 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| Access to 19,356 journals |
|
|
|
Friday, May 16, 2008
"We have access to 19,356 journals," I heard it for the fifth time in a day and decided to pursue it further. I was visiting a recently established private university in Islamabad and the librarian was boasting of an impressive array of services and possessions. I had already heard of a similar number of journals from four different librarians.
"What do you mean? Which journals?"
"Science journals," the librarian said with considerable elation. "All of these resources are available to our students and faculty online."
"Can I see how you access them?"
"Sure," the librarian said, but did not move from his chair. Instead, he picked up his phone and called someone who was supposed to come and turn on the computer and show me how the online access to 19,356 journals worked. Minutes passed, as we waited for the man to show up from another floor of the building; the librarian had no computer skills and the five computers in the library looked more like showpieces than tools one could use to access online journals.
"This is all thanks to Higher Education Commission," the librarian filled the silence, "HEC has provided us access to these journals."
That was the key; I had heard the same line before during my visits to institutions of higher education in Islamabad.
A young man eventually showed up, gingerly turned on one of the five computers and we saw the portal from which the extraordinary number of journals was to be accessed, but just at that moment, power went off. It was one of those non-scheduled load-sheddings which are now so frequent that no one even complains anymore.
"Sorry, sir," the young man said, "when the power comes back, I will show you on another computer as this one may have crashed as a result of the unexpected power outage."
The power never returned in time for us to see the wonders of online access to 19,356 journals, but I had already received a glimpse of the lopsidedness of this much touted access to international publications. In a country where the most basic conditions for the existence of institutions of higher education are non-existent, an advance research tool like online access for everyone to such a large number of international journals must have been made possible only by diverting large sums to money from the much needed investment in basic infrastructure.
The fabulous and grandiose has been made possible during the last nine years in which Gen Musharraf's architect of higher education and science has restructured science and education in Pakistan. Appointed chairman of the Higher Education Commission by Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2002, he claims to have set up a "revolutionary programme" of reforms. Indeed, if one were to go by the claims made by HEC since 2002, Pakistan must now stand at the apex of science in the world. "Not a day passes without the announcement of some big achievement," as Pervez Hoodbhoy had noted a few months ago, "[of] a new university, college, equipment, training programmes, awards and seminars."
The enormous resources doled out to HEC by the General and various international donors is, indeed, an unprecedented event in Pakistan. During the first three years of the establishment of HEC, money available for higher education in Pakistan was increased 12-fold, and it was further increased from 9.1 billion to 11.7 billion rupees in June 2005. Since then, it has been increased by 10 per cent. "These fabulous sums pouring into higher education have created the all too familiar behaviour of the newly wealthy," Hoodbhoy had noted in 2005, "HEC has paid for a massive publicity blitz, with huge newspaper advertisements and coloured multi-page supplements, devoted to breathless self-promotion of HEC, its leadership and its projects."
Until the appearance of HEC, Pakistan's science and higher education sector was defined by adjectives like under-funded, under-staffed, unmotivated, and "goalless." For instance, PCSIR, one of the most important scientific research institution of the country, operates on a budget of approximately Rs260 million. Out of this amount, Rs190 million is spent on salaries and the remaining Rs70 million goes for electricity bills, maintenance, travel and medical treatment costs of serving and retired employees. This leaves nothing for research. State universities are no different.
Today, almost 40% of all science- and higher-education-related projects in Pakistan are directly or indirectly related (and beholden) to HEC. "But looking at the projects on the HEC website produces disturbing proof of gross administrative incompetence, carelessness, wastage on an unprecedented scale, and a culture of sycophancy," Hoodbhoy lamented three years ago. "Projects that bear no relation to meaningful improvements of science or education in the country are being approved in desperate haste."
The recent history of science and higher education in Pakistan is, however, not only the story of fabulous sums being wasted on fanciful or irrelevant projects; it is a story of a far more dangerous and long-term impact on the very structure of science and education. These structural changes need careful re-examination by the new government. In fact, what has happened to institutions of science and higher education in Pakistan during 2002-08 is no different from what has happened to other institutions; in both cases, one man's will, ambitions, fancies, and goals have defined the fate of institutions. It is not surprising or accidental; the General's long reign has been marked by an unprecedented destruction of institutions, and science and higher education are no exception.
The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
