New degree programme to close college doors to poor

Islamabad: A sharp fee hike after the replacement of the conventional BA/BSc programme with the modern Associate Degree course in Islamabad have worries running deep of a decline in college enrolments.

The teachers insist that since many graduation students belong to poor families, there’s a high likelihood of the unaffordable new degree programme closing the college doors to youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The two-year Associate Degree programme (ADP) comprising four semesters will replace the annual academic evaluation-based BA/BSc/B.Com programme in the next academic session slated to begin on September 23 as ordered by the regulator for higher education, HEC, which claims the initiative is meant to help prepare professionals in disciplines of immediate application and relevance to the market.

As the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which oversees government colleges in Islamabad, hasn’t issued any directions on ADP fee structure, the colleges will charge students the fee of the four-year semester-based BS degree programme launched last year.

The HEC has no role in fee fixation.

The annual fee of BA/BSc/B.Com programme, which stands closed now, totalled Rs10,000-Rs12,000 but the ADP will cost students Rs24,500-27,500 in the first semester and a little less than that in the next semesters.

Ironically, Punjab’s government colleges charge graduation students far less fee than what Islamabad’s youth are to pay. Rawalpindi’s major educational institution, Gordon College, has fixed Rs6,000 as the fee for BS programme’s first semester and around Rs4,000 for the subsequent semesters. The semester-based course’s fee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s public sector colleges is even lower than that.

Besides hiking up fee, the new degree programme has also shut doors to hundreds willing to do graduation as private candidates out by restricting the course to regular students.

The substantial fee difference between the old and new degree programmes have troubled poor parents, who resent the escalating education costs.

Munir Hussain, a low-grade government employee, said public sector colleges were the only means for poor and middle-class people to educate their children but the costly ADP seemed to have taken that, too, away.

“The Constitution binds the state to ensure the people’s easy access to free education but it seems that the authorities have not only dispensed with that responsibility but they have also facilitated education costs to surge beyond the people’s reach.

“I can’t afford to send my children to college when money is already tight,” he said. Abdul Jalil, a small time trader, said the expensive new degree course had rendered college education out of reach for the poor people.

“My daughter with an FSc degree had planned to enrol in a degree course but the introduction of the unaffordable Associate Degree programme in government colleges has shattered her plans. Now, she’s left with no choice but to forget about graduation,” he said.

Though welcome to the replacement of the BA/BSc programme with ADP for the better future of students, the teachers fear that higher fee would lead to lower college enrolments in the current times of middle-class squeeze.

They push those at the helm, especially Premier Imran Khan, to step in without delay to ensure the provision of quality college education to youth at an affordable cost and fear if that doesn’t happen, the university admissions are bound to decline big time dealing a blow to youth learning and employment initiatives.

A senior teacher of the H-8 Islamabad Model Postgraduate College told ‘The News’ that it seemed that the college education had been forbidden for the common man in Islamabad.

“This Associate Degree programme is so expensive that scores of poor students will be shut out from government colleges. I know so many poor and middle-class parents, who are really disturbed as it has become very hard for them to afford the children’s college education,” he said.

A professor of the G-6/3 Islamabad College for Boys claimed that the FDE bosses had formally apprised the education ministry about the ‘impending college enrolment crisis’ at the request of some principals and sought intervention for ADP fee reduction but to no avail.

He said the QAU didn’t allow private candidates to sit degree programme exams, while the HEC was ‘least bothered’ about it.