PESHAWAR: Thousands of candidates converged at University of Peshawar on Sunday to appear in the entrance test for the public and private sector medical and dental colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The motorists and the parents accompanying their children to the test venue spent a restless day as they faced immense problems in the scorching heat owing to traffic congestion, closure of roads and lack of proper arrangements. The test was conducted by Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETE A).

In Peshawar, the test was held simultaneously at the hockey ground of Islamia Collegiate School and cricket ground of Khyber Medical College opposite Irnum Hospital.

However, vehicles of the candidates were not allowed to enter the campus. The vehicles were parked on both sides of the road. It created a traffic mess, starting from the University Town and stretching as far as the Board of Intermediate and SecondaryE ducation office.

`It is strange that every year the students and their parents, who come with their children appearing in the test, face immense problems but the administration of the Khyber Medical University is yet to take measures to lessen the problems,` the parents told Dawn.

They said that despite charging Rs1,600 from each candidate as test fee, the KMU failed to facilitate the students and their parents, who spent a restless day.

They said that the officials, who planned the test, apparently did not take into consideration that there were already traffic problems on University Road owing to the ongoing widening work.

The parents, who accompanied their children to the test venue, had to brave the hot and humid weather as they waited to on road without any sitting space, shade or drinking water for several hours.

Thousands of people gathered at the exit gates, barely leaving space to those coming out test centre, when the test concluded at around 12:30pm.

The crowd consisting of thousands of people kept pushing and shoving but neither police nor district administration tried to stop people from gathering outside the exit gates.

The crowd continued to swell and by noon, traffic on the University Road came to a grinding halt but no one tried to open theroad. At around 2pm, when the traffic congestion eased after a large number of students and their family members left, University Road was littered with pamphlets distributed by private educational institutions among the candidates and their parents.

The test was also held at Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, Grassy Ground Saidu Sharif Swat and University Wensem College Dera Ismail Khan, according to a statement issued by KMU.

A total of 33,053 candidates including 20,041 boys and 13,011 girls appeared in the entrance testat the Eve centres.

The results of the test will be announced on Monday (today) and would be available on KMU website www.kmu.edu.pk as well as on ETEA website www.etea.edu.pk.

The results would also be communicated to the candidates individually via SMS on their respective mobile phones through specially prepared software by IT section of KMU.

At the hockey ground of Islamia Collegiate School Peshawar, 1,1549 candidates appeared in the test whereas at cricket ground of Khyber Medical College 6,623 candidates took the test.

Similarly, 4,986 students appeared at Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, 6,747 candidates at Grassy Ground Saidu Sharif Swat and 3,147 students appeared at the test at University Wensem College Dera IsmailKhan.

KMU Vice-chancellor Prof Arshad Javid, when contacted, said that foolproof security was provided to the students and the test was held peacefully. He said that students did not face any problem while entering the test venue.

`The congestion was natural outside the test venue as 18,000 students came out at once,` said Prof Arshad. He said that students from Kohat, Mardan, Nowshera, Swabi and Charsadda had gathered in Peshawar for the test.

He said that the only way to avoid the problems faced by the students and their parents was to increase the number of test centres.

He said that he had consulted with the high-ups of higher education department to increase the number of test centres. He said that next year, two additional centres would be set up for the test in Mardan and Kohat.

In Swat, the test was conducted at the Grassy Ground where students seeking admission to medical and dental colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from six districts of Malakand division appeared.

However, the organisers were not happy with the contractor as they said that he did not provide facilities to the students. They said that in the morning when they reached the venue of the test, the contractor had not provided all the chairs.