Daily Times

Testing and assessment services are rampant in Pakistan as most of Public and Private Sector recruitment is done through these Testing services. These Testing services are also entrusted with the duty of conducting Admission, Scholarship and Entry tests of Undergraduate, Graduate, Post Graduate, MBBS, BDS, BE and other related degrees.

Though the testing services have brought innovation and transparency in public and private sector recruitments, yet these testing services are questioned for declaring favourable results because of corruption.

The Testing services such as National Testing Services (NTS), Pakistan Testing services (PTS), Open Testing Services (OTS), Universal testing services (UTS) Sukkur IBA Testing Service (STS), Quality Testing services (QTS), Balochistan Testing Services (BTS ) are the few notable testing services operating in Pakistan. NTS, PTS and OTS are the frequently contracted since most of the Public and private sector Organization utilize their services for conducting recruitment, scholarship, admission and entry tests.

NTS leads the testing services as frequently contracted Testing service by all the federal Provincial Governments for the Posts from Grade 1 to 17. One still wonders, how these testing services are conducting Assessment Tests for the Posts of Grade 16 and Grade 17 when we already have a Public service commission at Federal Level and Provincial Public service commissions functioning in each province; and the State of Azad Jammu & Kashmir to carry out recruitment from grade 16 and above.

The recruitment policy notified by the PSC clearly mentions that recruitment for the Posts of grade 16 and above needs to be carried out by FPSC at Federal Level and Provincial PSC’s, at Provincial Level except Posts in President’s Secretariat, DG ISPR or ISI.

We have seen in the past that these Testing services benefited their favourites whereas, the talented and deserving candidates were deliberately deprived of the right of jobs.

These Testing services mostly hire paper setters outside of their organization domain, and provide swapped /jumbled coloured booklets to the candidates at the time of Interviews. The paper quality of some testing services is usually not at par with the level of recruitment or post and creates confusion amongst the candidates regarding the tests. For example, NTS mostly conducts entry test for the MBBS in various provinces including Sindh and Punjab.

A handsome amount is accrued from the students on the pretext of Admission and Processing fee that is unjust. Last year, controversy surrounded the NTS when some of the students of MBBS Entry Test complained to the court and protested against the NTS for leaking the paper on Whatsapp, one hour prior to the test; thus paving the way for ineligible candidates to be Professionals in Medical Science.

Hundreds of Students took to the streets and started chanting slogans against NTS and demanded for a reconduction of the entry test in a transparent manner. In the meantime, NAB raided the NTS headquarters and took the matter in their hands.

The high ranking personnels at NTS Headquarters denied such a raid, even the NAB rejected the news of the raid on NTS headquarters. Well, the drama continued since it was ascertained that an NTS staffer or Test Supervisory or Invigilation staff had leaked the paper with an answer key to help their own close relatives to become future doctors.

The Provincial Health Minister on the directives of CM Sindh announced cancellation of the Test and asked the DUHS (Dow University of Health Sciences) Karachi to reconduct the test instead of NTS .

Hearing the announcement, the candidates, who had passed the test, rushed to the court and prayed to the court to restore the same result as they told the honourable court that the test was conducted transparently and the results were declared on merit. The complainants could not prove that the answer key and paper had been leaked, thus the court ordered to restore the Test Result and directed the medical colleges to proceed with the admission process.

We need to raise the standard of the Educational and Professional testing systems, as we need to create testing services like ETS global which prefer online testing technology, Video Interviews through Skype and Auto marking software to check the answer sheets and announce results within hours

Such controversies are always attached to NTS warranting the government to regulate these testing services and establish Testing Services Regulatory Authority (TSRA) to keep a check on various recruitment tests that are being conducted in public Sector or Private sector especially the Medical College Entrance Tests conducted by NTS throughout the country this year.

The PMDC and PEC must come forward and raise their reservations against the Testing services that are engaged in this lucrative business and looting people with both hands due to their evil designs of making money and destroying the very fabric of Medical education. Even the selection of teachers through NTS in Sindh, Punjab and KPK was marked with irregularities. It is high time that the Government focused on this issue and establish a Testing Services Regulatory board or Authority immediately, so that rampant irregularities and corruption in these testing services may easily be curbed.

Regulating all Testing Services operating in Pakistan will lead to transparency and promotion of merit in each of their contracted projects. There is also a need of reviewing their past performance and ranking their services in categories. If any testing service hits below the belt then that Testing service may be blacklisted and banned for future contracts or projects.

We need to raise the standard of the Educational and Professional testing systems, as we need to create testing services like ETS global which prefers online testing technology, Video Interviews through Skype and Auto marking software to check the answer sheets and announce results within hours. The Testing services need to restructure their testing model and set the papers matching the job description of the post. This will be beneficial for the company hiring through these testing services, as they would have qualified candidates. There is also need to speed up the process of recruitments in public sector through a public service commission at Federal and Provincial level since it takes almost a year for the selection of a suitable candidate undergoing screening tests, interviewing, psychological testing and final recommendation.

The author is a freelance columnist with an interest in Policy Research ,Governance , Education and Development

Published in Daily Times, October 21^st 2018.