Dr Khurshid Husnain, Head of Physics Department at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), thinks that there is a strong need to improve the quality of primary schools in the country.
“The primary education system is the main problem behind low enrollments in colleges and universities,” he said adding that the government needs to focus on improving the academic qualifications of primary school teachers. The syllabus, too, needs to be revised to change the mindset of students to enable them to think more progressively, Husnain told The Express Tribune.
He said only one-third of students studying in universities have the skills to pursue higher education, which points to serious flaws in the primary school system.
Husnain said that the Physics department is planning to start a four-year undergraduate programme from next year to improve the standard of higher education, after which the Masters in Science (MSc) programme would be abolished.
The university would also offer a degree in computational physics, he said, adding that his department is the only one where Graduation Record Examinations is required for admissions.
“Since its inception, QAU has produced 129 PhD scholars, 690 graduates of MPhil and more than 3,000 graduates of MSc, while 46 PhD students, 122 MPhil students and 155 MSc students are currently enrolled at the university,” he explained.
He added that the research activities in the country improved dramatically after the establishment of Higher Education Commission. However, like every other field, the education sector has also suffered due to prolonged load shedding in the country.
“We have paid hundreds of thousands of rupees to IESCO (Islamabad Electric Supply Company) to link our campus with the Diplomatic Enclave. However, we have not received any positive response yet,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2011.
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Actullay we had just produced and,still, producing a languages learnig people in education perspective.as on records the govt schools' studnts are just learning local language,urdu and english setp by step respectively. on the other hand the haves' childerns are just learnig and gaining knowledge in one language from root to top.first endup this discrimination and then talk about the results.
Very true. Good primary education is essential. pakistan needs to learn from countrees who know how to educate their poor.
In US and UK failure to educate poor is going to affect whole economy when they will be part of majority population. In US case that generation is already in the cradle. So US has five years to improve education for this new foundation generation of the future. In UK, education results are now worse than Cuba, a country under decades long sanctions! The country has also been sinking in the UN HDI rankings, unsurprisingly.
Finally, the smartest thing I have heard on education in a long time!