KABUL - Nearly 150,000 students would take a higher education entrance examination this year and 100,000 of them would be enrolled in higher and semi-higher institutions, the Higher Education Ministry announced on Monday.
Up to 34,460 of the students having good results would be enrolled in higher education institutions, deputy higher education minister, Bari Siddiqui told a news conference.

The remaining nearly 60,000 students would be accommodated in semi-higher institutions in coordination with the Public Health Ministry, he said.
He said the higher education ministry had been able to raise the capacity of education institutions with each passing year.

In 2012, he said, the ministry planned to establish five new institutions in Farah, Uruzgan, Ghor, Paktia and Sar-i-Pul provinces. Siddiqui said 20 new faculties and 50 departments would be added to the existed institutions.

The ministry had taken technical measures to ensure transparency in the entry test, he said, adding previously each participant had 10 choices to select a faculty, but now the choices had been reduced to five.

About complaints of lack of supervision and coping during the test, he said they had taken measures to ensure a fair and transparent test.

He said examination centers were increased from 24 to 37 to enable students sit the exam in their own province.