Speaking to the media, Rabbani said that negative forces were "raising a storm in a cup of tea" on the HEC issue which was not acceptable.
The 18th Amendment Implementation Commission met on Monday to discuss the restructuring of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The meeting reviewed compliance report of various ministries devolved so far. It also noticed that the center had occupied many important functions which were not present in the concurrent list.
The commission also discussed the third phase of transfer of ministries of sports, environment and women's development.
Sources have said that the new name of for the commission will be Commission for Higher Standard Education. The HEC will be retaining eight of its functions.
The Higher Education Commission is being devolved to the provinces under the 18th amendment plan.
The HEC was created in 2002 and is widely recognised as a highly successful institution that has been able to revitalise higher education in Pakistan through its regulation of standards at public and private universities as well as securing additional funding for universities as well as scholarships for students, both to local and foreign universities.
Nearly 5,000 Pakistani students are currently studying abroad on HEC or HEC-affiliated scholarships. In addition, the HEC finances research and has ensured that academics in Pakistan are well-paid.
COMMENTS (21)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
For the attention of Senator Raza RabbaniWhy government is after Higher Education Commission? What is so urgent? Going in to detail what government wants to achieve through the so-called HEC devolution plan, this step also create doubts about Senator Raza Rabbani intentions and even decline PPP government among minority (educated people of Pakistan). Let us discuss some modalities to avoid the embarrassment. It is evident that students in higher education benefited of HEC in Pakistan mostly belonged to lower middle class. It financed most of the talented poor students to advanced countries, where they earned their doctorate and master degrees. They are not only recognized professionally world over, rather they also earned respect within country with high perks. HEC programs create a new social class in Pakistan other than CSPs, politicians, and Arfmy, the new class of Professor. This new class started to receive respect in society and universities. It also attract people from other cadres like Bureaucracy and corporate professionals Still. lacs of students are doing their preparation to appear in GRE, NTS examination to receive HEC scholarship.Now, coming to the point. I would like to opine that by no cost this prestigious organization should be scrapped rather some other modality within its own frame of structure should be developed. The most appropriate is through its zonal offices or Provincial offices. Rather making HEC nil, it should be devolved to those zonal offices within certain period of time and then autonomize it. That would at one hand, do not affect its current programs possibly risking thousands of scholars futures, while at the second hand the spirit of eighteenth amendment will remain. The only point is devolution of the organization within its own structure rather destroying the marvelous organization with a lot of achievement to its credit.