ICCI criticises devolving the HEC

[Ultra]

ICCI criticises devolving the HEC
Staff Reporter

Islamabad—Higher Education Commission( HEC) has played a key role in organizing the Higher Education Sector in Pakistan which has the lowest literacy rate in the region. HEC programs improved the working of Universities in Pakistan and also significantly increased the number of PhD’s in the country.

The decision of devolving the HEC to the provinces will be extremely damaging for Pakistan and will have a negative impact on the over all educational structure of the country and eventually lead it towards disaster in the education sector of the country. Mahfooz Elahi, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has said, reading on the poor decision of the Government. He said that government’s decision is not only disappointing, but also discouraging for the future growth of the country. The country in the current dismal economic scenario needs the highly qualified scientists, researchers and economist to drive the economy forward and the dissolution of HEC would stop that process and push Pakistan backwards, he added. President ICCI said that spending in education sector is very low as a result of which education level in the country is going down and this decision would further put a big dent on the fragile and weak education system. He was of the view that Pakistan must develop a big pool of PHD’s who could contribute in developing future roadmap and strategy for the economic uplift, but such adverse decision of the government would force the people to leave the country and use their potentials in other economies of the world. Before the establishment of HEC, number of PHD students was around 50 since 1947, but practical measures being undertaking by HEC for the improvement of higher education, this number has increased to 600, he added. He said that ICCI would arrange a conference of the researchers and chambers across the country against this brutal decision and urge that the government in the best interest of the nation should immediately withdraw the decision to protect the education sector from further damage. President ICCI lauded that British government has announced a substantial amount for the uplift of education in Pakistan but showed disappointment that on other hand our own government is taking negative measures to discourage researchers and scholars. ICCI President was of the view that devolution of HEC will reverse all the efforts and practical plans being taken for the improvement of educational set-up in Pakistan at par with international standard. He said that HEC was one of sectors of Pakistan that was growing. Thus, HEC status should not be changed because it has given spectacular results. Mahfooz Elahi urged should remain under the Federal Legislative list.

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry Chamber House, Aiwan-e-Sanat-o-Tijarat Road, Mauve Area, G-8/1, Islamabad, Pakistan.

 

[Ultra]

Politicised ministries, departments to take over HEC jobs

Umar Cheema
Monday, April 04, 2011

ISLAMABAD: As the government is about to declare the Higher Education Commission (HEC) dead and is preparing to bury it, the role assigned to HEC will be delegated to highly politicised departments known for their pathetic performance where only favouritism reigns supreme.

More importantly, no roadmap has been devised how to step into the shoes of the HEC dealing with academic matters of significant nature, especially when the departments being assigned this task have no experience of dealing with education.

A recent cabinet meeting has decided to pass on the HEC’s functions to the Cabinet Division, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said officials privy to the cabinet decision. The HEC is being dismembered at a time when neighbouring India is creating such a regulatory body.

The cabinet division, according to ill-devised scheme of things, will take care of the issues relating to the standard of education. Among them come the affairs relating to the equivalence of degrees, verification of degrees, standards of doctorate etc. Similarly the process of degree verification of lawmakers and public servants will now be handled by the cabinet division.

Likewise, the universities situated in Islamabad and its vicinity would be looked after by Islamabad Capital Territory for the first time in history. The schools and colleges in the federal area will come under the administrative control of the ICT. These decisions have been taken despite warnings by vice chancellors of universities who have been kept in the dark and their words of advice have fallen on deaf ears.

Foreign scholarships, another domain of HEC, will now be administered by the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination. The experts fear that handing over this grant issue to the ministry would increase undue political interference, and students with humble background would be deprived of opportunities.

Similarly, the issues relating to the welfare of students on scholarship abroad will be looked after by the foreign ministry, raising suspicions regarding the ministry’s performance in this respect, especially when it is notorious for not attending to the needs and problems of the expatriate Pakistani community. Ironically, the government has decided to dismember HEC under the guise of the devolution plan despite the fact that higher education is not included in the concurrent list.

The government’s decision in this respect is in sharp contrast with repeated calls for declaring an educational emergency. Instead of paying heed to this demand, a blind eye has been turned to the devolution and fragmentation of the only institution that has brought recognition to Pakistani academics.

In less than a decade, HEC established merit-based education system and set a standard of education, which for the first time in six decades, elevated at least three Pakistani universities to the league of world’s top 500 universities, said an expert.

It was for the first time in our history that less privileged were able to get access to funds and opportunities for higher education, an academician said. The research base of the country was strengthened and standards were established for hiring and promotion of university faculty, which further enhanced the standard of research and teaching in the country.

 

[Ultra]

PML-N asks govt to stop devolution of HEC

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday demanded the government to stop the devolution of Higher Education Commission (HEC) to provinces, saying that there was no such ‘constitutional compulsion’ in the 18th Amendment. “Devolution of the HEC to provinces will affect the future of thousands of PhD scholars and researchers who are presently studying and doing research work in the country and abroad,” PML-N Secretary Information Ahsan Iqbal said. Addressing a news conference at the party’s central secretariat, he said that the matter would be taken up in the upcoming session of the National Assembly in consultation with other political parties. He suggested to form a parliamentary committee to look into the matter of national importance and assured full cooperation of his party to resolve it. “The HEC can also be given under the Council of Common Interests (CCI) or a National Education Commission having representation from all the provinces can be set up,” he maintained. During the last eight to nine years, Ahsan Iqbal said, the HEC had produced quality manpower required in the industrial sector of the country, which was considered a backbone of the national economy. It provided the world class workforce to the industrial sector, bringing it at par with international standards, he added. “Today’s economy is knowledge driven and there is need to produce educated and skilled workforce matching the needs of industrial sector,” he said. app

 

[Ultra]

Altaf urges PM to withdraw decision about abolishing HEC

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has strongly urged upon Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to take back the decision to abolish the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as it will adversely affect the system of higher education in the country.

Altaf said the HEC is a very important institution and the hasty manner in which it is being dissolved is a cause of serious concern.

He said in other parts of the world there are separate ministries for the promotion of higher education and here in Pakistan instead of giving proper attention to the education sector we are abolishing a highly functional institution in a ruthless manner.

He said that the abolishing of the HEC would close the doors of higher education and vistas of acquiring modern scientific knowledge to the Pakistani students.

He strongly urged upon the federal government to take back the decision about abolishing the HEC and avoids wreaking havoc with the system of higher education in the country. staff report

 

[Ultra]

Saving HEC: Revolution needed against devolution

ISLAMABAD:

People from different walks of life on Wednesday continued to record their apprehensions and protests against the devolution of Higher Education Commission (HEC). The move, they said would destroy the decade-long investment in higher education.

The critics pointed out that there is no alternate institute to successfully handle higher education, which is crucial for national development in the long term.

Former education minister and Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said, “The 18th Amendment does not make it mandatory for the HEC to be devolved to the provinces.”

He pointed out that no alternate institution is present at the provincial level to take the place of the HEC, which has acquired tremendous experience in managing research and development projects in higher education sector.

Iqbal termed the devolution unwise, urging the government to review it in the larger interest of the country.

Professor Dr Attaur Rehman, who is the founding chairperson of the HEC, said the commission had performed well in the past eight years and it “must” not be devolved.

The HEC is the only central regulatory body that links education to national development projects, enabling universities to produce skilled manpower, he said.

Dr Rehman added, “Higher education is far more important than the nuclear progress as no war can be won without excelling in the education.”

The total university enrolments between 1947 and 2003 were 135,000, which increased to about 400,000 in the following five years from 2004 to 2008, Dr Rehman said. There were 59 universities and degree awarding institutes in 2001. By 2008, they had grown to 127.

HEC’s efforts helped University of Karachi achieve a world rank of 223 in some disciplines. Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) was ranked 270 in Natural Sciences and NUST was ranked at 350 in overall world university rankings, according to Times UK Higher Education Ranking, November 2009, he said.

Dr Masoom Yasinzai, Vice Chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University, said, “The HEC has been a true success story, producing more PhDs scholars in eight years, than there were in the last 56 years.”

He added that a recent grant of $300 million from the World Bank was issued because of HEC’s performance.

Provinces lack the capacity to handle higher education, he said, adding there is need of an organised and centralised body to independently develop and implement educational policies.

 

[Ultra]

What are your opinions about devolution of HEC??

 

[ice_man]

we are shooting ourselves in the foot! HEC is the future of this nation!! instead of devolving it we should make it strong! every effort should be made to make it a non corruptable organization with the highest standards in the country only second to PAEC (pakistan atomic energy commission)

 

[Al Bhatti]

Anger rises over changes in higher education in Pakistan

Academics and students hold protests in several cities in Pakistan over changes in higher education

Islamabad: Resentment is rising in Pakistani academic circles over a government decision to devolve functions of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to the provinces.

The decision was taken on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee handling the implementation of the 18th amendment to the constitution, passed by the parliament last year, under which a number of ministries have been transferred to provinces from the Centre.

University students and teachers reportedly held fresh protests in several cities on Wednesday against the move.

Pakistan's main opposition party urged the government to review the decision, saying "total chaos" would result by fragmentation of the key institution.

Vice-chancellors of public universities in the country and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences have strongly opposed the plan and underlined the important role HEC has played since its creation around eight years ago for promoting higher education.

Former federal minister for science and technology Dr Attaur Rehman, who had also served as HEC chairman, described the plan as a "disaster looming in front of us," in an article published on Tuesday.

Tear to shreds

Established in 2002 during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, HEC is credited with producing more than 3,200 PhD scholars — more than the total number of PhDs since Pakistan got its independence in 1947.

"What has been decided...is to tear higher education to shreds and hand over the pieces to the provinces," Dr Attaur Rehman wrote.

He said: "What has not been realised by our policy makers is that the process of socio-economic development takes place through central strategic planning, which is intimately connected to a country's higher education and science and technology programmes.

"The minimum quality requirements and the numbers of engineers, scientists, doctors, economists and social scientists needed for nation-building have to be determined through careful central planning regarding human resource requirements in various sectors. A multiplicity of standards and regulations would be disastrous. That is why the world over, including in India, higher education planning and funding is done centrally, even though universities are located in the provinces."

According to him, Pakistan made remarkable progress during 2001-2008 in higher education. There was a 600 per cent increase in scientific publications in international journals and a 1,000 per cent increase in citations in this period. Today, several of Pakistani universities are ranked among the top 500.

The University of Karachi was ranked at 223 in the world, NUST at 260 in the world and Quaid-i-Azam University at 270 in the world, in the field of natural sciences.

Silent revolution

"This is no ordinary achievement after decades of stagnation. The World Bank, USAID and the British Council published comprehensive reports on the higher education sector, applauding it and calling it "a silent revolution".

Pakistan won several prestigious international awards for the revolutionary changes in the higher education sector brought about by the Higher Education Commission. These include the TWAS (Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Italy) Award for Institutional Development in October 2009 and the Austrian high civil award "Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande" (2007), conferred on Dr Attaur Rehman as chairman of HEC.

The former HEC chief said he hoped the president, prime minister and the army chief would intervene to stop what he termed a "madness" before it was too late. "If ever there was a case for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motu action on, this is it," he stressed.

gulfnews : Anger rises over changes in higher education in Pakistan

 

[Ultra]

Can more people contribute opinions about this?

 

[BATMAN]

Who is dictating Zardari new methods to destroy Pakistan and its future????
This guy is sure evil but not so genius... got be some team work.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

HEC destruction is attack on Pakistan's future !!!!!


With out HEC , provinces will have different standard of education and there will be unjustice in educational funds and education !!!! This is attack on Pakistan's Unity !!!

 

[muse]

Maybe the CJP can be of assistance -- anyway, once the institutio is devolved, Pakistanis can expect to have several different, sometimes contradictory policies with regard to the quality of higher education And you can be sure that the HEC will not be asking for the degrees of any the so called MNA - that's what this is really about, Pakistani politicians, largely waderas who have bought a degree, have not taken kindly to having been shown to be frauds.

Anyway, some claim that there is democracy in Pakistan - maybe "democratic action" can help get the politicians back in their cage.

 

[VCheng]

The ship of the State is about to spring another leak to hasten the inevitable sinking.

 

[Hyde]

seriously there should be organized mandatory curse day for PPP each year on the day they devolve HEC.

They must be held responsible for the bleak future of Pakistan and must always be showered with shoes on its so-called "darbar" at garhi khuda bakhsh or wherever Sufi Zardari is buried.

I am boiled with anger after hearing this news

 

[lover_of_Ahlulbayt]

Those who hate Mushy.....this is a SLAP on your faces! This is because it was Mushy who created the HEC and helped fund it massively! So now that HEC is being killed, I hope you guys will realize just HOW BIG THE BLUNDER IT WAS FOR PAKISTAN WHEN MUSHARRAF RESIGNED!

HEC was among the 1000s of other GREAT deeds that Musharraf started and helped establish and flourish in his time!