Neglecting higher education

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood told Senate that a uniform curriculum for Primary Education will come into force from the induction of academic session of 2021.

However, about the abnormal delay in the appointments of Vice Chancellors of a number of public sector universities in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa the minister informed the house that it the prerogative of provincial government.

The devolution of higher education under 18th Amendment has not only opened the flood gates of political interference in the appointmes of Vice Chancellors and faculty of public sector universities but also confronted these institutions with financial crisis to the extent of insolvency, making even the commercial banks reluctant to advance loans to them.

The oldest Almamater of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, the University of Peshawar has no funds to pay salaries to its faculty, other employees and pensions to retirees notwithstanding substantial increases in the tuition fee for BS, M Phil and PhD study programmes. The financial health of Agriculture University and Gomal University is also not an enviable one. Leader of the House in Senate Shibly Faraz told that the issue of dearth of funds in the University of Peshawar for the payment of salaries and pension has been brought to the notice of the Prime Minister.

It was purely a political decision to devolve the institutions of higher education to provinces which resulted in exorbitant cost of higher education, depriving the students from poor and middle class families of getting higher education besides pushing these institutions into the quagmire of financial crisis.