Daily Times

Devoted her life for an educational empowerment of underprivileged children, Sidra Qaiser (30)–an academician wakes up early in the morning, packs students’ papers in bags and prepares breakfast for family before leaving for primary school at Pabbi Nowshera district.

Graduated from the University of Peshawar, the motivated educationist has opened her own school “Alsufa Model School” at village Khush Maqam in 2018 to support out-of-school children (OSC) established in memory of her mother-in-law who passed away of cardiac arrest.

“The idea of opening of own school was clicked in my mind after came to knew that over 4.7 million children were out-of- schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Today, I have more than 300 students including 100 OSC and teaching them gives her inner happiness,” she told APP. “Prior to opening of my own school, I applied many times for PST, CT and lecturer posts through different testing agencies but could not find a suitable job in education department due to tough competition,” she said

“I was suffering from depression after my applications were rejected due to lack of professional experience. However, my father and husband supported me to open my own school enabling to overcome the psychological problems besides fulfilling my dream of educating the poor segments of society.”

Like, Sidra Khan, thousands of graduates and post-graduates students were being confronted with unemployment in the province due to widening gap between curriculum of educational institutions and industries’ needs besides socioeconomic imbalances and poor investment in education sector despite population bulge growing with nearly two percent rate.

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) report has revealed that the rate of unemployment among universities’ graduates have increased by 10pc’ which exposed the outdated curriculum, poor investment on research and higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

More than 31% of educated youth were unemployed in Pakistan including KP, while women constitute 51% of the total unemployed population, which should be a matter of great concern for the newly elected governments. It said the unemployment rate for graduates in 2020-21 had increased to 16.1% as compared to 14.9% in 2018-19 while the unemployment rate for engineers and architects were doubled from 11% to 23.5% in two years in the country including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Likewise, the unemployment rate for computer science graduates had jumped from 14.2% to 22.6% and grew from 11.4% to 29.4% of agriculture science students in these two years.

Out of total 34 public sector universities in KP including 24 general and 10 specialized in engineering, technology, agriculture, medical, animal husbandry and management sciences for 40,856,097 population with 1,298,278 persons per university, seven public sector universities including UET Peshawar, Gomal University DI Khan, Agriculture University Peshawar, University of Science and Technology Bannu, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Peshawar and University of Shangla were facing financial crunch due to pension liabilities, depleting budgets’ balances and predominant expenditures, and that recovery of its financial health would be a big challenge for the Gandapor’s government.

The KP Universities 2021-24 Report has also disclosed that the initial balances of budgets of 34 public sector universities and HEI’s, which was Rs 6,560 million in 2021-22 has been decreased to Rs 5,316 million in 2022-23, and it was further slashed to Rs 4,740 million in 2023-24. During the last three-years, the provincial grant to public sector universities which was Rs 3,962 million in 2022-23 was slashed to Rs 3276.125 million during 2023-24 and only Rs 1231.897 million recorded during 2021-22.

The financial crisis in most public sector universities in KP has further deepened after nonpayment of the promised annual provincial grants of Rs 3,000 million, impacting negatively on the universities’ abilities to maintain infrastructure, support academic programs, research studies and ensure quality in education disciplines.

Moreover, University of Engineering and Applied Sciences Swat, University of Chitral, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology Haripur and Gomal University DI Khan had received no provincial grants during 2021-22.

Despite provision of Rs 20 billion grants to old universities in KP, the situation was still dismal and regular support of Higher Education Commission was required to stand the newly established universities on own feet in KP. It said despite reforms and interventions, KP’s universities saw only modest revenue growth of Rs 7 billion in 2021 and Rs 2 billion in 2022, thus falling short of the mandatory progressive targets.

Under the umbrella of the Prime Minister’s Youth Development Initiatives, as many as 15 programs were launched including ‘Teleschool Pakistan App, Google for Education and Digital Continuous Professional Development’ to revolutionise the formal education system in Pakistan.

The package includes 60,000 paid internships, technical and vocational trainings for 100,000 youth, distribution of 100,000 laptops, provision of 5,000 scholarships for the students of Balochistan and erstwhile tribal areas.

Around 1,000 PhD scholarships at top 100 universities in the United States and 75 scholarships at top 25 universities of the world, establishing 21 university campuses in remote districts and 250 sports complexes, are also part of the landmark package.

The package also envisages youth peace and development student councils in 80 universities, 75 leadership awards, 500 innovation grants worth Rs5-20 million each, grants for research, 12 Seerat chairs, seven centres of excellence and uplift of 20 poorest districts and its trickled down effects started visible in KP.