—–Hold private academies and UHS accountable for ‘leak’
LAHORE: Parents and students of the candidates who appeared in the Medical & Dental Colleges’ Admission Test (MDCAT) have decided to approach the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the alleged ‘leak’ of the question paper on social media. On Sunday, as many as 65,155 candidates including 41,563 women and 23,592 men appeared in the entrance test that is mandatory to get admissions in the public and private medical and dentistry colleges of the province.
The University of Health Sciences (UHS) conducted the test for 3405 MBBS seats in 17 public sector medical colleges and 216 BDS seats in three public dental colleges of the province. Moreover, there are 2590 MBBS seats and 555 BDS seats in 21 private medical colleges and 9 dental colleges affiliated with the UHS respectively.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Maham Nasir, a student of Kinnaird College, said that the physics portion of the MCQ-type question paper was leaked with the connivance of a private academy and the employees of UHS. The entry test conducted by UHS had four portions that were divided in biology, chemistry, physics and english. There were 88 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) of biology while physics, chemistry and english had 44, 58 and 30 MCQs respectively. On the whole, there were 220 MCQs, while each MCQ carried five marks making the aggregate 1,100.
“All the 44 MCQs of physics were uploaded on the social media just after the exam and it is worth mentioning here that no candidate is allowed to leave the examination hall until he or she returns the question paper to the invigilator,” she said. She further added that she wonders how the same question paper, having the exact MCQs, was posted on social media because it was not possible for a single candidate to recall them word by word.
Dr Atif, father of a candidate, told this scribe that he has contacted with some aggrieved parents and they are going to file a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) within a few days, praying that the result of the entry test be declared null and void by the LHC and an inquiry initiated to put the culprits behind the bars. “It was done with the connivance of private academies mafia and some employees of UHS to give benefits to the students of private academies who take a hefty sum from students in the guise of entry test preparation,” he said. The future of more than 65,000 families is associated with this result and therefore LHC must intervene to secure it, he added.
Another student named Uswah Shoaib said that the portion of physics was completely numerical and could not be solved without using a calculator, but students were not allowed to bring in the calculator in the examination centre. “Only those students could solve the physics portion who were already aware of the correct answers, as even qualified professors could not solve those questions without using the calculators,” he said. He said that he was not demanding for easier question papers but for the procedure of entry tests to be changed, she added. She was of the view that the portion of biology (88 MCQs) could also be seen on the social media and it was the same paper that was taken on Sunday.
Meanwhile, UHS Vice Chancellor Dr Junaid Sarfraz Khan has termed the news of leaked paper as baseless and also written a letter to the Cyber Crime Wing of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to thoroughly probe the matter and bring all those to justice who were involved in this ‘conspiracy’. It is pertinent to mention here that a similar scam surfaced a few months ago during the exams of Central Superior Services (CSS) and the matter was also referred to the FIA at that time.
