Private schools high fees complaints

Govt check on private schools fees likely
Islamabad: In response to increasing complaints against private schools for charging high fees from students, the government has decided to put a check on their fee regimes, Dawn has learnt.

The regulatory authority set up by the government in 2006 to oversee functioning of private schools in Islamabad capital territory was not allowed to interfere in their (schools') fee related issues. In pursuance of the cabinet decision, initially, the determination of fee was left to the market forces.

But the institutions were, however, asked to make sincere efforts to keep their fees within reasonable limits and commensurate with the quality of education and services being offered by them.

However, for the last over one year, the number of complaints against private schools by affected parents has increased significantly, said sources in the ministry of education.

Therefore, the sources said, the government had decided to legally empower the regulatory authority to keep a close check on fees being charged by various chains of private schools operating within the limits of the ICT.

The education ministry had already moved a summary to the federal cabinet for making necessary amendments to the ordinance of the regulatory authority. In case of approval from the cabinet, the regulatory authority will be able to monitor and keep within reasonable limits the tuition fees being charged by the private educational institutions in the ICT.

The regulatory authority was set up in 2006 for registration, regulation, promotion and functioning of private educational institutions up to HSSC level and equivalent in Islamabad under the administrative control of the ministry of education. Dawn

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Mayo Hospital staff gets allowance
Lahore: The Punjab Health Department has finally awarded an incentive of extra 50 per cent of the basic pay to the staff of emergency ward of Mayo Hospital under the Strengthening of Emergency Medical Services (SEMS) after a lapse of over six years.

The members of Young Doctors Association (YDA) stated that the cheques of SEMS allowance had been distributed among over 400 employees of Mayo Hospital's emergency, including doctors, nurses/paramedics. These staff members had been waiting since 2003 for these cheques.

The SEMS allowance is a special incentive being given to the staff of emergency in all hospitals in Punjab but Mayo Hospital's emergency staff was being denied this incentive since 2003, which was recently got sanctioned by the joint efforts of Mayo Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Young Doctors Association (YDA) and the media.

It has been learnt that the emergency staff was given this special allowance for the year 2009, whereas outstanding amount under this head of previous years had been declined to them. However, the administration claimed that the emergency staff of Mayo Hospital would be regularly awarded this special incentive onwards.

Earlier, the administration had sent a summary to claim full amount of six years from 2003, however, Finance Department turned it down and paid only one year allowance to the emergency staff of the hospital. Meanwhile Young Doctors Association (YDA) pointed out that, despite appointments of professors through Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), three seats of professors of medicines are lying vacant in teaching hospitals of Lahore.

YDA office-bearers Dr Rana Sohail, Dr Salman Kazmi and others said that two seats of professors of medicines were lying vacant in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and one in Lahore General Hospital. Out of two seats lying vacant in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, a seat has been filled by a professor on current charge basis and requires a regular appointment while one seat is vacant.

One seat is vacant in Lahore General Hospital after the retirement of Prof Kokab Bashir. The YDA urged the government to fill vacant posts with regular appointments through PPSC. The news

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MAO Botanical garden
Lahore: The first of its kind among the 425 government colleges in the Punjab a botanical garden has been set-up in the Government MAO College at a piece of four kanal of land.

It contains as many as 400 species belonging to 90 families of Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, angiosperms, but the most remarkable of the achievements is the set of flora of Pakistan as part of this garden.

This was revealed to this scribe by Prof Azam Hassan, Associate Professor of the Botany Department, who put his personal efforts and dedication to set up the garden within a period of one year for the academic purposes.

The plant species preserved in the botany laboratory have rich academic values, as post-graduate students take benefit from it by periodical study visits.

The garden started in August 2008, is at its infancy, and if looked after properly, could be capable of offering lab facilities even for MSc Botany classes if the government so decides.

The MAO botany lab and garden is the biggest after the Punjab University and Government College University.

Prof Azam said that the nature bewitches every individual by its soothing, serene and embalming effects. Botanists explore and make all-out efforts to find out scientific truths in plants and other aspects of the nature, he added. The nation

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YLES opens at LUMS
Lahore: Around 900 students from across the country joined the Young Leaders and Entrepreneurial Summit (YLES) 2010 at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) on Tuesday.

The summit, which would continue until January 23, is organised by LUMS Entrepreneurial Society (LES), which has been organising the event for the past four years. AKD Securities Chief Executive Nadeem Naqvi was the chief guest.

According to the organisers, the summit would provide a platform for young entrepreneurs to network with the gurus of marketing, meet the leaders of today and decision makers of tomorrow and most importantly, listen to the stories of their fellow participants.

The aim of the YLES 2010 is to help the future leaders develop business acumen through a series of seminars conducted by professionals.

The students would also learn pressure management, group dynamics and team working skills.

Various competitions, workshops and social events including a formal dinner and a concert would also be held.

LES President Aneeq Ahmed Cheema said it was the first student-based entrepreneurial society in Pakistan.

"We offer less wise words and more experience that in itself bequeaths wisdom. A wisdom that befalls from meeting people, learning new ideas, adopting new skills, facing competitions and finally learning and about winning and losing, accepting and challenging all that comes in our way," Cheema said.

Maha Rehman, head of the host team, said, "YLES 2010 seeks to transform attitudes and change mindsets. It seeks to challenge the institutional framework of the society, which will be the first step towards bringing a positive difference in the system."

According to LES Vice President Muddasir Nawaz, YLES "brings an opportunity for students to learn, network, enjoy and most importantly discover their skills". Daily times

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CM competitions lauded
Lahore: Punjab Minister for Transport, Excise and Taxation and Education Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that Chief Minister Punjab Speech, Essay Writing and Sports competitions have resulted in promotion of curricular and co-curricular activities in the educational institutions.

Addressing Provincial Monitoring Committee of Chief Minister Punjab Speech, Essay Writing and Sports Programme, the minister said these competitions would also be held next year and contests of Qirat, Naat Khawani and Punjabi debates would be included in these events, said a DGPR handout.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Information, Shoaib Bin Aziz, Secretary Higher Education Ahad Khan Cheema, Additional Secretary Ch Akram and other officials. The minister said the contests had been conducted in a transparent manner.

He said that sports competitions would provide national and international players of different games. The meeting was told complaints about the speech competition reduced to 23 this year then 60 last year. Out of these, only five complaints were found genuine and dully redressed.

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KC annual tutorial
Lahore: The annual tutorial of the Department of Media Studies of the Kinnaird College for Women "Trends of TV Drama in Pakistan" was held on Tuesday which aimed at discussing the changing trends in television drama in Pakistan.

The panelists of the discussion were TV artists, anchorpersons and writers including Savera Nadeem, Ayesha Sana, Hussain Shad and Affan Waheed.

The panelists discussed as to how had the drama industry flourished and what were its drawbacks and how had it gone through different phases and why was it inclining towards following foreign trends.

"Now we find more amalgamation of cinematic trends in our drama, due to the fact that decline of film industry has lead many actors to turn towards the television and these are not the actors but also the technical people joining the industry," Ayesha Sana commented.

"Drama should reflect the present condition, culture and characters from the society to represent your own culture rather than following others", said Hussain Shad. The news

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