F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has directed the Higher Education Department (HED) to initiate career counselling of students after grade 8, enabling them to identify their strengths and weaknesses which will not only help them in choosing their careers wisely but will also help in channelizing the youth force of the province in the right direction.
The Chief Minister has further directed the HED to workout modalities for initiating evening classes in all the colleges of the province in order to focus on quality and efficiency rather than expansion of schemes.
The Chief Minister stated that due to expansion policies, limited attention is given to efficient management of resources in the already established infrastructure and institutions which negatively effects services delivery.
These views were stated by the Chief Minister while chairing a progress review meeting of the HED at the Chief Minister Secretariat. The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Muhammad Saleem Khan, Principal Secretary to CM Shahab Ali Shah, Additional Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Khan Bangash, Secretary Higher Education and other high ranking officials.
The meeting was informed that a total of Rs 410 Million have been released and disbursed to colleges of the province for strengthening of the BS programme whereas scholarships worth Rs 18.18 Million will be awarded to talented and deserving students soon.
The meeting was further informed that 6 PHD scholarships, in top 100 universities of the world, worth Rs 169 Million have been provided during the past six months. The amount has already been disbursed to the approved international institutions. During the past 6 months, 99 graduates have been sent to three different universities in China to study Chinese as Foreign language.
While addressing the meeting, the Secretary HED informed that Rs 1 Crore have been generated through online admissions in the colleges of the province adding that in the next three months, the online admission system will be extended to BS level to further improve transparency and efficiency in the admissions processes. Furthermore, the online admission system has been extended to commerce colleges of the province whereas access to digital libraries have been provided to 104 Colleges in the province.
In the Archives and Libraries section, the Chief Minister was informed that 29,805 Micro Filmed records of Intelligence Bureau have been converted to Digital Image form in addition to shifting of obsolete records of historical importance from 8 departments.
As for the performance of Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA), legal action has been initiated against 44 Private Educational Institutions violating HERAs basic criteria whereas 67 unregistered institutions have been put on notice.
Similarly, chlorination of overhead water tanks have been completed in all the colleges of the province in addition to conducting awareness seminars on drug abuse, conducting of plantation drive, and renovation of washrooms in all the colleges of the province.
The Chief Minister was briefed in detail regarding the achievements of HED during the previous six months and the future policies and objectives of the department
