Karzai for reforms in university entry test

KABUL): President Hamid Karzai on Saturday called for reforms in university entry test system to bring it at par with international standards.

The current entry test called Kankor was based on old methods that made it difficult for even talented student to pass, depriving them of higher education, Karzai told a three-day seminar on reforms in education system.

He said keeping in view the weaknesses in the exam system, he wanted it to be revised. Students should be divided into two major fields – science and arts – from class 9th like the education system during Mohammad Daud Khan’s era, Karzai said.

Students of engineering and medicine faculties should be taught in English, German or French because they would be able to study science books in those languages, the president said, adding that sending students to foreign countries for higher studies was another way to develop the country.

About $500 million were spent on scholarship programme last year, where 700 students were sent abroad for higher education, he said, adding that a sum of $500 million were being set aside for the programme this year and another id=mce_marker5 million for the following year to enable nearly 1,000 students go abroad to pursue higher education.

The president said they would allocate up to $40 million each year for students’ scholarship programme in coming years and awarding scholarships would be done in a transparent method.   

“Education sector and universities are not places to be used for politics and discrimination, but for developing personalities of youth,” he said.

myn/ma/vp

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