KEMU teachers' recruitments | BISE computerised B-Form

Health dept blocks KEMU teachers' recruitments
Lahore, Apr 12: The Punjab Health Department has 'overstepped' its authority by halting the recruitment of teachers on vacant posts at the King Edward Medical University (KEMU), it is learnt.

In November last year, the university administration advertised 18 vacant teaching posts in different newspapers and received several applications from eligible candidates.

Authorised: However, the Health Department blocked the recruitment of teachers through a notification issued in February, only a week before the interviews were to be conducted.

According to the KEMU Lahore Act 2005, the university syndicate is authorised to "create or abolish the posts of professors, associate professors, assistant professors, demonstrators and other teaching posts". It is also authorised to "appoint teachers and other officers on the recommendations of the selection board". Moreover, the syndicate – which consists of provincial secretaries, vice chancellors, the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ), members of provincial assemblies (MPAs), and financial experts among several others – had decided in 2006 that all vacant teaching posts should be filled by the university administration.

Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad said the KEMU administration was not authorised to recruit doctors on teaching posts. When asked if the university has been making recruitments in the past as well, Fawad said the university could recruit doctors on only those posts for which it maintains a budget. "When the government has to pay the faculty, it will also be the recruiting authority," he added. A senior KEMU official, seeking anonymity, said the notification from the health department was "shocking", as the university had made recruitments in the past as well. He said the university depended upon fee collections and grants from the government and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for its running expenses.

Discrimination: The university's total earning last year was Rs 74 million, while it paid Rs 381 million in salaries alone and bore utility expenses of Rs 85 million, the official said. He said the government's attitude was "discriminatory" towards the KEMU, alleging that recruitment interviews were halted to accommodate a "blue-eyed" doctor who could not get a post on merit.

Complications: CM's Taskforce on Health Chairman Dr Saeed Elahi said the KEMU was authorised to recruit teachers. When asked why the Health Department had then blocked the move, he said the move has been taken to sort out some "complications" involved. He said KEMU employees were in effect Punjab government employees, and have been working in the university on deputation. He said the CM had formed a committee to finalise the mode of recruitment and method of promotions, when the health secretary was replaced. He said the committee would finalise its recommendations within a month, when all teaching posts will also be filled. Daily times

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BISE computerised B-Form condition irks students
Chiniot: April 11: The Faisalabad board of intermediate and secondary education (BISE) has prescribed that every candidate must enclose B-Form issued by Nadra along with his or her registration application for 2011 Class IX examination by April 14 and this condition is irking students and their parents owing to troublesome procedure of obtaining B-Form.

The BISE has made it mandatory for thousands of students appearing in Class IX examination next year to attach computerised B-Form along with their registration applications.

When people approached the Nadra centre here to get the B-Forms issued, they were told that first applicant's father must get computerised national identity cards (CNIC) issued from Chiniot district and then B-Forms would be issued to them.

Chiniot was upgraded as district on July 1, 2009 and prior to that all CNICs were being issued from Jhang district. Now all the fathers of B-Form applicants have to get their CNICs amended first under the rules.

As Nadra takes about 15 days to issue duplicate CNICs and B-Form takes another 10 days, many of the parents fear they would fail to meet the BISE deadline, which would spoil their children's future.

They have demanded of the Nadra chairman amend the authority's software so that it automatically replaced the addresses of "Tehsil Chiniot, District Jhang" with "Tehsil and District Chiniot" to facilitate students and their parents.

Haji Ghulam Mohammad, the father of a Class IX student, said that he visited the Nadra centre to get his daughter's B-Form issued. He said he had to queue up for three hours to know that first he had to get his CNIC amended with new district address.

He said that it was not possible for him to send his daughter's registration application form on time.

Locals have also demanded of the BISE chairman extend the date for submission of registration application forms for at least one month so that every student could obtain the requisite documents easily.

When contacted, Nadra assistant manager Mohammad Idrees said that it was mandatory for all B-Form applicants that first their fathers must get their CNICs amended and issued from the new district.

However, he said, he had expedited the process of issuing amended/duplicate CNICs and B-Forms and now both the applications, if submitted simultaneously, were being processed in six working days. Dawn

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Government Islamia College for Women Convocation
Lahore: The 54th convocation of the Government Islamia College for Women, Copper Road, was held on Saturday in which passing out students of FA/ FSc, BA/ BSc and MA/ MSc were awarded certificates and degrees. PML-N MPA Ghazala Saad Rafique was the chief guest on the occasion. Director Public Instructions (DPI) Colleges Dr Jaleel Tariq, the college faculty members and a large number of students were also present. Ghazala Saad Rafique said women of Pakistan had great talent and creative ideas, adding that they needed to come forward and play their role in the country's development. The college principal, Farzana Shaheen, presented annual report of the college and talked about various academic programmes of the institute. The news

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Convocation at Ali Institute
Lahore: The Ali Institute awarded bachelor of education (BEd) degrees to some 175 students at its convocation here on Saturday.

Institute's board of governors chairman Syed Babar Ali congratulated degree holders and told them that it was their social responsibility to provide better education to children.

He said their focus of teaching should not only be private sector schools, but also the public ones and they must work hard to produce better stuff.

Ali Institute acting Rector AH Nayyar said it was working hard to improve the education standard in the country. He said the institute had established teaching resource centres in Kasur, Sheikhupura, Mianwali, Bhalwal, Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan which were providing training to the teachers of these districts. He said it was the first institute of Pakistan which had secured Unesco Hamdan Award.

Nayyar said the Ali Institute had been given the degree awarding status in February this year, and it would soon launch a four-year B.Ed programme.

He said the institute was also giving training to the teachers of 40 seminaries of Punjab. "Our main purpose is to produce better teaching stuff," he said. Dawn

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SIMS for data of 1m students
Lahore: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has introduced the state-of-the-art Student Information Management System (SIMS) to maintain computerised data of about one million students enrolled with partner schools under different educational programmes in 29 districts of the province.

PEF Chairman Raja Muhammad Anwar said this while chairing a meeting with representatives of partner schools of different cities at his office. He said computerised record of all the 12,000 students of the Education Voucher Scheme (EVS) in Lahore city had already been prepared by the PEF.

The meeting was briefed on various policy decisions taken by the PEF to improve and strengthen educational reforms process and better interact with the partner schools.

Raja Anwar said the SIMS would especially help keep up to date students' information for maintaining transparency. Through this system, monitoring and evaluation of the partner schools will become easy and less time consuming, he added.

He also said the PEF- IT Department had also launched the Online Complaint Box facility at the PEF website (www.pef.edu.pk). "The objective of this Complaint Box is to provide online facility to partner schools and other users so that their different queries could be handled timely," he concluded. The news

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GCU opens Noon Meem Rashid Seminar Hall
Lahore: Renowned poet and Majlis-e-Taraqi-e-Adab Director Shahzad Ahmed inaugurated the Noon Meem (NM) Rashid Seminar Hall at the Government College University (GCU) on Saturday. Also, Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Iftikhar Arif handed over original manuscript of NM Rashid's writings to the GCU Vice Chancellor Professor Khalid Aftab.

Presiding over the inauguration ceremony of the NM Rashid Seminar Hall, Professor Aftab recollected memories of GCU's struggle to commemorate the invaluable services of legendary old Ravians of such rare vintage as Professor Abdus Salam, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and NM Rashid.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahzad Ahmed stressed the need to explore the literary nuances in the poetic works of NM Rashid. He lauded GCU's efforts in compiling an anthology of criticism on Rashid's poetic art by a distinguished Urdu professor, Dr Tabassum Kashmiri, which was expected to be published at the centenary birth anniversary of the poet.

Majlis-e-Iqbal Adviser Professor Tariq Zaidi elaborated upon the literary contribution of Rashid and his passionate association with his alma mater, GCU. He also announced that the GCU Urdu Department would host an international seminar on NM Rashid in October this year. The ceremony was attended by the literati of Lahore in huge numbers. Daily times

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UVAS trains third batch of laboratory heads
Lahore: The University of Veterinary and Animals Sciences (UVAS) University Diagnostic Lab (UDL) has trained the third batch of the laboratory heads of Punjab Livestock and Diary Development in 'basic disease diagnosis in livestock and poultry'. The concluding session of the training was chaired by UVAS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Nawaz who later also distributed certificates among the participants.

UDL Director Prof Dr Masood Rabbani said the UDL had recently trained 29 officers of diagnostic labs of different districts of Punjab in three groups. He further added that an advance training course would also be started by UDL on April 11, 2010. In this one-week duration of the extensive hands-on training sessions, the trainees have been trained in workable models of running diagnostic labs, good lab practices (GLPs), lab management system (ISO 17025), etc. The news

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