Foundation University Medical College Convocation

FUMC graduates get degrees
Islamabad, April 27: The Convocation 2012 of the Foundation University Medical College (FUMC) was held here on Thursday.

Foundation University (Islamabad) President Lieutenant General (r) Muhammad Mustafa Khan was the chief guest on the occasion. FU (Islamabad) Rector Professor Dr. Belal A. Khan was also present.

As many as 101 MBBS graduates were awarded with degrees by the FUI president who also awarded six gold medals, five silver medals, five distinction certificates and 36 merit certificates. The award for best graduating student was clinched by Madeeha Abdul Ghaffar.

Foundation University Medical College Principal Major General (r) Dr Nasim-ul-Majeed presented the annual college report, highlighting the progress and academic excellence it has achieved in the last academic year.

The FUI president said that today FUMC stands out as a prominent institution among medical colleges of the country. He said several hundred graduates from FUMC are in the mainstream of medical profession not only within Pakistan but also in other countries. Quite a few of them have acquired postgraduate qualifications from local and international institutions, he added.

The president said that no academic programme could succeed without diligence and commitment of the faculty. FUMC is privileged to have hard-working and dedicated faculty whose guidance has played a key role in achieving the high academic standards. "I am glad to know that the college authorities are fully aware of the importance of co-curricular activities in the development of a well rounded personality which is so essential for the role of healer in society," he said.

The president informed the audience that construction of a new block to house the dental college has also begun and it is expected that BDS programme shall be launched by the year 2013. In the end, Professor Dr Belal A. Khan presented a shield to the FUI president. Th news

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H-9 College hostel Students suffer as FDE, varsity wrangle
Islamabad: The dispute between Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and Comsats University over a hostel building has not been resolved even after 11 years due to which the students are suffering a lot, it has been learnt.

Besides, the university has not paid the rent of the 48-room hostel at the Islamabad Model College, H-9, for the last two years.

According to documents available with Dawn, the FDE has been trying to get the possession of the hostel being used by Comsats University.

An official of the FDE on the condition of anonymity said that in the year 2000, when Zubaida Jalal was the federal minister for education, the 48-room hostel building of Islamabad Model College (then called Federal Government Degree College for Boys) was handed over to the Comsats University under political pressure.

The official said it was initially decided that Rs12,000 yearly rent would be paid by Comsats University to the management of H-9 College for the 48 rooms. In 2004, however, the university did not pay the rent due to which the college management raised the matter with it. Later in that year, however, the university paid Rs48,000.

"After that the management of the college and some officials of the FDE and the Ministry of Education tried to get the building vacated. As a result, the university paid Rs5.6 million to the college in 2010 and it was decided that in future the rent would be charged at the market rate. The college management purchased a bus from that amount," he said.

A professor of the H-9 College, requesting not to be named, added: "In 2011, we requested the Public Works Department (PWD) to evaluate the amount of rent of the hostel.

According to PWD's estimate, 27,653 square-foot covered area of the ground floor and 14,823 square-foot covered area of the first floor (total 42,476 square feet) was in the possession of Comsats University. The PWD suggested Rs424,760 monthly rent of the building – at the rate of Rs10 per square foot according to its location and current market
rate."

He said after getting the estimate from the PWD, one-and-a-half years have passed but the university has not paid a single rupee. On the other hand, students of the college are suffering due to the lack of hostel.

The professor said there are cubicles and rooms in the hostel in which three to five students can be accommodated in each room. The students of Comsats University have been living in the rooms for the last many years and they must be paying heavy amount to the university, he added.

Mohammad Ali, a student of the college, said: "I have been living in a flat at Sector G-9 just because the college management has rented out the hostel to the university. I cannot understand why such a step was taken because most of the students want to stay in the college hostel as it will reduce their transportation costs and provide them better environment."

The principal of the college, Azhar Bhatti, when contacted, said they had sent many letters to the Comsats University for the vacation of the building but got no reply. "I also tried to hold a meeting with the management of the university but they even did not reply," he said.

Director General FDE Atif Kiyani said he had instructed the relevant department to take the university on board and get the building vacated. "If they want to retain the rooms they should pay the rent according to the market rate." He added that the matter would be resolved soon.

When contacted, Asad Zia, an assistant registrar (media) at the Comsats University, said: "The management is well aware of the issue and wants to resolve it amicably. Letters from the college management and the FDE have been received and a positive reply will be given soon." Dawn

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Students steal show at NUML speech contest
Islamabad: Debate and speech contests are held to encourage students to take interest in studies, develop personality and think outside the box, said National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Rector Maj Gen (r) Masood Hasan on Thursday.

Addressing a prize distribution ceremony for debate and speech contest, arranged by the English Studies Department, he told students that co-curricular activities supplement curricular activities and help students find new avenues through which they can explore and polish their talents and abilities.

"It is a great source of satisfaction and inspiration that students are paying equal attention to both sides of their campus life," he added.

Moreover, he also appreciated the level and performance of the students and commended efforts of the faculty for encouraging students towards such healthy activities.

A persuasive tone, logical reasoning, eye opening facts and figures, dramatic rise and fall, exuberance and a wish to outdo others made the debate and speech contest a very interesting event.

The preparation and delivery of the speeches by the students was an admirable demonstration of the art of public speaking. Moreover, two skits by the students about the bitter realities of present day world stole the show and spoke volumes of the fact that life at campus had trained them well to face the world outside.

A total of 15 students from the department participated in Urdu and English debate and speech competition and presented their views with masterly acumen. The rules of the contest required that the speech carry a strong theme regarding the present day social, cultural, economical and geo-political aspects of life.

The speech had to be completely memorised, no notes allowed, and must be between three and five minutes in length.

Khadeeja Atta secured the first position, Shahzia Javaid secured second position, while Mirza Attaur Rauf came in third in English debate. Arif Qureshi stood first, Sara Anwar remained second while Abida Khanam was declared third in the Urdu speech contest.

The prizes were distributed by the NUML rector and head of English Studies Department Dr Shaheena Ayub Bhatti. The event was also attended by Director General Brig Azam Jamal, director academics, director administration and director students affairs, faculty members and a great number of students. Daily times

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PU Gujranwala campus picked for global award
Lahore: The Business Initiative Directions (BID), an international organisation based in Madrid, Spain, has selected the Punjab University's Gujranwala campus for International Arch of Europe Award (IAEA) 2012.

The BID has lauded the leadership of Prof Dr Ehsan Malik as PU campus director general.

For selection of IAEA Award 2012, according to a news release issued here on Thursday, a voting process was carried out during the BID World Congress with meetings in Paris, London, Geneva, Frankfurt, Madrid and New York over the past 12 months. It was based on one or several of the concepts such as the QC100 principles, customer satisfaction, leadership, technology, best practice, business results, ISO 9000 and TQM.

Prof Malik will receive the award at a ceremony to be held in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 30 (Monday). The ceremony will be attended by organisations from 72 countries, together with leaders from business fields, professionals from the world of economics, academic personalities and representatives from the diplomatic corps.

IBIT: The PU Institute of Business and Information Technology (IBIT) is organising its first job fair on Saturday (tomorrow) from 9am to 5pm. The job fair has been organised to provide employment opportunities to intelligent students of the institution.

As many as 18 national and multinational companies are setting up their stalls which will interview students and collect their CVs.

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Crash courses for out-of-school children planned
Lahore: The Punjab government has planned to allocate funds and human resources to respective schools according to their enrolment ratio during the next financial year.

This initiative will help bring out-of-school children back to schools, claimed Punjab School Education Department's additional secretary Malik Mukhtar Noul.

Punjab Assembly Standing Committee on Education chairman Chaudhry Javed Ahmad said the Punjab government would increase the development budget of the school education department from this year's Rs14 billion to Rs19 billion in the next fiscal.

To bring the out-of-school children to schools, he said, campuses of public sector schools should be utilised at their optimum level by launching flexible schooling to offer crash courses for out-of-school children and then mainstream them after an examination. "The Punjab government will begin this project even as a pilot project this year," he said.

They were speaking at a policy dialogue on "Out-of-School Children in Punjab - Looking at Access and Equity" organised by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi at a local hotel on Thursday.

Former Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood said the out-of-school children was a big challenge for any government but retaining the enrolled students was even a bigger challenge.

Referring to utilisation of resources, he said, there was a need to bring in more resources for the education sector, but utilising available resources judiciously was even more important.

Mr Masood said there was a strange pyramid that there was a huge base of primary and elementary schools (72 per cent), while there were far less middle and high schools and even less (just 450) colleges in the province. He said this pyramid of public sector educational facilities ensured that children should drop out as they climbed up to higher classes.

To give incentive to children, he said, the previous Pervaiz Elahi government had abolished tuition fee in public schools and had foregone its income of around Rs480 million.

He said the government had also introduced a revolutionary incentive of free textbooks for children studying in public schools.

"The government will have to provide missing facilities, including classrooms, drinking water, toilet and electricity, to attract children to schools," he said.

Mr Masood said the government would be required to ensure equity as well as access to education for all 5-16 years of age children in Punjab in the wake of Article 25-A.

Chaudhry Javed Ahmad said that out of eight million out-of-school children in the country, some 3.8 million such children were in Punjab.

In order to attract children towards education, he said, the government had opened kids centres in each primary school in Lahore and some other districts.

He said those centres were offering Early Childhood Education that would help retain children in education.

Besides optimally using the public school buildings, he said, there was a need to mobilise the public-private partnership, open community schools and above all offer skill-based education so that the schools' pass outs could get some jobs and earn livelihood for their families.

He said that there was not a single shelter-less elementary and secondary school, while there were only a few shelter-less primary schools in the province.

Referring to Article 25-A and Punjab government's obligations, Mr Ahmad said the subject of education had been devolved but the federal government had yet not released the resources to meet this obligation.

Punjab Education Foundation chairman Raja Anwar said the educational facilities in Punjab were in pyramid shape and added that it's roots (primary and elementary schools) were hollow and "termite-stricken".

He said the schools were of two to three rooms and more than one classes were sitting in a classroom resulting in no clear education for children.

He stressed that each primary school should have six classrooms and added that this equation demanded construction of some 139,000 new classrooms in existing schools and the provision of furniture. This initiative would cost some Rs400 billion, he added.

Mr Anwar said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had given 100,000 new vouchers to bring marginalised children to PEF-partner schools for formal education.

Mr Noul said that government schools had an enrolment of 12 million children adding that it had teachers who could cater to even double the number of children.

He claimed that some 2.8 million children had been enrolled under the Chief Minister's School Education Road Map initiative last year.

Punjab Universitys faculty of education dean Prof Dr Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal said the enrolment in private schools had touched 33 per cent and had reached its saturation point. "Now, the government will have to step forward to educate its citizens, otherwise poor will get poorer and they will resort to extremism," he observed.

LUMS assistant professor of economics Farooq Naseer, Unicef Education Officer Asif Abrar, Nargis Sultana and Noor-i-Hirra Waqas also spoke. Dawn

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