KABUL): Hundreds of high school graduates protested in Kabul on Saturday against what they claimed “fraudulently” failing them in the recent entrance test for admission to public sector universities.
The Ministry of Higher Education last month announced the results, declaring more than 43,000 candidates out of the total more than 175,000 appeared as passed and eligible for admission to government-run universities. Another 13,000 students would be enrolled to colleges.
The protest rally by nearly 500 unsuccessful students asked the government to revoke the results, alleging many students had been failed deliberately and through fraud. The protestors called for the examination to be conducted again, claiming this year’s Kankor test was marred by “fraud”. “We want the fraudsters to be arrested,” they chanted in front of the Higher Education Ministry.
One of the protesting students said some of his fellows were declared failed despite scoring more than 300 marks while the student who topped the exam obtained 333 marks.
“The examination process has not been transparent and it involved widespread fraud. We want the results to be cancelled,” an unsuccessful student from Paktia, Musa Ishaqzai, said.
He called for the test to be taken again in presence of an impartial commission in order to ensure transparency.
However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education rejected as unfounded that any fraud had been committed or the exam was not transparent, ruling out the possibility of conducting the test for a second time.
The percentage of successful students in Daikundi, Faryab, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces is more than 75 percent while only 16 percent students passed the test in Kabul.
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