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PTI to reform higher education, says minister

By Our Correspondent
October 21, 2018

LAHORE : Higher Education Minister Raja Yasir Humayun has said the PTI government in Punjab immediately undertook the task of identifying the deficiencies and constraints in achieving satisfactory outcome in the higher education sector.

He stated this while addressing a press conference about the education policy and 100-day plan of the government.

The minister said, “Our findings so far has led us to believe that there are still issues of access, quality, governance, curriculum and standardisation in the higher education sector of Punjab.” Taking these issues as a challenge, the Punjab Higher Education Department would be ready till mid November 2018 to present a blueprint of strategic short, medium and long-term commitments under the prime minister’s 100-day plan to transform the higher education sector of the province.

He said Higher Education Department had been run through sporadic policy interjections since 2008. He said there was no well thought-out policy document which could have provided a direction for the future.

He said, “We have started consultation and debate with all the stakeholders to formulate a holistic document of higher education policy for Punjab. We had decided to establish world-class universities one each in nine division of the province. In this regard, we would upgrade the existing universities and also establish three new universities in the province over the next five years, one each in northern, central and southern parts of Punjab.” The minister said all the higher education institutions or colleges in a particular division would be affiliated with their respective divisional university for better oversight of the institutes by their university. The government would also establish three model colleges in the province which would serve as benchmarks for all the affiliated colleges, he said. “We are planning to create partnership and establish linkages with the international universities and researchers to meet the international benchmarks of research quality and faculty development. For the purpose, we would establish a higher education management and research training centre in Lahore.”

He said the government had also planned to launch a pilot project to conduct an international level assessment test for uniform evaluation of the college and universities graduates of the province. “We want to gradually shift to the relative grading system and abolish the absolute marking system to make the evaluation system more equitable”, he said. He announced start of a sports league among all the public and private universities of Punjab.

pesticides: There is a need to build and enhance capacity to understand the safe use of pesticides with focus on safety, hygiene, health and handling practices. This was stated by Fatima Benish Sahi, additional secretary of task force on agriculture, while addressing a training workshop organised by Agriculture Department on “Safe Use of Pesticides” here on Saturday. The event was attended by Dr Asif Khan, horticulture specialist, Kashif Jamshaid, project coordinator, Establishment of Model Farm Project, Dr Waqar, director, Pakistan Agriculture Technology Transfer Activity (PATTA) agriculture technology and Charles Bruce Williams, PATTA international expert.