Sir: It is a matter of grave concern that every institution in Pakistan is created with a vision that mostly remains unfulfilled.The story of the National Testing Service (NTS), an initiative of the Ministry of Education, seems to be no different. The aim of the testing service was to standardise the testing procedures for the scholarships offered by the Ministry of Education, so that instead of going through the cumbersome process of giving separate eligibility tests for each scholarship on offer, students could be judged on the basis of one standardised test. However the situation on the ground is the exact opposite. Recently, NTS advertised the Commonwealth Scholarships for the year 2008 in various newspapers. However, when I contacted NTS to confirm whether I could apply for the scholarship based on the NTS test I had given about 7 months back, I was told that there would be a fresh test for the Commonwealth scholarship. Therefore, I had to give the NTS test again. To add to the woes of the poor ambitious students, NTS has now advertised (September 28) that it is going to conduct another test for the Cultural Exchange Scholarship Programme 2007-2008. If I want to apply for this scholarship, I’ll end up sitting for 3 NTS tests of exactly the same pattern in a space of 8 months!Sadly, it seems that NTS is more concerned with collecting hefty registration fees instead of facilitating students, contrary to their initial aim of standardising testing.AAFIQ AKRAMRawalpindi