HEC needs-based scholarships | Twin cities schools
HEC awards 13,000 needs-based scholarships
Islamabad, Jan 06: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has awarded over 13,000 needs-based
scholarships for study at undergraduate and graduate levels in the
Pakistani universities. These scholarships, offered under different
schemes, cover all regions of the country, including four provinces,
Fata, Northern Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). HEC
provides opportunities for access to higher education, especially in
this case to underprivileged candidates, who are able to gain admission
in universities on merit, but find it difficult to pursue studies due to
financial constraints. HEC is not only managing
needs-based scholarships funded by the Government of Pakistan, but also
US needs-based scholarships, Japanese needs-based scholarships, German
needs-based scholarships and French needs-based scholarships. The
foreign donors fund these students to complete their studies in
Pakistani universities. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1984
students have benefited from these scholarships while the number for AJK
is 291, Northern Areas 37, Federal Area 1529, Punjab (including
Southern Punjab) 4885, Sindh (including Interior Sindh) 3844 and
Balochistan 632. The scholarship finances not only tuition
fee but also extends to accommodation and living expenses. It enables
academically qualified, but financially needy, Pakistani students to
continue university studies in selected private and public universities
of Pakistan. The applicants are required to be
Pakistani/AJK nationals. Students need to compete for securing admission
at the selected institutions as per admission policy of the respective
institution. Only those students who are enrolled in first
semester/professional year in the respective courses offered by the
participating institutions are eligible to apply. University
administration finalizes scrutiny and convene meeting of the
Institutional Scholarship Award Committee, which comprises university
vice chancellor/rector, two eminent scholars, two senior faculty members
and two community representatives. The eligibility of a
candidate is linked to neediness of the candidate as determined and
assessed by financial background of his/her family. No applicant is
considered if his/her family income is more than Rs. 35,000 per month. In
addition, HEC is also managing the Federal Government's PM Youth
initiative of Fee Reimbursement to support education sector of less
developed areas of Balochistan, Gilgit/ Baltistan, Fata, Interior Sindh,
South Punjab, Malakand, Kohistan and D.I. Khan areas of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa through payment of tuition fee of all students of these
areas studying in Masters, MPhil in the public sector universities of
their respective area of domicile and for PhD all public sector
universities of Pakistan.
Post your comments
Government asked to clarify its position on appointment of HEC chief
Islamabad: Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) here on
Thursday directed the federal government to apprise the court in written
that what it has been doing for the appointment of Higher Education
Commission (HEC) chairperson and also tell a cut off date in this
connection. A standing counsel representing the federation
of Pakistan, Jehangir Khan Jadoon, told the court that the Ministry of
Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education has forwarded a
summary to the prime minister for the appointment of HEC chairperson,
and as soon as he approves the name, the appointment of HEC chief will
be made. At this instance, Justice Siddiqui observed that
the Ministry of Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education
should bring this thing into the prime minister's notice that this is an
issue of vital importance. The petition was moved in the
court by the founder chairman of the HEC, a well-known educationist and
scientist of Pakistan, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, who is seeking from the court
to direct the federal government to immediately appoint the HEC
chairperson in an open and transparent manner. The legal
counsel of the petitioner, Umar Hanif Kichi, argued before the court
that under the Section 8(3) of the HEC Ordinance 2002, 'the position of
HEC chairman to lie vacant for a maximum of three months and it is
mandatory that after 90 days, regular chairperson must be appointed'.
However, there is no regular permanent appointment of the HEC chairman
even after a lapse of 120 days since the tenure of former HEC chairman
Dr. Javed Laghari had expired on August 26, 2013. The
petition said that academic circles, vice chancellors, academic staff
associations and the public at large, who are the key stakeholders, have
already expressed reservations on non-initiation of process for
appointment of a regular HEC chairperson. The petitioner
said that the Higher Education Commission comprises a chairman alongside
its 17 members that is known as the HEC Board. The commission or board
as a whole takes all key decisions and decides policy matters. The
petitioner said that the delay in the appointment is badly damaging the
higher education sector, according to the education experts and
stakeholders. The higher education sector, comprising over
150 universities, 258 campuses, 1.2 million students, 32,000 faculty
members, including over 7,600 PhD faculty, and administrative-support
staff of over 100,000 are getting affected due to non-appointment of a
regular or permanent chairperson. The former HEC
chairman, on the request of the Balochistan chief minister, had formed a
task force for the betterment of higher education in the province. The
task force could not visit Balochistan due to non-appointment of the HEC
chairperson. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, in the petition, adopted
before the court that the meetings of the HEC have not been convened
due to the vacant position of the HEC chairperson as well as vacant
positions of seven board members of the HEC. He argued that the
appointments of HEC members or board members are also delayed due to
non-availability of a permanent chief. As per HEC
Ordinance 2002, it requires the commission to meet at least twice in a
financial year, whereas the commission has not met even once in the last
six months due to absence of a permanent chairperson. As
far as the appointment of HEC members is concerned, they are appointed
by the prime minister. The appointment of HEC chairperson is necessary
as he initially shortlists the aspiring candidates for becoming HEC
Board members and forwards their names to the prime minister who is
controlling authority for the final appointment. The
petitioner told the court that a new Tertiary Education Support
Programme worth US $300 million was approved on March 24, 2011 and it
would be taken away if the HEC is put to oblivion. The
petitioner further told the court that the USAID is finalising a US $250
million support to the HEC focusing on the establishment of Centres of
Excellence in Water, Energy and Agriculture and this too will disappear
if the HEC does not appoint a regular chairperson. The news
Post your comments
Schools reopen after winter vacation in twin cities
Islamabad: Educational institutions in the twin cities reopened on Wednesday amid a severe cold wave after the winter vacation. Students
and teachers returned to the schools and colleges on the first day of
the new year, through low attendance was witnessed due to severity of
the weather. It has became a routine matter for the students not to
attend their institutes on the opening day, assuming that there will be
no classes and most of the students will be absent. This forced the
administration of educational institutes to resume activities at a low
pace. The Punjab Education Department had announced winter vacation
from December 24 to December 31, while the educational institutions run
by the Federal Directorate of Education remained closed from December 25
to December 31. Meanwhile, teachers expressed concern over inadequate heating arrangements in classrooms. Aslam, a parent, said, "I have not sent my children to the school today due to persisting cold weather conditions." He said that classes were not held usually on the first day after reopening of institutes due to less strength. Hina
Arif, a mother, said, "It is difficult to wake up early in the morning
during chilly weather conditions and make breakfast, especially when the
gas pressure is low. So I preferred not sending my children to the
school today." She said that students usually avoided attending classes during the first few days after a vacation. Daily times
Post your comments
Parents want extension in winter vacation
Islamabad: Parents of the children studying in educational institutions working
under Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) have demanded extension in
winter vacations due to severe cold weather. The city
minimum temperature has dropped upto 4 degree Celsius and it can be
further dropped in the coming days according to the weather experts. The
educational institutions reopened on January 1, (Wednesday) after
weeklong vacations and witnessed thin attendance as most of the parents
did not send their children owing to cold weather. Asim Shah, said he
has not sent his children to the school due to the cold weather cas it
would be difficult for them to study in the classrooms without facility
of heaters. The authorities concerned must extend the winter vacation
for another week keeping in view the problems faced by the children and
their parents. Shaista Waqar, a mother said it is
difficult to wake up early in the morning and prepare breakfast in low
gas pressure and then sending the children to schools in cold weather.
She said majority of the parents do not take risk of sending their
children to their schools fearing they might suffer from pneumonia or
other serious diseases in this chilly weather. The recent wave of cold
weather has badly affected the routine life of the people and the school
going children are suffering from cold and fever in the prevailing
weather. The news
Post your comments
Teachers term QAU curriculum old wine in new bottle
Islamabad: Although Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) has changed
the curriculum for its 15 affiliated colleges, teachers have claimed
that most of the content in the books was not altered and was outdated.
Previously, the 11 federal government colleges and four model
colleges of Islamabad working under the Federal Directorate of Education
(FDE) were affiliated with University of the Punjab, Lahore. In 2011
these colleges were affiliated with QAU at the graduate and postgraduate
levels.
This was a huge switch, and being the first experience, led to the
rise of several issues. A faculty member of FDE, on condition of
anonymity said that drafting a curriculum was a major issue as
students of graduation and post graduation levels were studying old
books.
"Initially, the management of these colleges was instructed to
continue with the old books. Meanwhile, a Board of Studies (BOS)
comprising 22 members was constituted to devise the new syllabus for
affiliated colleges," he said.
"Furthermore, 18 of the 22 BOS members had experience coaching at the
intermediate level, and only 4 members had experience teaching at post
graduation level. Therefore, the curriculum could not be upgraded as it
should have been," he added.
A faculty member of a college said BOS initially held its meetings at
infrequent intervals and later hurriedly came up with a curriculum."It
seems the board just shuffled various topics in the old books and
skipped some before announcing that a new curriculum had been devised,"
he said.
He added that drafting a new curriculum and syllabus was an
extraordinary task which involved skilled selection of subjects keeping
in view the demand of the job market.
In addition, he said the mental level of students and the courses
being taught at Intermediate, Graduate and Postgraduate levels should be
considered to avoid repetition of similar topics.
"Even the proposed amendments must be based on objective approach
keeping in view available resources and books, and the capacity of
institutions," he said.
When contacted, the president of Federal Government College Teachers
Association (FGCTA), Tahir Mahmood, said a number of teachers had been
complaining about the revised curriculum.
"Economics at the graduation level has been revised but strangely,
the whole portion on 'Economics of Pakistan' was deleted from the book
while statistics was included," he said.
He explained that students of BSc (Math, Statistics and Economics)
were already studying statistics, therefore the addition was useless.
On the other hand, Vice Chancellor QAU Dr Masoom Yasinzai said that the BOS meetings were being held frequently. Dawn
Post your comments
|