KARACHI, Sept 7: Two boy students of the Adamjee Govt Science College played second and third fiddle to a girl student of St Joseph’s College for Women who clinched the first position in the Intermediate second year, pre-engineering group, results.

Anita Nadeem, a student of St Joseph’s College for Women, secured 986 marks out of 1,100 (89.64 per cent) to obtain the first position. Asad Akbar and Syed Junaid Javaid of the Adamjee Govt Science College secured 984 marks (89.45 per cent) and 979 marks (89 per cent) respectively to bag the second and third positions.

According to the result documents distributed by the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi on Saturday, 14,465 male candidates registered themselves for the examination but only 14,327 took the examination. At least 5,949 candidates managed to get through, taking the overall pass percentage to 41.52.

The overall pass percentage of the female candidates was, on the other hand, much higher at 64.47. While 4,033 candidates registered themselves for the examination, only 3,999 appeared in the examination. However, 2,578 candidates got through.

While the boy students failed to obtain the first position, they received more A-1 grades than girl students: 321 male and 186 female. The remaining grades obtained by students are as follows: 1,550 A grade, 2,263 B grade, 2,683 C grade, 1,233 D grade and 25 E grade. Two hundred and sixty-six private candidates also passed the examination.

While the first position holder, Anita Nadeem, is abroad, the other position holders spoke to the newsmen at the Karachi Press Club. The second position holder, Asad Akbar, said that he would not pursue an engineering career and would opt for chartered accountancy.

He suggested that apart from preliminary examination, colleges should hold tests on a monthly basis so that the students could assess their performance.

The third position holder, Syed Junaid Javaid, said he would opt for electronics engineering at the NED University of Science and Technology. He stressed the need for updating the syllabus of science subjects. “I have seen the Physics book employed by the Punjab board. It is a little more extensive than ours which shows that our physics syllabus could be bettered.”

Talking to newsmen, the BIEK chairman, Dr Sharif Memon, said students were not qualified to sit in the judgment on the syllabus. “Try to go to the root of the problem. In Pakistan admissions are not held in time. There are less than 100 working days in a year. Attendance in colleges and schools remains low.”

Dr Memon said that while a fresh syllabus was being introduced “but even then it will be only 10 per cent new.”

The principal of St Joseph’s College, Dr Tanveer Anjum, agreed with the BIEK chairman. She said that in some science classes, there were about 100 students. She added that ideally there should be around 50 students in one class.