Education sector: Governance deficit, institutional deterioration resented

Islamabad: Resenting unchecked governance deficit and institutional deterioration in the education sector, especially higher education, senior academics and experts have feared that failure to address these issues will be detrimental to the future of the country.

The fear was expressed during the annual meeting of the National Academic Council of Institute of Policy Studies here.

The speakers raised various governance-related issues prevailing in the country, maintaining that the government’s machinery depends heavily on bureaucracy and hence it was important for the latter to play their part positively. They also suggested revisiting the colonial structure of the bureaucracy and reforming it according to the contemporary best practices. They believed that the country’s situation cannot improve unless the bureaucracy begins to understand and play its role diligently.

Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat, vice chancellor, University of Sindh, highlighted the deteriorating condition of government educational institutions, especially universities, due to lack of resources and political appointments creating overemployment over the years.

Speaking about the importance of strengthening government institutions and allowing them to work as per their mandate without any interference, he revealed that political intervention in universities after the 18th constitutional amendment has increased manifold and was affecting their autonomy and academic standard considerably.

Prof Dr Anwar-ul-Hassan Gilani, vice chancellor, University of Haripur, pointed out that a good education system should be aimed at instilling confidence and creativity in students and shaping their character. However, he said the current system was missing out on this critical part comprehensively.

Dr Noreen Saher of International Islamic University, Islamabad, said curriculum designing the world over revolved around three important features; information, skills and attitude building. In Pakistan, however, the focus was primarily on the informational aspect, ignoring the skills and attitude building part almost in its entirety.

The result of this approach, according to her, was a lot well versed in information but lacking the skills as well as the attitude to excel professionally. Fasih Uddin, former chief economist of Pakistan, laid a lot of stress on science and technological education, calling it the need of the hour, especially in the wake of challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Dr Adnan Sarwar Khan, former dean of social sciences, University of Peshawar, was wary of over-dependence of students on technology which, according to him, could deteriorate their thinking and self-learning capacity, and hence he suggested adopting a balanced approach.

Dr Anis Ahmad, vice chancellor, Riphah International University, called for forging a proactive instead of a reactive mindset when it comes to research and academic endeavours. He stressed that our beliefs and culture had their own set of positives and strengths, and hence one should encourage local scholarship that is pursuing any discourse with an indigenous approach.