PHEC body for recommendations to strengthen BS programmes

LAHORE

The Evaluation Committee jointly constituted by Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and Higher Education Department (HED) will give its recommendations to strengthen BS programmes and will suggest expansion of this programme to the public sector colleges on the basis of available faculty, labs and other resources.

According to a press release, in a meeting, PHEC Chairperson Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin said PHEC was not in favour of the restoration of the old system of BA/BSc in place of BS (Hons). However, on the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee, Punjab HEC would suggest the HED provide funds and faculty in the relevant disciplines to the respective public sector colleges.

While discussing the issue of establishing new universities, Dr Nizamuddin said that a high-powered committee had already been constituted under the chairpersonship of Punjab Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Public Prosecution Rana Sana Ullah which would look into the possibility of establishing higher education institutions in the province according to the demography and geography of different areas.

He added PHEC had identified the districts where there was no public sector higher education institution. The committee would suggest establishment of new higher education institutions in those areas to promote higher education.

He said PHEC was planning to work in line with the vision of the chief minister to provide quality education to the youth of Punjab. He emphasised the need to focus on professional and skill-based education.

PEF: Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has planned to further modernise and update its IT-based systems according to the international standards by using state-of-the-art software. This IT-based support will be helpful in composite planning besides maintaining organisational transparency and efficiency. 

PEF MD Tariq Mahmood said this while chairing a weekly coordination meeting at his office on Thursday. Deputy managing directors, programme directors and other officials attended the meeting. The meeting held a detailed review of different educational targets and observed that PEF has been very helpful to the disfranchised segments of society by providing them free education through its partner schools. 

Tariq Mahmood asked the IT consultant to provide necessary guidance and support to the school partners in updating their students’ record in PEF server through the student information system (SIS). The meeting reviewed quality of different facilities including provision of clean drinking water and availability of hygienic toilets in partner schools.

It noted that conducive atmosphere is important in promoting self-confidence in the students. The meeting noted that PEF provides monthly grants to its partners in advance. PEF has already initiated the process of collection of textbooks for the academic year 2017-18 to provide the same to the students well in time. This year more than 7.1 million free textbooks have been provided to the partner schools.

Tariq Mahmood hoped that the training of school teachers and head teachers will ultimately benefit their students. 

We are committed that the students could access our partner schools without any difficulty; and for this purpose, free educational facilities are provided near to their localities.

This access to education will help to achieve Punjab government’s enrolment targets, he concluded.

Lecture: The central library of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore organised a lecture on “Engage, Enrich, Empower: New roles of university library in the age of digital information” here on Thursday.

According to a press release, Forman Christian College Chief Librarian and Associate Prof Ms Bushra Almas Jaswal delivered a lecture on the topic while Prof Dr Asim Aslam, Prof Dr Kamran Ashraf, Librarian Muhammad Aslam and a large number of postgraduate students and faculty members attended.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Bushra Almas Jaswal said to the library audience including the faculty & postgraduate students, about how to engage, enrich and empower the library readers with digital resources whereas the librarian had a key role in this regard. A reader should be connected with librarian for the retrieval of all required information.

Later, Prof Dr Kamran Ashraf chaired the concluding session of the lecture and presented souvenir to Ms Bushra Almas jaswal.