Punjab Higher Education Department plans evaluation of public-sector colleges

LAHORE, May 3: The Punjab Higher Education Department is planning to put in place monitoring and evaluation system for public sector colleges, which so far never come under scrutiny.

Sources in the department said an institutional mechanism would be developed to rank all public sector colleges on the pattern of universities’ ranking by the Higher Education Commission. In the next budget, the department would also ensure funds to maintain the missing facilities excluding construction of new rooms.

In the next financial year, the higher education department is reportedly seeking development funds worth Rs7 billion against last year’s allocation of Rs6.5 billion. However, it was also learnt, that the higher education department was released only Rs5 billion.

The BS (Honours) programme in public sector colleges was not taken well by the respective colleges’ faculty members as well as teachers’ association owing to the constitution of board of governors. The higher education department has indicated that such issues will be resolved in the next budget. “A stakeholders conference will be called to reach at some
mutually agreed points to run the programme effectively,” an official said.

The department would also launch its indigenous teacher training programme for capacity building of teachers so that they could impart quality education to their pupils. The higher education department senior official also told Dawn that the department would establish a Knowledge Park at 800 acre land in Muridke, while another Knowledge City had been proposed in Rakh Terra, Burki.

HEC: The Higher Education Commission, it is learnt, is planning to evaluate the performance of senior faculty members serving on Tenure Track System.

HEC Executive Director Prof Dr Sohail H Naqvi told Dawn that the TTS faculty members’ performance would be assessed as the commission had evaluated the performance of foreign faculty. He said the foreign faculty performance evaluation had revealed that they had done a great job and Pakistan’s research contribution was increasing day by day. “The research in Pakistani universities has improved in terms of quality as well as quantity and has formally been measured and identified at international level,” he added.

Dr Naqvi said the government had invested in higher education and during the last 10 years many new universities and old universities’ sub-campuses were established and added that “universities are building communities”.

However, it is learnt, the commission is currently facing financial crunch. The commission has yet not received the last quarterly installment, which was due on April 1.

(Dawn)