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KU students suffer academic loss
KARACHI, Sept 21: Students of
the Karachi University (KU) are suffering enormous academic loss due to
unofficial suspension of the academic activities at the university, following
the minibus incident near the KU, killing 7 people, including 4 KU
students.
Almost a week has been passed after the incident but the KU
administration seems powerless to restore the academic activities at the
university, while the semester examinations are scheduled to be held after 40 or
45 days in November. The uncertainty and fear, griping the university has forced
the students to stay at home especially during the Ramadan instead of reaching
the KU.
On the other hand, the members of Karachi University Employees
Welfare Association hold an urgent general body meeting on Thursday to protest
against alleged threats from the workers of the IJT to the
employees.
According to press release issued by the association on Thursday,
hundreds of the employees, KU officers and teachers attended the meeting. The
representatives of the employees association, including the association
president Kabir Khan and General Secretary Muhammad Fareed Siddiqui denounced
the threats from IJT, which claimed that 4 students killed in the minibus
incident were its workers.
According to press release, they said that the
employees of the KU handled all students equally and they never involve in the
students' affairs. They also warned that the employees had right to protect
themselves in view of the threats from IJT.
However, the spokesman of the KU
has claimed that the academic activities at the campus are returning to normal,
after the last week's tragic event claiming lives of seven including four
Karachi University students.
"Classes were held today at all the teaching
departments at the campus on Thursday with active participation of students.
Besides good attendance in classes, all the examinations including BEd and BDS
are also being held as per schedule. Transportation facility for the students
through point-buses has also resumed. It is hoped that by virtue of professional
commitment of the teaching faculty like ever before, the students will not
suffer any loss of studies.
The Vice Chancellor has directed the faculty to
revise their teaching schedule to ensure that semester syllabus in completed
before terminal examinations.
The Karachi University administration is making
all out efforts to maintain peace and tranquility at the campus," he
added.
PPI adds: More than 24000 students of the University of Karachi are
suffering a lot of problems to reach campus due to acute shortage of transport
facilities. The university has six faculties, 52 departments and 18 research
centers. With establishment of recently set up botanical garden, the KU has
become only educational institute in country with such
facility.
Unfortunately, this big varsity has a poor transport system for its
24000 students. KU vice chancellor, Prof. Pirzada Qasim Ali Raza Siddiqui, on
Thursday told PPI he a was doing his best to provide improved transport
facilities to students. Presently, 30 shuttle buses are available with the
university. They are old and undergo frequent repairs. He maintained they
received funds from Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the federal
government. "We are running this service at cost of millions of
rupees.
Though it give no benefit to administration but we are serving
students as far as we could," he added.
A number of students have personal
transport, but all students could not afford it, he observed.
To resolve the
matter, he suggested, there were two ways left.One to replace existing old buses
with new ones with financial support of various organizations and
philanthropists. He noted though purchase of so many new buses was not an easy
job, so a phased approach might work in this regard.
The vice chancellor
said the second possibility was to rely on the city government. He recalled
voluntarily services of defunct Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC), which had
provided 100 buses for pick and drop purposes of around 12,000 students in
1998.
Dr. Pirzada suggested that minibuses plying on route leading to Karachi
University (KU) should be replaced with wide-bodied buses. Secondly, the city
government should mobilize public transports to make free trips for students at
least twice a day in morning and evening.
These buses or minibuses could
pick students from areas that fall on their routes and drop them to university.
Similarly, a trip should be made to pick them from university and drop to home.
He suggested that city government should ink an agreement with public transport
in this regard.
He noted this facility would also benefit students of nearby
universities including NED University of Engineering & Technology, Sir Syed
University of Engineering & Technology and Federal Urdu University of Arts,
Science & Technology. The Nation
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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