After the Sindh High Court’s orders in the matter pertaining to the University of Karachi (KU) granting affiliation to various government colleges in the metropolis, a committee was formed to explore the prospect. It has revealed that education on offer at these colleges to be subpar.
The committee had to submit recommendations on granting affiliation to colleges wishing to start a BS programme. It includes principals of six government colleges and was formed by the Department of College Education last month.
Sources privy to what took place during the proceedings of the committee informed The Express Tribune that the committee had met two times so far and the disclosures made in the meetings vis-à-vis the state of colleges were shocking to say the least.
The Express Tribune learnt that in the second meeting of the committee, which was chaired by the Director General (DG) Colleges Professor Shadab Hussain, the committee was apprised of staff shortages, lack of books, and lack of computer and science labs in the colleges seeking affiliation.
Furthermore, Professor Hussain was informed that granting affiliate status to colleges, which did not even have teachers for many subjects, would put a question mark on the process.
The DG was briefed about the fact that many of the government colleges had not been allowed to buy books from the open market by the College Education Department for the past four years. That had instead been directed to buy books from the National Book Foundation.
However, the foundation did not have the relevant books and the books that were available were of poor quality. Hence, the DG was told that if the foundation could not supply books at the intermediate level, the committee’s members did not have faith that it would be able to fulfil the demand of colleges once they had a BS programme.
Furthermore, the issue of lack of computer and science laboratories and missing computers and lab equipment was also discussed in the committee.
The Express Tribune contacted the director, Professor Hussain, to inquire about the damning revelations made in the committee. He confirmed that they were true.
When quizzed about the department’s inattention to the state of colleges, Professor Hussain said that they were going to address them. “The Sindh Public Service Commission had placed a hiring freeze on teachers. When the older teachers retired, a shortage emerged,” the DG explained, adding that the department was hoping that the commission would now allow recruitment.
“As far as the purchase of books is concerned, we are going to send a summary to the secretary of the College Education Department and request that colleges be allowed to purchase books from the open market,” said Professor Hussain.
However, in his interview with The Express Tribune, the DG neither gave any timeline on when the process would be completed nor did he talk about what would transpire in the affiliation process.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2023.
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