A Pakistani Father’s Appeal
By Mohammad Ilyas
Assistant Professor in Chemistry
Government Degree College
Mian Channun, Pakistan
Mobile phone: 0092-65-2664720
I am writing to appeal to all people of good faith to help my family in this time of need, and in doing so, feel compelled to relay my background for the benefit of all who care to know. I Mohammad Ilyas, son of Elahi Baksh, am a resident of Mian Chunnu in Punjab, Pakistan. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the geography of this region, it is a small city 225 kilometers from the city of Lahore.
I come from a family of farmers. After finishing my secondary school in 1974, I started working as a gardener in Lawrence Garden, Lahore, while continuing my studies, and passed FSc from Lahore Board 1976, an equivalent to high school in America. I then started working at Glaxo Laboratories as junior operator. In 1981 I passed BSc from the Punjab University, Lahore. For the next two years I worked as an operator in National Refinery in Korangi, Karachi. In 1985 I obtained my MSc degree in Applied Chemistry from the Punjab University, and returned to serve my native city in 1986 as a Lecturer in the Government Degree College. Here I became Assistant Professor in chemistry. At that point I had no idea that 20 years later I would be writing this appeal.
Education and hard work have been the highlights of my life, which were supported by my wife, an elementary school teacher. We tried to instill these values in our four children, 3 daughters and one son.
However, 20 years later, I find it difficult to realize these dreams for them. My two older daughters Afifa Ilyas and Saira Ilyas, after earning A+ grades and top positions in their matriculation (secondary school) and higher secondary school in the entire district, could not enter the open merit seats in the medical colleges, and here’s the sad reason for this injustice. The civil and military bureaucracy in Pakistan designed an entry test for the 9 medical colleges of Punjab in 1998, comprising of essay type responses in English, which deters even the high-achieving students not fluent in English from scoring high. This was to serve as a tool to filter students educated in government/public schools, whose medium of instruction is Urdu. As a result, 87% of 1500 seats were occupied by O/A-Level students, despite their lower grades.
Let me add that the cost of medical education is traditionally financed by the state. Since this measure was imposed, only a special class started to enjoy these benefits. That’s not the end of the story. 520 seats, left exempt from the subjective testing and still open to merit, were made available only on self-finance basis. The cost of medical studies is Rs.284,000 per year for tuition, books and housing ($4,500 approximately), and there’s no state funding available for these seats. These figures don’t sound too high by the American standard, but could be a lifetime of earning for someone in Pakistan. These slots are thus grabbed by the elite class.
Another dark side of this story is the entry test preparation studies conducted by academies operated by retired generals, without which admission into medicine has become difficult. Most educational boards in Punjab finish exams by June10 and the entry test is conducted in the last week of October for facilitating this manipulative process. The fees for these courses ranges from Rs.40,000-50,000. The word is that administrators of these academies have connections with admission testing authorities, and can steer the students to study the expected test material. Besides, since these tests are conducted in large cities only, students from small towns and villages have to incur the additional expense of traveling and lodging, and considering the norms of the society, this is a big hassle for the girl students. Under such conditions my two daughters couldn’t get admitted on the open merit seats despite their high academic achievements. So, they had to go for the self-financed slots during the academic years 2006-2007, and 2007-2008. The choice for us was to either let our dreams die, or accept the challenge and struggle towards our goals. We decided to accept the challenge.
My wife and I took a loan from the Bank of Punjab (Rs. 438,000), a loan from my provident fund (1,43,000) and from Islamic Aid, UK (Rs.284000) as qurzahasn (a no interest loan). We have borrowed and received donations from friends and relatives. There is no system of student loans or grants in this country. Under such circumstances we have pulled through the first and second years of my daughter’s medical education. Now all our savings are gone and we have exhausted all our resources. My daughters are now entering in their third and second years of their medical studies, while having maintained A+ grades throughout their studies. Our bill for the college this year is $9,000 (US dollars), an amount we couldn’t dream of having.
We were lucky to get some help from some philanthropists from within the country and abroad, who have contributed approximately $4,000. We still need about $5,000 US dollars to pull through the upcoming year. Initially, they required the whole sum upfront, at the beginning of the session. After appealing, and through the cooperation of the principal, Professor Faisal Masood, they are now considering to set up a payment plan. However, if we are not able to fulfill the plan, my daughters will not be able to appear in the exams scheduled this October and November, and stand chances of expulsion from the college.
This Muslim society, where the health of most of the female population is dependent on the care of female doctors, stands to lose two promising future assets. Isn’t it very sad?
Below is a detailed verifiable information : College: Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Jail Road, Lahore, Pakistan Website . www.sims.edu.pk Main Phone No: 92-42-920-3402, Ext 22 Fax: 92-42-920-3426 Housing: Government Girls Hostel, Institute Of Public Health Student: Afifa Ilyas, Roll No. 01 MBBS, 3rd Year of medicine, Room umber 14-m She has held the First Position in all terms till now. Student: Saira Ilyas, Roll No. 159 MBBS, 2nd Year of medicine, Room no 03 Luckily, due to the attention drawn to this situation, there’s a discussion regarding the possibility of placing these self-financed slots into the open-merit pool starting next year. This means the existing students will get the relief too. However this year, my daughters have to either pay or quit.
I am appealing to anyone with a good heart to help me out in this time of great stress for our family. No amount will be too small for us. Please communicate with me via email at: gcmhamza@hotmail.com to discuss a method of transaction. I will be happy to discuss the progress of collections with you. My cell phone number is: 0332-638-0268 (country code: 92) My family and I have nothing to give in return, except for our prayers for you and your family, in this life and the hereafter.
