KARACHI, Sept 5 The academic session of first-year students at the city colleges which was scheduled to begin from September 1 has not only failed to start on time, but will also be reduced to just 137 days as against the prescribed academic year of 210 days.

According to the Sindh education department's steering committee decision, the session was supposed to start from September 1.

However the first-year classes at city colleges are not likely to start before the first week of October.

According to a decision of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Conference, the first-year students' annual examinations are scheduled to be held in April 2010.

Since the first-year classes at colleges in other parts of Sindh, Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan have already begun on August 15, the first-year students at colleges in the city have lost at least 45 academic days when compared to the academic days of first-year students in the other parts of the country.

The process of admissions to first-year classes at 124 public sector colleges of the city has been expedited after August 29.

The August 29 date was fixed as the last date for submission of admission forms.

The Centralised Admission Policy (CAP) committee tasked with managing the admissions process to first-year may issue the placement lists of candidates of Science, Commerce and Humanities faculties on the eve of Eidul Fitr.

On the other hand, colleges will require one more week to accomplish the entire admissions process before the starting of the first-year classes.

Thus the academic session of first-year students is likely to begin in the first week of October.

Moreover, the CAP committee has set up claim centres for rectifying faults occurred during computerised placement of candidates.

This will take at least one more week to correct such mistakes and solving other admission-related issues.

The process of admission to first-year classes under the CAP had initially begun on July 28.

The CAP committee had extended the last date for submission of admission forms three times because of the inordinate delay in the issuance of mark-sheets to a large number of matric students by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi.

Although there will be 182 working days if the first-year academic session 2009-10 begins on October 1, the academic year will be of only 137 days because there will be no teaching at colleges for 45 days owing to holidays.

These holidays include 26 Sundays which would be falling in six months (from October to March), 10 days for winter vacations (from Dec 22 to Dec 31) and nine holidays on account of Allama Iqbal Day (Nov 9); Eidul Azha (in the last week of November); Kashmir Solidarity Day (Feb 5); Pakistan Day (March 23), besides, two other holidays on account of Eid Milad-un-Nabi and Urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

Unforeseen events, such as strikes and other such disturbances which often add to academic days' loss, are apart from this.

Commenting on the short academic session, Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association president of Karachi chapter Prof Muzaffar Ali Rizvi said that the first-year students of the city government colleges would not be able to complete their entire course in mere 137 academic days.

This was because of the fact that the syllabus was designed while keeping in mind that there would be at least 190 working days in an academic year of 210 academic days, he added.

“In such a short period, neither the teachers will be able to teach the entire prescribed course, nor the students will be able to comprehend it,” he said, adding that short academic sessions and shortage of teachers were the two main factors responsible for the dismal performance of colleges in the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations in the city.

Endorsing the views of Prof Rizvi, SPLA central president Prof Ather Hussain Mirza also criticised the situation.

He said that the previous academic session of first-year students of government colleges in the city was also of mere 130 days.

The Sindh education department had failed to take corrective measures in this regard and the first-year students in city colleges — who are already lagging behind the first-year students of the rest of the country whose classes had begun in the mid of August — would not be able to cover their entire course in just 137 academic days, he said.