Daily Times

Recently, a huge hype was detected in the higher education department on the issue of low admissions in the public sector colleges from Associate to Graduate levels in comparison to the private sector college which have been reported to enrol long lists of students.

The efforts of HED are laudable but while fixing unrealistic targets without consideration of the local ground realities, especially in South Punjab has only caused anxiety and fear among the faculty and the principals of the colleges as they have been threatened with punitive measures if they would fail to achieve the specified target.

Even after all measures taken by the administration admissions remained as low as possible which goes to show that many other ground realities are there which must be addressed and gradually it can be expected that the admission ratio would catch up with an upward trend. Mere orders and threats cannot achieve anything other than frustration and encouragement on the private colleges.

The public sector colleges are deficient at the levels of classrooms, faculty, and the equipment. The public sector colleges have mostly obsolete laboratories and are without necessary requisite tools. The public sector college are not in a position to attract admissions like the private ones in the absence of requisites. Most of the classrooms do not have adequate furniture what to talk of comfortable work chairs and cushioned seats provided in the private sector.

Mere orders and threats cannot achieve anything other than frustration and encouragement on the private colleges.

The faculty is either inadequate or is superfluous which needs to be rationally adjusted. In this age of artificial intelligence, public sector colleges are ill equipped. The classrooms do not have multimedia installed or internet services provided for the classroom. And even if internet services are there, the students do not have access to any computer systems to work on them or access any national or international library of good repute.

The faculty in the class also do not afford opportunities to the learners for practical learning skills. In such an environment, the high aiming individual cannot be attracted even if the college teachers visit to and request them to join. In this age of digital technology, the learners do not want to take up the traditional BS programs in the science or arts subject because even if they do, they remain unemployed, and market does not need them.

The proof is rapidly declining number of admissions in such courses from 100s to 10s now. The young man of today wants to develop his capacity for earning money after he has earned his degree and wants to equip himself with the skill which may help him in securing job for him.

The proof in point is the rising number of admissions in the subjects like, BS IT, CS, Commerce, and English. If the government really wants to appropriate its resources in the right direction, all such obsolete discipline may be shut down and money saved may be invested in the disciplines, like, agriculture, engineering, IT, and CS related disciplines to develop a product which is fit in the market and can thereby become and employed individual.

If at all, these traditional disciplines are to be maintained, a few institutions may be focused in every town to create a concentration of applicants instead of launching and obstinately maintaining it in every institution. The necessary disciplines and their education and training may be provided at the doorsteps of the students.

Along with above measures the government must take a few practical steps to balance the ratio of admission between the rivalling institutions.

Firstly, the HED must announce a date of admission which must be equal for all public and private universities and colleges. Only on the specified date the admission may be opened for all the HED supervised institutions.

Secondly, the migration of the students from south to north for greener passages must be discouraged to create a balance between the applicants and the available seats for admissions.

Thirdly, all government employees must get all their children admitted in the public sector institutions and there must be a complete ban for all government employees to send their children to private institutions and the violator must be penalized accordingly.

To regulate the teaching process effectively, the government has to take action against the private and unregistered academies and the faculty of the public sector institution must be totally banned to ensure their presence and time for their students at the colleges. Besides, like any other good institutions, electronically supervised attendance and stay at college during the specified office hours system may be provided, installed and imposed upon the institutions.

The government must also allow the teachers to teach in the evening and bag their share of income from these classes as is permitted to the public sector doctors in the public sector hospitals. The principals of these colleges must be fully authorized to fulfill the deficiency of their teachers as and when needed as per SOPs fixed by the government. It would not be out of place to recommend that classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and offices must also be provided state of the art technology which would bring efficiency and reduction of expenditures.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee