most of the doctors’ children were going for the Pakistani system, because they considered it more appropriate to get admission in medical colleges.
Farrukh Kamran, a student from University of Engineering and Technology, said he was lucky that he did not go for GCE and got admission in one of the most prestigious universities of Lahore. He said that he did not face problems in the entry tests, whereas his various friends who did A-levels had to go abroad to get admission.
A private school teacher, Rafaqat, said GCE had become a status symbol and not even India followed this system, to ensure a uniform educational system in the country.
My mother wanted me to become a doctor as well, therefore she insisted I do Faculty of Science (Fsc) rather than A-levels
There should be a single education system in the country and GCE is creating a gap between upper and lower classes. I opted for matriculation even though my friends were insisting for GCE
Science students prefer matric to O-level
