Daily Times

KARACHI: The state-run colleges endure from a crucial stage because of government schools’ system which has collapsed in Sindh due to the vague policy of the Sindh’s College Education Department, Daily Times has learnt.

In September 2016, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had announced the bifurcation of provincial Education and Literacy Department (ELD) into Schools Education Department (SED) and College Education Department (CED) after declaring education emergency in the province.

However, no substantial upwards outcomes are being witnessed in the past one year even after the departmental bifurcation. “The CED lacks apparent administrative policy which has resulted that government colleges are as well bore upon after the state-run schools, said Professor Dr Vikram Kumar, Patron-in-Chief of Lecturers and Professors Forum Pakistan, colleges are not functioning up to the mark and because of this existed situation popularity of private schools and colleges ever-increasing while the number of students admitted to private colleges is also growing rapidly.

The available record of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi reveals that at least half a million students appears for examination every year in which 70 percent of the candidates integrate of privately managed schools and colleges. The rest of the students who are only 30 percent attend their examination from government schools.

Contrary to this situation, it has learnt from the statistics of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) that some three years ago around two million candidates used to attempt their question papers at the inter-level. Almost 85percent of them were belonging to government colleges because of the good reputation.

Similarly, the remaining fifteen percent students were from privately-run colleges included DHA’s colleges, Navy operated college, affiliated colleges of the AGA Khan Education Service Pakistan and other colleges which functioning under private trusts and organizations.

This year, facts indicated something different, the students’ ratio who attended inter level examination has been proportioned 75 to 25 percent. “Expectedly, new entries for the intermediate examination are estimated 30 percent from private colleges”, said Professor Ghulam Umar Mirani, senior faculty member of the Government College of Education Federal B Area Karachi.

He added that domination of the private educational institutes could be easily predicted by the BSEK’s result because BSEK’s result has not been announced but private colleges are being offered admissions to the students before the result. Even these colleges have started preadmission classes and convincing the result awaited students for admission in their respectively colleges.

Apart from this, these private colleges offer scholarships for underprivileged students and also have discounted fee structure especially for those students who have secured grade A to attract their colleges.

In this situation, the Central Admission Policy (CAP) which starts soon after the matriculation results and continues for the first week of October, wastes three months of the academic year. The students either turn towards coaching centers or getting admissions in private colleges which begins classes from July 1 each year.

“Alongside this, lack of facilities and absence of teachers in government colleges also affected performance of these institutions”, Mirani pointed out that there are many reasons involved in the sorry state of government educational institutes included recruitment process of educational officers and faculty members, four- tiered formula for the rapid promotion which not being awarded, interruption of the outsiders and disappointed teachers are such issues due to which dragged the government colleges on the foot step of state-run schools.

Published in Daily Times, August 7^th 2017.