The provincial government plans to open 114 new departments in the existing 38 degree colleges of the province, apart from opening 427 new departments in 62 new colleges during the current fiscal year.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Higher Education Department said that the conventional two-year long Bachelors of Arts and Bachelors of Science (BSc) programmes are scheduled to close in all colleges of the province by the end of 2018 — as per Higher Education Commission (HEC) directions — along with introducing a ‘bridging’ programme for entry into BS programmes.
The HEC had revived the National Committee on Examination System and decided that students with who have completed the two-year BA and BSc programmes shall complete a 15-18 hour bridging course after which they shall be eligible for admission in the fifth semester of the four-year-long BS programme.
Moreover, after successfully completing the fourth semester of BS programme, if a student does not wish to continue studies, they will be eligible for an associate degree in arts or science as the case may be.
To ensure the successful implementation of the BS programme throughout the province, the HED has initiated a Faculty Development Programme worth Rs100 million. Under the programme, Masters in Philosophy and Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) scholarships are being provided to faculty members.
Further, the government has allocated Rs1.5 billion in the ongoing fiscal year for developing facilities at colleges to ensure the successful implementation of BS programmes.
These funds, officials say, will be used developing laboratories, providing research grants to students enrolled in BS programmes and hiring faculty to address the shortage of teachers in colleges. Similarly, Rs1.4 billion has been allocated in for the development of college infrastructure in the province.
Simultaneously, the HED has launched a capacity building training programme for college teachers and principals to bring them in line with BS programme requirements.
So far, the programme has trained 120 principals in three batches, with principals of remaining colleges expected to be trained in the next fiscal year.
Additionally, the HED has also established an autonomous body, the Higher Education Academy for Research and Training (HEART) — the first academy of its kind in the country, for imparting in-service training to college teachers.
HEART has so far trained 467 teachers in 2016-17, while an additional 120 teachers are scheduled to be trained in the ongoing fiscal year. The next fiscal year will see a further 500 teachers trained.
As incentives, the HED has announced performance-based grants to colleges and teachers in the province. Moreover, for the first time, the HED has launched a college ranking system in the province, under which Rs50 million have been distributed as awards to encourage better performance.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2017.
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