Dear Students,
The agony you are going through is fathomable; Question mark over your dreams is a big one. It is commendable; you all put in great efforts for Bolan Medical Test on 4th February 2018. Unfortunately, it turned into a dilemma for you. Many of you are uncertain about the decision of your case in Balochistan High Court, another wait for you and Bolan Medical College has already made you wait too much for just to conduct its test. It’s not the first time that you are going through such uncertainty and absurdity on the roads of your education. I can imagine how hard it is to complete 12 years of education for students from far-flung districts of Balochistan such as Awaran and Sherani in the absence of proper schools and teachers. Yet, you have to face irregularities and cheating in the entrance exam, it must be a great deal for you. Many of you are confused about your next step, either to proceed for admission somewhere else or to wait for a court decision before going ahead.
I was a matric student of your age back in 2006 in Turbat and options I had for my career were not much different than what you have today. Go to Quetta, take admission in Dr Manoj’s academy, spend 6 months to prepare for BMC entry test and bag a seat for yourself. Yeah!!! If successful, your name is pinned down in the list of future doctors for Balochistan and you become an inspiration for juniors in your school to look up for. In case, you don’t make it to final merit list, what you do is enrol in BSC/BA program of local colleges in your respective towns and stay in Quetta for another two or three years to attempt BMC tests again and again. Medicine is a noble profession, requires a lot of hard work and passion to become a successful doctor. Don’t you think other professions are as respectable as medicine? I feel wasting precious years of your life behind one entrance exam isn’t worth it.
Not everyone is born to be a doctor and has an interest in biology. I hated biology lessons in school and college because I had zero interest in the human digestive or respiratory systems. I was more intrigued by questions of social backwardness and change that’s why I resisted against my family choice of making me a doctor. I know, out there, many want to take up different fields and see themselves somewhere else than in a hospital.
To the students still in school, I tell you what you can do to save yourselves from current predicament your senior fellows are in. As a student, you always have to have a concrete plan. By a concrete plan, I mean you start thinking ahead, almost in class 8th, about different admission processes and undergraduate programs in the country. Dig out the requirements for the programs or universities in which you are interested in. Chalk out a plan for yourself according to your interests. Begin preparing for tests required for admissions. I also want you to pay heed to Mathematics and English skills because for acing every test, you need these skills. There are many full scholarship programs like Balochistan Talent Hunt at Institute of Business Administration, HUTOPS at Habib University and National Outreach Program at Lahore University of Management Sciences available for meritorious students. You can benefit out of these if you work hard and take a shot. The students still waiting for the high court decision to come out please think about your career once again and take a leap forward in another direction if you think medicine is not the right profession for you. The ones who see medicine as their ultimate shot should also consider applying to other medical schools in the country while waiting for the court decision. Time has moved ahead so do we have to.
Good Luck!
Maryam Zia Baloch
The writer is a postgraduate student of economics at Lahore University of Management Sciences and hails from Turbat, Balochistan.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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