Education issues: Non-payment of teachers’ salaries worries MPs

Committee calls in VCs of three varsities over ‘illegal’ sub campuses.


Riazul Haq April 28, 2014
HEC chairperson says they have informed all varsities which are violating rules or failing to meet minimum quality standards. PHOTO: HEC.GOV.PK

ISLAMABAD:


The National Assembly body on education has summoned the vice chancellors of three universities over their role in allowing the “illegal” operation of franchises against the acts governing the institutions.


NA Standing Committee on Education and Standards in Higher Education member Hamid Hameed raised the issue in a meeting on Monday.

Besides, the panel expressed serious reservations over the stoppage and curtailing of Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) teachers’ salaries and decided to raise the issue on the floor of the House in the next session.

The committee said the move to cut BECS teachers’ salaries from Rs8,000 to Rs5,000 per month was unjustified. The committee further asked how one can expect quality education to be provided if teachers are not being paid reasonable salaries.

An official of the ministry informed the members that about 12,000 vocational schools are functioning in the country with over 500,000 students from far-flung areas.

Committee chair Gulzar Khan took notice of the non-payment of teachers’ salaries for the last eight months and decided that the matter should be raised on the house floor. The committee also directed the ministry to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation system and motivate the community to admit their children in BECS schools.

The committee highlighted the advantages of the informal school system and said it is a way for Pakistan to enhance the literacy rate.

Hameed said sub-campuses of University of Sargodha, the University of Gujrat and Bahauddin Zakaria University are being built through public-private partnerships, which not only compromises the quality of education, but also violates the acts under which the universities were set up.

Hameed was of the view that despite warnings from the Higher Education Commission (HEC), they were “blatantly” operating without any pressure from the monitoring body. “Besides, there are universities which are being constructed in a few kanals land and are doing good business,” he said.

To this, the HEC chairperson said they had informed all such varsities which were violating rules or failing to meet minimum quality standards.

Khan agreed with Hameed and summoned the three universities’ VCs in the next meeting.

Later on, Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education Secretary Ahsan Raja briefed the committee on the progress of PSDP projects during the financial year 2013-2014.

The HEC chairman also participated in the meeting and gave a briefing on PSDP projects for the current and for next financial years. He requested the committee to recommend increasing the HEC budget for the next financial year to Rs22 billion, which the committee endorsed.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2014.

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