Only those universities that meet the criteria set by the HEC should be allowed to work.
LAHORE: The Pakistani society has been associated with a lot of bad things in recent times. Rising extremism, corruption and lack of civic sense are but a few of the vices associated with our society. One of the main reasons of our slow, gradual, constant and perpetual decline is our lack of interest in educating our young generation. Our interest in the field of education can be gauged from the fact that after so many years of promising so much (five per cent of gross domestic product to education, education for all, free books, free meals, etc.), we are still stuck at a point where we spend a mere two per cent of GDP on education.
We have the highest number of out of school children of school-going age in the world after Nigeria, notwithstanding the fact that the Economic Survey claims that the literacy rate is now around 60 per cent. Even if that is accepted, the quality of education that government schools offer is abysmal.
Taking a cursory glance at the level of graduates of private and government institution we see a marked difference. Top-tier universities like IBA, LUMS, NUST, and GIKI produce students with a completely different outlook than students of second-tier, mostly government-run institutions.
What is even more alarming is the mushroom-like growth of second — and even third-tier colleges and universities all over the country. Over 130 degree-awarding institutions are recognised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) but the sorry fact is that most of these produce graduates with skills and expertise lower than even that of an O level student from a private school. These ‘highly qualified’ students then become fodder for the job market where they add up to the already thousands waiting in line for a job.
In the maddening race to produce more and more graduates we seem to be forgetting the basics, which is that we need to educate our students. Only those universities that meet the criteria set by the HEC should be allowed to work.
Hamza Naveed
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2014.
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