TRIVANDRUM, India, 7 June 2006 — Unlike almost all other exams where girls dominate boys in Kerala, the fairer sex has been pushed far behind in the common entrance test, results of which were released yesterday.

Of the first 100 students eligible for admission to technical colleges, 91 are male and on the list of top 100 in health sciences, 63 are male.

All the five top rank-holders in engineering are boys while one girl figured on the top-five list for admission to medical colleges.

Aslam Mohammed of Malappuram came first in engineering stream while the city boy Mohammed Amjad Jalaluddin stood first in medicine. Midhun S. of Kollam, Nikhil S. Das of Malappuram, Anup Vasudevan of Ernakulam and Rakesh P. of Trivandrum (engineering) and Aishwarya Brigit George of Ernakulam, Midhun K. Prakash of Wayanad, Allen Mathew Thoomkuzhi of Kottayam and Arjun Laxman of Kozhikode (medical) are other top rank-holders.

Among those who took the exams at the Dubai center, Roshan Nazimudheen, who scored 723.7585 marks in her first attempt, is the topper in medicine and Arun Jose Palatty, also a first timer (score 543.6632), in engineering.

The test was conducted at 183 centers in all 14 districts of the state, in New Delhi and in Dubai, where 376 candidates took the test.

Of the 38,958 candidates who qualified for admission to engineering colleges, 20,869 are male.

A majority of the first 1,000 candidates on the list studied under the federal Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus.

There are 23, 237 seats in the engineering colleges (including 4,132 government seats in 14 colleges that charge the fee fixed by the government). Of the 70 self-financing colleges that enjoy administrative freedom, 21 are controlled by government agencies.

There are 700 seats in five government medical colleges and 850 seats in nine self-financing colleges including two cooperative colleges controlled by the government.

Education Minister M.A. Baby said he hoped to bring in comprehensive legislation to regulate admissions and fix fees in self-financing colleges. The government will also constitute a panel to advice it on ways to make the entire admission process more scientific and transparent.