The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has directed all public and private medical colleges to only use science elective subjects’ marks obtained by students for calculating merit in the institutions, learnt on Friday.

Meanwhile, parents have expressed concerns that the decision will benefit the FSc students, but A-level students will suffer as their marks will be reduced when they are converted by the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC).

The Pakistan Medical Commission in its memorandum notice issued to public and private sector medical colleges said that “reference to PMC earlier notification all public and private medical/dental colleges are required to strictly comply with the decision of the Council dated 25.06.2021”.

It said that the Council in its meeting held on 25th June, 2021 approved a policy for calculation of merit for the upcoming admissions in line with the government policy due to Covid-19 pandemic where the marks obtained by the students in the science electives only shall be used for calculating the merit.
“This policy will apply to all students taking their FSc in 2021 and who are applying on the basis of last year’s FSc results or on the basis of A-levels results to ensure no discrimination in merit calculations,” said the notification.

The notice stated that all colleges/universities when calculating the merit for admissions shall ensure that for purposes of FSc or A-level or any equivalent HSSC qualification results only the marks obtained in the science electives of Biology, Chemistry and Physics/Mathematics be used.

It further said that notwithstanding the use of only electives for preparation of merit the applying student must have obtained 655 or more aggregate score (in all subjects cumulatively) in their FSc, A-level or any equivalent HSSC qualification as prescribed by regulations.

Meanwhile, a father of the student in A-levels, Intezar Ahmed viewed the decision as irrational as it will benefit the students of FSc but not the A-level students.

Source The Nation

By Arsalan Ahmad

Arsalan Ahmad is a Research Engineer working on 2-D Materials, graduated from the Institute of Advanced Materials, Bahaudin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arsalanahmad-materialsresearchengr/