Cabinet orders entry test preparation courses

KABUL to conduct one-year preparation course for 12th grade graduates in insecure and less developed provinces in the lead up to annual nationwide university entrance test.

The Saturday’s decision was aimed to ensure social justice and equal access to higher education across the country, a statement from the Presidential Palace’s administrative affairs department said.

It said the higher education ministry was asked to improve the quality of education in some provinces. A commission, comprising university teachers and civil society activists, has found a poor education system had been behind the less number of students qualifying the entry test, the statement said.

The Council of Ministers also called for providing higher education institutes with modern day teaching equipment and professional staff.

The ministry last month announced the results of recently conducted university entrance test, declaring more than 43,000 candidates among 175,000 as successful.

The results show more than 75 percent students who took the exam in Daikundi, Faryab, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces have passed the test. Only 16 percent of those appeared in Kabul made it to public sector universities.

Hundreds of failing students protested against the results in Kabul on Saturday. Later in the day, the higher education ministry issued a statement, saying more than 100,000 students who secured 250 and above marks would be granted admission to public sector universities.

myn/ma

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