Upgrade of colleges upsets teachers

LAHORE:A large number of college teachers have expressed concern over the up gradation of boys and girls colleges, Murree into Kohsar University, Murree and have demanded the government revise its policy of upgrading colleges into universities.

The teachers took to social media and criticised the government for the move and termed it a bid to disturb college education in Punjab. They observed that the teachers were not against the establishment of new universities, as the same was need of the hour, but setting up universities by upgrading existing colleges was not a good idea as the same led to problems for the college cadre teachers and other staff while it also resulted in increased fee for poor students. A college teacher Dr Riaz Mahboob, in a social media post, alleged that the move would create room for private sector colleges to thrive.

Another college teacher, seeking anonymity, said GCU Lahore and LCWU which were upgraded into universities from colleges were prime examples in this regard as fee structure of these universities for Intermediate and Degree programmes was higher than public colleges.

However, when contacted a senior official of the Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab said that in most of the cases it was a practice to upgrade existing colleges into universities where Intermediate classes were also offered and there was no harm in this. The official said there was no issues vis-à-vis service structure of college cadre teachers serving in the universities.