Pressure mounting on HEC
Pressure mounting on HEC over fake degrees' issue
Islamabad, July 16: The issue of fake degrees is taking new turns
everyday, as pressure from certain quarters is mounting on the Higher Education
Commission to extract favourable results. The HEC had announced to
complete the verification process by July 15, but it seems it would continue for
some time, exposing the weakness of the country's educational and political
systems. Though the commission is tight-lipped over the names of fake
degree-holders, its officials say they would submit their reports to the
National Assembly committee concerned within a few days. However, recent
political and administrative developments suggest otherwise. Committee
Chairman Abid Sher Ali is currently on a foreign tour and his absence raises
several questions. According to details, the PML-N is at the top of the list on
fake degrees' scoreboard so far. The HEC has sent back many degrees to
universities since they had not followed the appropriate procedure for
verification. In some cases though, a candidate's bachelor's degree had been
found genuine, but questions were raised over matriculation or Intermediate
certificates. Sources at the HEC revealed that some influential people
from the ruling elite might fall under this category. Therefore, they claim,
pressure on the HEC chairman is mounting, forcing him to comply with the
instructions of the political bosses or resign from office. The arrest
of the HEC chairman's brother, sudden departure of Abid Sher Ali to London, a
letter from the HEC chairman seeking a meeting with the PM and hue and cry of
the MPs – especially in Punjab – have all become important issues now.
Resignation: Close friends of HEC Chairman Dr Javed Leghari said he was
being pressurised to resign from office, but he took a tough stance and declined
to acquiesce. The timing of the arrest of his brother, Farooq, on
corruption charges, and his re-arrest by the Sindh government after getting a
bail by the court, has raised many eyebrows. Dr Leghari was considered a
close associate of former premier Benazir Bhutto, who had given him a party
ticket against a technocrat seat in the Senate. Last year, he was forced to
resign not only from the Senate, but also as head of SZABIST. His close
friends revealed that he was reluctant to resign from the Senate, but was forced
to do so. The Sindh government's influential personalities had demanded his
resignation, while the same influentials were now after him, testing his nerves. Daily times
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200 schools sans administrative heads
Peshawar: As many as 200 high and higher secondary schools in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa are without administrative heads, affecting the overall functioning
of these institutions. The educational institutes running without
administrative heads have an adverse impact on thousands of students, officials
said. Among the vacant seats, 26 were principals of higher secondary
schools in Grade 19, including 19 male and 7 female, and 160 were headmasters in
Grade 18, including 130 male and 31 female, they said. These seats have
been vacant for the last few years. The elementary and secondary education
department has been unable to fill the vacancies owing to hurdles in the
procedure. Of the total educational institutions without administrative
heads, seven each are in Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Upper Dir and Mardan, 11
in Swabi, 10 in Kohat, three in Hangu, eight each in Karak and Shangla, 12 in
Bannu, two in Lakki Marwat, nine in Dera Ismail Khan, four in Tank, 10 in
Abbottabad, 13 each in Haripur and Mansehra, nine in Swat, nine in Buner, 15 in
Lower Dir, three in Chitral and six in Malakand. Commenting on the
issue, an educationist, who asked not to be named said that the ultimate
sufferers were the students. "Definitely in the absence of principals and
headmasters, teachers in respective schools would not take interest in teaching.
In such schools, teachers often avoid taking classes," said the educationist who
has remained principal of different schools. He said teachers in such
schools often violate school timings; they come and leave on their own will. The
annual result of such educational institutions was also disappointing, he added.
The number of vacant seats of principal and headmasters has been increasing
gradually due to upgradation of schools to high and higher secondary level and
retirement of principals. No development works took place in the schools
where the seat of the administrative head was vacant, an official said. The
buildings of such schools, he said, were in poor condition with broken windows,
floors and furniture. Basic facilities like water, fans and others were also
missing in such institutions because there was no one to take care of these
issues. When asked how the financial matters of such schools were run,
the official said it had been assigned to principals and headmasters of the
nearest schools. He further said that for running the school affairs, teachers
of an institution make one of the senior teachers as their administrative head.
Additional director of the elementary and secondary education
Hakeemullah Khan, when contacted, said several officers in Grade 19 and 18 were
working on executive posts like chairman of boards of intermediate and secondary
education and executive district officer, education, across the province,
causing shortage in the schools. "We requested the Public Service
Commission (PCS) in January 2009 for recruitment of headmasters, including 26
male and 16 female. Due to the lengthy procedure and burden on the PCS, it is
yet to recruit the required number of headmasters, he said. Dawn
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Students forced to travel on rooftops of buses
Islamabad: Dearths of proper transport facility for the student community
in the twin cities are causing different travelling problems. Though
many institutions have their own arrangement for the pick and drop of their
students, yet it is not sufficient to facilitate the entire community, as there
are hundreds of educational institutions here with insufficient transport
system. It is reported that a large number of students coming from
suburbs of city reach their respective schools and colleges through private
transport and sometime they have to on board the rooftops of the busses, the
drivers and conductors of which usually misbehave with them. Muhammad Ali, a
student, said the school and college buses ply only on specific routes and he
has to use local transport to reach his college. "This is one of the major
problem for all those who come from out stations," he said.
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CDA School students shine in SSC part-1 exam
Islamabad: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) Model School has maintained
100 per cent result in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Part-I Examination
2010. As many as 35 students appeared in science & humanities groups
in the SSC-I Annual Examination; out of which 26 girls obtained A-1 and A
grades. Izza Naeem secured first position by obtaining 499 marks (95%), Mahnoor
Haneef came second by obtaining 491 marks (93%) in science group in the school.
In humanities group, Noor-ul-Aein Ajaz got first position in the
school. Capital Development Authority Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi and
Member Administration Shaukat Mohmand congratulated the students and teaching
staff for producing excellent result. Principal Mrs. Shahwar Ajmal appreciated
the efforts of teachers and students for their excellent performance.
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Bahria University student distinction
Islamabad: Shahzada M. Shahrukh, a student of BE Electronics
Engineering at Bahria University, has been selected as R-10 (Asia Pacific)
Global Integrated Network for Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering (IEEE) (GINI), Coordinator Pakistan, says a press release. This
selection has been made for the Islamabad Section of IEEE. Shahzada M. Shahrukh
was also selected as the chairman of IEEE, Bahria University on 21 May this
year. Shahzada M. Shahrukh is the son of journalist Altaf Qureshi. The news
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