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24 colleges in Sindh await permanent staff
KARACHI, May 3(Dawn): Two dozen colleges in the province, including 11 in
Karachi, have been working for the last three years without the approval of SNE
(schedule for new expenditures).
According to the government rules and
regulations, no teaching or non-teaching staff could be recruited without prior
approval of the SNE.
Due to unavailability of permanent staff, these
colleges, including eight for boys and 16 for girls, are being run by staff
borrowed on posting or assignment from other colleges who work on part-time
basis. As a result, academic activities in these colleges depended on
availability of these ad-hoc teaching staff and thousands of college students
have to bear the brunt when their course is not covered during the academic
year.
Of these 24 colleges, four boys and seven girls colleges are
located in Karachi. They are Government Boys College, Baldia; Government Boys
College, Quaidabad; Government Boys College, Gulistan-i-Jauhar (morning and
evening shifts); Government Girls College, Gulistan-i-Jauhar; Government Girls
College, Mehmoodabad; Government Girls College Metroville, SITE; Government
Girls College, Orangi Town Sector 7C; Government Girls College, Dawood
Chowrangi; Government Girls College, Landhi-3; Government Girls College,
Korangi-2.
Ten such colleges, including three for boys and seven for
girls, are located in Hyderabad region while three colleges -- one for boys and
two for girls - with lack of permanent teaching staff are located in Khairpur
and Kambar districts.
The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association on
Wednesday expressed serious concern over the government apathy to approve SNEs
for these colleges.
In a high-level meeting, presided over by SPLA
President Prof Syed Riaz Ahsan, the issue was discussed in detail. The meeting,
which was attended among others by Prof Liaquat Aziz, Prof Manzoor Chishti, Prof
Agha Khalid, Prof Ayub Mari, Prof Athar Hussain Mirza, Prof Shafqat Jokhio, Prof
Gazanfar Ali Shah and Prof Iftikhar Muhammad Azami, criticized the provincial
education minister and secretary for the undue delay in the approval of
SNEs.
Prof Syed Riaz Ahsan said 800 to 900 students were enrolled with
each of these 24 colleges. Thousands of students, majority of them girls, were
suffering due to non-approval of SNE, he said.
He said that the ex-nazim
of Karachi, Niamatullah Khan, during his tenure had earmarked Rs100 million a
year for the 11 colleges of Karachi. He said from that fund cooperative teachers
and non-teaching staff were hired.
The SPLA president said the city
government did not release the funds on the plea that colleges were transferred
from the city government to the provincial government. He said due to paucity of
funds the services of cooperative teachers were now discontinued and these
colleges were being run on ad-hoc basis by part-time lecturers borrowed from
other colleges. He said the principals of different colleges were running these
SNE-less colleges on part-time and ad-hoc basis.
He asked the government
to take serious notice of the situation and approve SNE for these colleges at an
earliest to save academic years of students.
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