HEC grant | Urdu medium of instruction
No grant to HEC worries PU teachers
Lahore, June 25: The Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) has expressed
strong concerns at non-issuance of fourth installment to the Higher
Education Commission (HEC) by the federal government. An
emergency meeting of the association's executive body was held here on
Sunday which informed that the government had stopped recurring grant of
the HEC because of which universities were borrowing loans from banks
to pay salaries to their teachers and employees. According
to PUASA's executive body, the finance ministry had earlier promised to
give Rs6 billion recurring grant to the Higher Education Commission but
the government was using the amount to pay to the parliamentarians
instead of providing the same to the HEC. The meeting
condemned the move, observing that thousands of teachers, students and
researchers had been deprived of scholarships and many research and
development programmes had stopped which would affect the standard of
higher education in the country. The participants of the
meeting said that it clearly depicted that the government was trying to
shut down universities and education was not its priority. They said the
government was compelling teachers and employees to take to the streets
while they were already hit by excessive loadshedding. It
is pertinent to mention here that universities meet major share of
their expenditures with their own resources but because of non-payment
of recurring amount, they were facing difficulties in paying salaries to
teachers and employees. Interestingly, in a letter to
the public sector universities of the province, the Punjab Higher
Education Department recently asked the universities to take up their
development projects with the Higher Education Commission as the
department had no funds for the projects. When contacted,
Higher Education Department Secretary Dr Ijaz Munir said that funding to
the public varsities was primarily the responsibility of the federal
government through the HEC. He said the department had
asked the universities not to submit new projects to the department but
to the HEC, adding that currently, the Punjab government was funding
various projects of the province's public sector universities.It is also
important to mention here that the Punjab government, in its recent
budget for fiscal year 2012-2013, has earmarked Rs180 million to support
the public universities.
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PU workshop
Lahore: Punjab University's Centre for Clinical Psychology (CCP) organised a two-day
follow-up workshop on "Post-Disaster Management of Children" for the
postgraduate clinical students at the centre. According to a press
statement, CCP Director Prof Dr Rukhsana Kausar appreciated Resource
Persons Nazia Bashir and Amira Amjad for the follow-up of the workshop
conducted by Norwegian clinical psychologists.
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Call to make Urdu medium of instruction
Lahore: A declaration issued after education conference organized by
Jamaat-ud-Dawa here on Sunday termed English as a medium of instruction a
main obstacle to development of the country and called for restoration
of Urdu as medium of instruction in all schools. The
declaration also called for immediately banning secular curriculum since
it was an effort to distort Islamic identity. It demanded of the Punjab
government to end its alleged pact with British Taskforce for
introducing co-education at primary and then middle and secondary levels
at public schools. It also rejected the proposed
establishment of District Education Authority (DEA) at district level
across the province alleging the same was aimed to promote co-education
and influence the transfers of teachers for this purpose. The education
conference demanded setting up of separate schools for girls and boys. Earlier,
speakers condemned the rulers for receiving foreign aid for education
sector alleging the same was being utilized to turn education sector
completely secular. Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed attended it.
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Young scholars thank Shahbaz Sharif for foreign trip
London: Top position holders from across Pakistani educational institutions have
thanked Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, for arranging their visit
to top European institutions. A group of 41 students
who secured top positions in the board and university exams in Pakistan -
ranging from the matriculation to the masters degrees – are on a visit
to Britain, Germany and Turkey as part of the Chief Minister Punjab's
Education Endowment Fund programme. The delegation is led
by the Vice Chancellor of the Government College Lahore University
Professor Khaleeq-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal, Deputy Secretary
Assembly, Chief Minister Punjab's Secretariat, and Zubair Gull, who is
responsible for coordination. The visiting students have
been selected from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, KPK, Gilgit Baltistan and
Azad Kashmir Kashmir. Almost all students belong to middle or lower
middle class families and they would, unlike their privileged Pakistani
peers, not be otherwise able to afford a visit to Europe. At
a reception held in Waltham Forest Town hall, the young delegates
shared their enthusiasm at the opportunity to visit educational
institutions, think-tanks and historic places in and around London. They
said they had learnt a great deal through exposure to some of the best
educational institutions in the world such as the Oxford University and
London School of Economics (LSE). During their
presentations, the visiting scholars spoke movingly of how they were
selected for the visit solely on academic merit and there was no favour
or nepotism involved. They hoped that such initiatives would instil
confidence in students and help them become role models for others. Dr Khaleeq-ur-Rehman said the purpose of the visit
was to give these young scholars of Pakistan exposure to the best
universities of the world and their system of study. He said it was a
"revolutionary step" on part of the Punjab government to send young
scholars abroad to help them broaden their approach and see where the
rest of the world is headed to and what lessons can be learnt. He said
the students had been enabled to visit the world class educational
institutions and compare them with Pakistani system. He
said: "Students will also take their learning back to their institutions
in Pakistan and on the basis of the feedback we get from these student,
we will update our education system and give world class education to
our children in Pakistan." Shahid Iqbal said the visit had
been a great success and the students were enjoying it thoroughly.Iqbal
mentioned the efforts of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and how he is working
"passionately for the betterment of education system in Punjab". He said
that Punjab chief minister's vision was based on the premise that
everyone must get an equal opportunity of education and there should be
no class difference. He said education was the only way forward for the
new generation and that it was important that all provincial and federal
governments encouraged exchange visits to foster better links between
students of Pakistan with the rest of the world. The news
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