RAWALPINDI: This is with reference to Dr Attaur Rehman’s article ‘Quality research in Pakistani universities’ (January 11). In this regard, I would say that Pakistan is confronted with too many problems affecting people’s lives, which need urgent solutions.
I would like to know which one of its pressing problems has been solved by the research done under the patronage of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). I do not see an innovative, technology-based economy in Pakistan as so often claimed by the HEC. What is the cost-effectiveness of a poor nation spending on research activities that does not benefit it? Research without practical outcomes has no meaning for poor developing nations.
Primary and college education is in dire straits due to a lack of funds. If the foundations of our education system are not solid, then our higher education cannot be sound either. There is a need to give importance to primary and college education in order to achieve better results as is done in developed countries.
Dr Sabah Akhtar
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2013.
