RAWALPINDI: Four girl students from Talagang and Gujar Khan clinched the top three positions in the Higher Secondary School Certification annual examinations 2024, while the formal result will be announced on Wednesday (today).

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi (BISER) announced the names of top position holders on Tuesday. The results will be announced during a ceremony at Fatima Jinnah Women University.

Notably, all position holders belong to the Punjab College for Women in Talagang and Gujar Khan campuses. The performance of government colleges has drawn criticism, as only one student from Government Gordon College achieved a second position in humanities and three students from Cadet College Hassanabdal, Lawrence College Ghora Gali Murree, Rangers Cadet College secured positions. All other positions were grabbed by students from private colleges.

A senior educationist in the public sector told Dawn that private colleges often offer better quality education and motivate students more effectively, while government colleges suffer from poor educational standards and lack of interest from faculty. Lecturers and professors are more interested in part time work or academies and private colleges in the evening.

He said that though, the government colleges had a number of PhD degree holders, they did not work in their institutions properly. A senior professor in government college of the garrison city, not to be named, told Dawn that the primary reason for the poor results of government-run colleges was the government’s lack of interest in improving the curriculum.

He said that in the era of Artificial Intelligence, we use old methods of teaching in the government colleges while private colleges provide better environment to students. He said that the private colleges provide many incentives to the students and maintain discipline in their campuses and regularly check the work of students.

“Most students studying in government-run colleges, who barely get 360 marks in the matric exam, are only interested in getting the HSSC certificate and are not keen to get high marks,” he said.

However, he admitted that mostly professors and lecturers gave most of their time to private colleges that fared better.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for BISE Rawalpindi, Arslan Cheema, told Dawn that the government announced the names of position holders and gave them prizes in their respective divisions.

He said that formal results would be announced on Wednesday (today) but the names of top position holders were announced on Tuesday. As many as three students from Talagang got first and second positions while the third position was clinched by a student from Gujar Khan.

According to results, Natasha Rizwan (roll number 756425) of Punjab College for Women, Talagang bagged overall first position in the board by scoring 1,142 marks while Sahaab Fatima (roll number 725635) and Zaira Fatima (Roll Number 702883), students from Punjab College for Women Talagang clinched second position by getting 1,141 marks each. Farah Rashid (roll number 749453) of Punjab College for Women Gujar Khan got third position with 1,140 marks.

In the humanities group (male), a madrresah student clinched the third position. Ali Sher from Punjab College for Boys Satellite Town Rawalpindi got first position by securing 1,032 marks, Mohammad Salahuddin from Government Gordon College secured second position with 980 marks and Mohammad Fahad Abdullah Kayani from Jamia Baitul Islam Talagang got third position with 969 marks.

In the humanities group (female), Saima Parveen from Farrah Pervez College Gujar Khan got the first position with 1,045 marks, Adeela Yasmeen from Government Degree College for Women Chakwal secured the second position with 1,034 marks and Sharqa Talat from Potohar College for Science and Commerce Kallar Syedan got third position with 1,029 marks.

In the pre-medical group (boys), Saad Ali Tarar from Lawrence College Ghora Gali Murree attained the first position with 1,134 marks, Ahmad Sher from Punjab College Talagang got second position with 1,033 marks and Khubaib Abdullah from Cadet College Hassanabdal secured the third position with 1,027 marks.

In the pre-medical group (girls), Natasha Rizwan from Punjab College for Women, Talagang bagged the first position by scoring 1,142 marks while Sahaab Fatima from Punjab College for Women Talagang and Zaira Fatima from Punjab College for Women Talagang clinched second position by getting 1,141 marks each. Farah Rashid of Punjab College for Women Gujar Khan got third position with 1,140 marks.

In the pre-engineering group (boys), Mohammad Hamza Sultan from Royal College of Sciences Chakwal got first position with 1,125 marks, Obaidur Rehman from Punjab College Chakwal secured second position with 1,118 marks and Mohammad Anas Bilal from Lawrence College Ghora Gali got third position with 1,115 marks.

In the pre-engineering group (girls), Mehr Bano from Royal College of Science Chakwal secured first position with 1,131 marks, Shamin Bibi from Punjab College for Girls Attock got second position with 1,119 marks and Savera Zainab from Kallar Kahar Science College got third position with 1,115 marks.

In the general science group for boys, Hamza Ahmed from Cambridge International Science College Talagang got first position with 1,120 marks, Asif Mujtaba from Punjab College Talagang bagged the second position with 1,103 marks and Hafiz Munibur Rehman Malik from Rangers Cadet College Sihala Rawalpindi secured third position with 1,101 marks.

In the general science group for girls, Zara Arshad from Punjab College Satellite Town Rawalpindi got first position with 1,134 marks, Faiza Qureshi from Punjab College Satellite Town Rawalpindi got second position with 1,109 marks and Mahnoor from Punjab College Satellite Town Rawalpindi secured third position with 1,105 marks.

In the commerce group for boys, Mohammad Nouman Gohar from Rawalpindi College for Commerce Saidpur Road got first position with 1,040 marks, Ahmed Rashid Yaseen Qureshi from Punjab College for Information Technology Satellite Town secured second position with 1,027 marks and Abrish Aziz from Punjab College Quaid Campus Expressway got third position with 1,003 marks.

In the commerce group for girls, Hizra Mazhar from Punjab College Gujar Khan secured first position with 1,089 marks, Maryam Bibi from Punjab College Satellite Town got second position with 1,086 marks and Fatima Saeed from Steps College for Girls Satellite Town got third position with 1,083 marks.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024