Balochistan Professors & Lecturers warn of agitation

Teachers warn of agitation
Quetta, Mar 20: The Balochistan Professors and Lecturers Association has called upon the prime minister and the chief minister to implement the government's decision to upgrade college teachers.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Professor Nawaz Soomro said that an inter-provincial meeting chaired by the federal education minister last month had approved to upgrade all college teachers in the country and recommendations were forwarded to the prime minister.

Now, he said, it had been reported that the decision which was to be announced as part of the national education policy on March 23, had been deferred. He warned of a province-wide agitation if the government did not issue a notification about upgrading teachers. Dawn

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IMCG F-8/1 holds prize distribution ceremony
Islamabad: A ceremony was held at the Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG), Sector F-8/1, in which students and teachers were awarded prizes and certificates as an acknowledgment of their good performances.

Prizes were distributed for the academic session 2007-08. As many as six students and 14 teachers were given prizes to encourage and appreciate them for their dedication and hard work in their respective fields.

Aroosa Abbass received an award for securing 776 marks in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Annual Examination and achieving first position in all model academic institutions of the federal capital.

Sania Javed was given an award for obtaining second position in the SSC Annual Examination in the college with 763 marks.

Shafaq Zafar was given an award for achieving third position in the SSC Annual Examination by securing 740 marks.

In Class 9, Yousara Khalid was awarded a prize for securing first position in the college, Saba Hanif for securing second position and Rahat Mukhtar for getting third position.

Awards for the competent administrative staff were presented to Tasnim Kausar (vice principal for 2007-08), Nasreen Khalid (vice principal for 2007-08) and Zeba Shahid (headmistress).

The awards for the teachers of senior section were bestowed upon Amna Abbasi, Samina Naz, Irum Nasim, Kashifa Chaudhry, Hina Waheed, Tasnim Kausar and Abida Saghir, while the awards for junior section teachers were given to Abida Niaz, Asifa Nasir, Tahira Bibi and Najam Ara.

Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Model Colleges Director Dr. Mujahid Zameer on the occasion appreciated students and teachers for their good performances in their respective fields. He said it is encouraging that girls are performing far better than boys in academics and contributing towards the country's progress.

The FDE official said that it is unfortunate that there are not many model colleges and schools as required but his department is trying hard to upgrade the existing model schools. "We will try our level best to upgrade schools by providing more buses and extending their campuses," he said.

Presenting the college report, IMCG Principal Razia Naqvi said that there is 95 per cent success result in Class 5, 100 per cent in Class 8 while one student of Class 10 has topped in all model colleges.

Students pay charges but never get college magazines
Rawalpindi: The students of various colleges in the city are being deprived of annual edition of magazines because of lack of interest on part of their administrations.

There are only a few colleges that publish and distribute magazines among the students. Most colleges fail to do so despite charging Rs50 to Rs200 for the publication from every student at the time of admission.

The Government Degree College for Women, Murree Road, failed to publish its annual magazines from 2007. When contacted, Principal Shaista Razi Abbass said "We are in the process of bringing out magazines for the academic session 2008-2009. We distribute magazines among students free of cost and never charge any price from them." However, according to fee submission slip of a student, Rs50 were charged as magazine fund.

Nasir Mehmood, a student of Asghar Mall Postgraduate College, said "I never got the college magazine despite the fact that I had paid the magazine charges at the time of admission."

Asghar Mall College Principal Aleemuddin, when contacted, said "There is no other reason except for lack of interest on part of students who do not submit the required material for the magazine which causes delay in its publication."

Fast-NU to organise student competitions
Peshawar: The National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences (Fast-NU), Peshawar campus, has organised various competitions for the students. The NUTEC, one of 10 student societies, has planned different software and hardware project competitions and an exhibition. The competitions include programming, quiz, business plan, job fair, antenna design and onboard circuit design competition at Fast-NU, Peshawar campus.

Around 200 participants from various universities of NWFP and Islamabad would participate in the event. The student organisations of the university provide opportunities to promote teamwork and leadership qualities. All of these activities are student-organised.

Fast-NU is an autonomous institution funded by the private sector. It strives to produce graduates, who could help in the techno-industrial transformation of the country, a press release said. The institute aspires to be a centre of excellence in engineering, management and computer sciences, which acts as an effective agent of change and a role model for others.

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Corporate market in academic : institutions 'to harm infrastructure'
Islamabad: Bringing corporate market into educational institutions may pose threats to the entire infrastructure if adequate measures are not taken to avoid adverse effects of this fast emerging trend, Dr. Naheed Zia Khan said here on Thursday.

She stated this while giving a presentation on 'Higher Education and Sustainable Development: Quantity vs Quality' organised by the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS).

"We are having problem as how to bring the market into the educational institutions while in Europe they are making hectic efforts to drive the market out of their first-rated institutions," she said.

Dr. Naheed Zia said the Europeans are now facing ill effects of their policies that provided unlimited access to the corporate market in their educational institutions. "We should learn from them and adopt those policies that help us move forward in the right direction." She said creation of physical capital under the umbrella of higher education paved the way for large-scale industrial revolution.

She said, "Love for material is within us and material is around us everywhere. So it is quite natural to move towards financial benefits but if it happens at the cost of the education then it would certainly serve no purpose." Dr. Naheed Zia said physical capital also include weapons of mass destruction while the social capital consists of other things like poverty of thought, relationship and feelings of deprivation. "We may say that the higher education that led to the industrial revolution all over the Europe is now being threatened by the corporate interests. But the solution also rests with the higher learning that can find out ways and means to cope with this challenge," she said.

She said to every three rupees in the education sector one rupee is going to the higher education learning in the Europe but in Pakistan the ratio stands at 40:1 that is quite regrettable.

Quaid-i-Azam University Vice Chancellor Dr. Qasim Jan said there are now so many issues directly involved in the higher education learning including entrance examinations, course work, comprehensive examinations, thesis proposals, publications and unlimited number of students. He said higher education institutions are mushrooming at such a faster pace that the number of universities in the twin cities is higher than that in New York, but unfortunately most of them lack required standard and competence.

Dr. Qasim Jan said the academic council of the QAU has scrapped the restriction of passing GRE as a necessary requirement for the award of a PhD degree.

He said the Higher Education Commission (HEC) imposed the restriction at the time when many public sector universities opposed this step.

Dr. A H Nayyar, senior research fellow, said equity and efficiency are the two main factors that help evaluate the education system.

He said annual education budget had increased manifold but even then HEC failed to find out suitable and competent persons for various purposes at the local level.

Dr. Nayyar said HEC spent millions of rupees for provision of scholarships to those who often did not deserve this reward that resulted in emergence of 'half-baked' teachers. "When they introduced a plan to pay for publications it led to large-scale plagiarism that did not contribute towards improving the standard of higher education in the country," he added. The News

Punjabi mushaira in collaboration with the Sahiwal Government College's Punjabi Department
Sahiwal: The district government in collaboration with the Sahiwal Government College's Punjabi Department and the Punjab Lok Boli Mela organised a mushaira here at Jinnah Hall on Wednesday night.

The 'All Punjab Punjabi mushaira' is among the series of activities organised by the district government in connection with the ongoing 10-day spring festival. Around 40 Punjabi poets from all over the province recited their poetry.

A number of people, including lawyers, students and political activists appreciated the Punjabi poetry.

The poets who recited their verses included Baba Najmi (Lahore), Afzal Sahir (Lahore), Baba Talib (Kabirwala), Ghulam Husain Nadeem Qadri (Samundari), Tassadaq Bhatti (Renala Khurd), Tajamal Kaleem (Chunian), Sabir Ali Sabir (Kasur), Goga (Sheikhupura), Safdar Dogar (Sucha Soda), Shabbir Husain Shabbir (Lahore), Fakhar Zaman Adil (Tandlianwala), Sarwar Jawi (Depaplur), Prof. Ali Asghar Baloch (Faisalabad), Naseer Baloch (Tandlianwala) and Bashir Faiz.

Commissioner Tariq Mahmood, DCO Muhammad Khan Khichi and district nazim Rai Hasan Nawaz were chief guests.

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University of Malakand attacked again
Timergara: The University of Malakand in Chakdara, Lower Dir was again attacked by suspected militants late on Wednesday night, sources in the university said. No casualty was reported in the incident.

Security guards of the university stated that 10 to 14 armed militants tried to enter the premises of the university. The guards stopped the militants by offering stiff resistance, sources said.

The attackers came from the southern side of the university and had reached the boundary wall, when security guards fired on them.

Sources said that the exchange of fire continued for over 20 minutes and later the attackers disappeared. Dawn

Call to reform education system to end extremism
Peshawar: Participants at an educational conference were of the view on Thursday that it was time to reform the education system to root out extremism and violence from the society and meet the challenges confronting the province.

The conference was organised by the Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation (BKTEF) and its objectives were to represent the perspective of each significant stakeholder in the education sector; to identify challenges and bottlenecks in the existing education system at the policy and implementation level and to define clear goals and adopt a holistic approach in meeting those goals.

A cross-section of people including those associated with the education sector underlined the need for quality education and provision of basic facilities in educational institutions; spending annual development funds on education instead of building new schools; teachers' training to give quality education; introduction of new teaching techniques and examination system.

In his welcome note, Chairman BKTEF Senator Afrasiab Khattak slammed the Kalashnikov culture emerging in Afghan conflict in late 70s in the region.

"We have to reform education system to end violence," said the peace envoy of the NWFP government. He said people would have to adopt Bacha Khan's philosophy of non-violence, peace and human rights and promote education. "We'll never compromise over girls' and children's education come what may," said the senator. Khattak underscored the need for quality education.

Highlighting the steps the NWFP government has taken during the past one year, Minister for Higher Education Qazi Muhammad Asad said his government prioritised the promotion of grade-17 and 18 officials. "That was a big problem and we did it in one year," he said. Asad said officials in other grades would soon be promoted. He said the government wanted to provide accommodation to teachers at reasonable rates and for that purpose, it was building colonies. The minister said technical education was expensive and there was shortage of polytechnics. Asad said the government was establishing polytechnics at Peshawar and Haripur and would set up more in other cities.

The minister said the government would establish 20 new colleges this year and would provide digital library facilities in educational institutions. He said the provincial government was setting up Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan and an Act in this regard would soon come. He said the government was also making efforts to establish a university in Swabi.

Minister for Primary Education Sardar Hussain Babak said the provincial government would not compromise over education with extremists and promote it in line with the ANP manifesto. "Nobody can stop women and children from receiving education," said the minister. He said all appointments of teachers were made on merit. Babak said the existing curriculum was outdated and needed to be reformed.

During Question-Answer session, participants suggested inclusion of subjects on interfaith harmony, environment, energy and role of women in development in curriculum. They forwarded recommendations for quality education, examination system and implementation of education policy. Daily Times

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