HEC financial aid programme | Education reforms
US pledges $4m for HEC financial aid programme
Islamabad, May 27: The United States will provide $4 million to expand Higher
Education Commission financial aid programme, which was launched at the
concluding ceremony of a two-day national conference on public-private
partnership for higher education here on Tuesday. This $4 million
programme aims to expand and improve financial aid programs for higher education
in Pakistan. HEC-FAD will build the capacity of the Higher Education
Commission and eleven Pakistani universities to establish financial aid offices,
develop skills and knowledge for fundraising, and establish international
linkages. "USAID's HEC-FAD programme will provide Pakistani universities
with useful, practical advice on fund raising," said United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) Deputy Mission Director in Pakistan Joseph
Williams. "We are developing a culture and system for raising private
resources to improve the quality and reach of higher education institutions," he
said "We look forward to hosting up to 75 of your staff on their visit to the
United States, where they will meet experienced and successful professionals in
both financial aid and fund raising," he said. He underlined the need
for "encouraging partnerships" in the field of education "to expand and to
capitalize on our common objectives of training a new generation of leaders and
problem-solvers". Funded by USAID and managed by HEC, this two-day
conference had sessions for the vice chancellors and selected relevant financial
aid and development staff of 11 partner universities. The participants
discussed practical measures for expanding financial aid resources for higher
education, in order to build the universities' capacity to generate private
funds by establishing development offices and creating international linkages.
Since 2002, the US Government has provided more than $3.4 billion to
Pakistan for improvements in economic growth, education, health, governance, and
assistance in earthquake reconstruction.
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'Reforms to bring improvement in education system'
Islamabad: Minister of State for Economic Affairs Division Hina Rabbani Khar on
Tuesday said the government is banking on its reforms focusing on public-private
partnership to bring improvement in the education system. She was
addressing a national conference on public-private partnership for higher
education arranged by the HEC. USAID funded Higher Education
Commission-Financial Aid Development Programme (HEC-FAD) sponsored the
conference. The minister said the government is taking several
initiatives to overhaul the education system. The partnership of HEC and USAID
would definitely help yield positive reforms in the education sector, she hoped.
Despite putting enormous efforts to elevate the standard of higher
education in the country, a lot still needs to be done, the minister said. She
said higher education linkages with industry and research are of pivotal
importance to gain results from the reforms. Presently, four to five per
cent people have access to higher education in the country and this percentage
needs to be increased through concrete efforts, she added. Executive Director
HEC Suhail Naqvi, emphasising the importance of higher education, said
university is a beacon of light and it would hopefully produce future
generations. Additional Secretary, Ministry of Education, Shahid Ahmad
said that HEC and Education Ministry faced financial crunch which affected the
performance of the education sector. For the last four years, the government is
spending 44 per cent on primary education but still the dropout rate at primary
level is 37 per cent. Similarly, the college education was neglected
during the previous years. There is 55 per cent literacy rate in the country and
efforts must be expedited to fill the gap and remove the disconnection between
primary, college and higher education, he added. It is essential to
strengthen the public sector universities to equip maximum students with
education, he said. Dr John W Shumaker gave a briefing on USAID-funded HEC-FAD
programme and gave its details.
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Two NUST students killed in road accident
Islamabad: Two students of the National University of Sciences and
Technology (NUST) were killed and another was critically injured when their car,
hit a road divider near Margalla Tower on Tuesday morning, witnesses said.
The dead bodies of students and the injured student were shifted to
PIMS. PIMS spokesman Dr Waseem Khawaja quoting the statement of one of victim's
father, said that Waqas Ahmad, Hassan Ishtiaq and Rehan - the final year
students of NUST Engineering department - were heading towards International
Islamic University from Sector F-10/3 at 5.30 a.m. "When they turned on to the
main double road near Margalla Tower, the driver lost the control over the wheel
due to over speeding and hit the road divider". He said that Hassan Ishtiaq was
already dead when brought to the hospital and Waqas expired during the surgery.
Rehan was out of danger, but not in his senses, Dr Khawaja said. In
another accident a 10-years-old boy was crushed to death by a speedy car
(IDS-1876) near Tarnol Railway Crossing. The victim could not be identified so
far. The News
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