Ad hocism rules Punjab Board of Technical Education

PBTE is the only board holding and conducting all final examinations pertaining to technical, commercial and vocational education
Lahore, May 03: Adhocism seems to rule the Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) as none of the top slots is currently held by regular incumbents.

The posts including those of Chairman, Secretary and Controller of Examinations are all being "looked after" by officials on additional charge exposing government's "commitment" to promote technical education and vocational training in the province.

Chief Operating Officer of the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) has been holding additional charge of Chairman PBTE since February 2010 while earlier the same post was looked after for almost a year on additional charge basis.

The post of PBTE Secretary is being held by the board's senior research officer while the post of Controller of Examination is also being held by the board's Deputy Controller of Examination on additional charge. Besides this the post of board's Audit Officer is also being managed on additional charge.

It is pertinent to mention here that PBTE is the only board holding and conducting all final examinations pertaining to technical, commercial and vocational education below degree level in Punjab.

Moreover, the recent decision of the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) management to abolish posting of its employees on key slots of PBTE on deputation has raised concern among the stakeholders.

Recently the Tevta authorities decided that the posts of Chairman, Secretary and Controller of the PBTE would be advertised and appointments against these posts would be made on contract mode only. "There will be an open competition", said a senior official adding "Only the best individuals would be appointed against these top slots to achieve desire results."

He added since PBTE was an examining body; it had been decided to appoint neutral individuals against top slots. There had been alleged incidents of favouritism, the official said adding the fresh move would help in ending such practices.

However, the Tevta employees believe the move is an effort to deprive them of their right. They argue the boards dealing in general education welcome only teachers of schools and colleges to serve on key posts on deputation. "Why the same policy cannot continue in the technical education board?" they question.

When contacted Chairman Tevta Saeed Ahmad Alvi said the posting of PBTE Chairman delayed for sometime as one of the applicants had filed a writ petition.

"The matter is solved now", he said adding "The candidate for this slot will be finalized in almost two weeks time." He further said the posts of Secretary and Controller would also be advertised soon.

Talking about ending appointments through deputation on key slots, Chairman Tevta said the decision was taken after due deliberations. "There has been an unhealthy competition for these slots", he said adding it was also unfortunate that the candidates aspiring for such posts usually tried to use connections for appointments on administrative posts. Mr Alvi further said the posts would now be advertised and filled through a competition. He added Tevta employees would also be allowed to compete. The news

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GCU assumes the role of a 'martinet'
Lahore: The Government College University administration has detained admission of 90 students who were to sit the FA/FSc annual examination beginning on May 8. The students have been charged with missing the target of attending 75 per cent lectures.

However, as the proverbial machine of justice rolls on to penalise the students, there are certain cases that need attention besides varsity administration's failure to keep the students informed about the status of their attendance.

After all, the university is charging handsomely from students.The Ravians are now running from pillar to post to drive home their point and protesting, what they call, ruthless attitude of the university administration. One of the dropouts had brought laurels to the university by earning position in the Lahore board in intermediate Part-I annual examination.

Another student says he could not attend classes upstairs because of fractured leg.

It deserves mention here that there are very few cases of students' detention from annual examination by the publicsector colleges affiliated with the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore.

What other colleges do? Most colleges do detain their students' admission when they submit the admissions of the eligible ones with single fee (for which Feb 6 was last date).

Later, they ask the delinquent students to make up for their short lectures and finally send admission of those who fulfill the minimum 75 per cent attendance criterion.

The last date of sending admission with double fee was Feb 27.

Similarly, there is a third chance to make up for short lectures and the institutes send admission with triple fee for which the last date was April 8 – a month before the commencement of the examination.

Still, the board rules allow that the students' attendance could be raised up to 75 per cent through special lectures otherwise their names could be withdrawn up to 14 days before the examination.

It seems the GCU administration has failed to utilise the double and triple fee options as it had sent candidates' admissions with single fee and kept on reminding students, as it claims, by putting up notices on varsity campus twice in January and February.

However, some students say as they were not coming to the university, it was futile to put up any notice. "The varsity administration should have informed us by sending warning letters at home as it did to inform that our admissions had been detained," they are unanimous.

One of the affected students is a position-holder of matriculation and the GCU detained his admission to intermediate Part-I annual examination. He claimed having informed some officials in the university that he was invited by the Punjab government to visit Murree along with other position-holders.

He said he also spent over a week at the Management for Performance and Development Department and was also invited to some other high-profile functions.

He has no idea whether his absence on this account has been considered a demerit. "The varsity administration is not showing me the record of my attendance," he says.

Meanwhile, the parents of some of these students have submitted an application with the Governor's House but the fate of these students is uncertain.

The university administration has already informed the board in writing that the students in question did not attend the mandatory 75 per cent of the total delivered lectures.

The governor cannot interfere in the matter because the matter lies with the Punjab government. Dawn

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UHS employees stage demo
Lahore: The University of Health Sciences employees along with their children held a protest demonstration and hunger strike camp in front of the Punjab Assembly on Saturday against the varsity's gate closure and not their regularisation.

The UHS employees continued their hunger strike camp in front of Punjab Assembly on the 38th consecutive day but failed to attract the attention of the provincial government authorities yet hoping fulfilment of their right of regularisation on the World Labour Day.

They said the UHS administration had closed gates and deployed police to prevent them from entering the university premises despite several written requests by the employees in this regard. They also alleged that the UHS administration, while misusing authority, had stopped their salaries and started process of fresh recruitment against their posts in violation of rules and regulations. "The UHS administration has stalled the salaries of employees as a token for their consideration of World Labour Day," the employees said and added that they were unable to bring milk for their children, besides being unable to pay rent of their houses and school fees of their children. "The provincial government must stop this economic killing of more than 110 employees of the UHS, who are protesting and observing hunger strike under the scorching sun for over a month," they added.

They urged Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sahrif and Governor Salman Taseer to intervene and restore their employment and regularise their services by upholding the rights of working class in connection with May Day. The news

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Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) report
Lahore: The Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) has launched an Annual Status of Education Report on learning levels of 3- 16 years old children in Punjab. The assessment was made in 2008-09.

The report has made revelation about students learning which should alert the school education department and further strengthen its efforts towards ensuring quality education.The recruitment of qualified teachers is one such effort.

The report is based on the data gathered from 12,077 students belonging to 4,800 households in 240 villages of eight districts.

The ASER-2008 says that only 58 per cent of Grade-V children can read Grade-II level texts in Urdu, while only 44 per cent of Grade-V children are able to do Grade-II level division correctly – three digits divided by single digits with carry.

The report also says that children's attendance is better than that of teachers at primary level, which is 79 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively.

This ratio, however, trails behind teachers by the time children get to middle level with 84 per cent and 73 per cent, respectively.

There are still 39 per cent schools without toilet facility and 28 per cent primary schools without water. This improves for elementary schools as 27 per cent are without toilet facility and 28 per cent without water.

The report also provide information that 87 per cent children of the age group 3-16 years are in schools, 13 per cent are out of school and 9.6 per cent of all children are never enrolled in any type of school.

It also explains that 74.6 per cent of this age group was enrolled in government schools, 23.3 per cent in private schools, and two per cent in madaris and other types of schools/learning facilities.

It also explains that parents send proportionately more girls to private schools than to government schools in rural areas.

The ASER says there is an urgency to launch a province-wide campaign for 'numeracy and literacy' at the primary age level of 5-10 years through a very systematic approach of a four to six months module.

The ITA in collaboration with the South Asia Forum for Education Development will repeat ASER every year from 2010 to 2015. Dawn

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