Daily Times

One of the main objectives of Higher Education is to produce new knowledge through teaching-learning and research which is useful for the market. After independence, education especially higher education remained our low priority like health and other public services. We have focused on the industrial, agricultural, and business revolution when the world was moving towards technological and human resource development. India was establishing IITs during the 1960s and we were focusing on the division of the population into various groups for further strong control over it. The result is a rare reflection of patriotism in our daily life, unfortunately, a major portion of people who needs the right direction was given the wrong path.

After all such ups and downs, an institutional change in the shape of the Higher Education Commission was established in 2002. The institution has performed well with the support of the Government and other stakeholders. It was all possible due to the integration of ICT in the classroom. Government policies for providing access to ICT services to all citizens have yielded results and PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) has recently announced that there 100 million Broadband users in Pakistan. The good or bad but we are becoming major consumers of ICT-based services and products. The government has introduced DigiSkills and National Freelance Training programs and both are equipping our youth with 21st Century Skills.

Against this backdrop, various interest groups are trying to destroy the momentum our major stakeholders of the Higher Education Sector have taken during the last two decades. They are against growth and development in society. For this, they start systematic campaigns to malign institutions and individuals on various non-evidence-based assumptions. The main objective seems to break the trust in Higher Education Sector and divert our youth from achieving their dreams through acquiring knowledge. These interest groups should be called as unrest groups which focus on developing a narrative for generalizing the specific nature of individual cases. Like if one University out of 230 Universities is not performing as per expectation should be generalized and the whole eco-system of higher education should be considered as a failure.

Various interest groups are against growth and development in society. Thus they wage systematic campaigns to malign institutions and individuals without evidence. The main objective seems to be to divert our youth from achieving their dreams through acquiring knowledge

Many faculty members who were unable to produce a single Ph.D. in their career become part of such unrest groups and get sympathizes of various social societies for developing a narrative which may divert and destroy the image of institutions and those individuals who have contributed a lot in their tenure. Unfortunately, reforms are forced from top to bottom whereas logical and rational is the ‘Bottom-up’ approach. The selective way of creating a need and then recommending a solution for various issues about higher education is no right way to do things. The sustainable approach requires the participation of stakeholders in the policy development process as well as in implementation. The complete life cycle of policymaking and implementation is not possible without the due participation of stakeholders. The people who are in unrest groups will mostly destroy such mechanisms and committees where such deliberation along with decision making is taking place.

Most students also become victim to the vicious agenda of unrest groups. The teaching and learning during Covid-19 have provided students an opportunity to remain online most of the time and virtually they started a campaign for online exams. Although, the reasons shared for it was not logical or acceptable but due to majority of the students wanted exams that way therefore Universities were compelled to adopt that mode of assessment. The right approach was to give different reading or review assignments to the Students in groups and as an individual during whole term or semester. The faculty members continued with the lecture method which is mostly recommended for face-to-face and is suitable for sharing new concepts. Online teaching-learning requires a different approach to engaging students at different intervals.

Some other unrest groups are comprising some non-state actors as well as few actors from well-known NGOs who develop a specific narrative for some institution or individual which are not buying their agenda. They try to engage actual stakeholders in the name of various capacity-building events and bombard them with theories and assumptions which are not valid if scientifically examined. They try to organize the private sector in Higher Education Sector for the purpose and establish their influence over them. This results in developing pressure groups for the Higher Education Sector.

To avoid such distractions in Higher Education Sector, the stakeholders are required to play their role professionally. As unrest groups work in a more organized manner therefore, we need to counter them by involving students, faculty members, and administrative staff in progressive activities. The student clubs i.e. dramatic, debate, adventure, etc may be established in all Universities with regular events on conducting debates on current affairs. The sports events and exhibitions can help in engaging students in positive activities. The workload for teachers as well as for administrative staff may be rationalized so that they may not become prey to the unrest groups.

The author is Dy. Director at Higher Education Commission (HEC) and can be reached through muneermirjat@gmail.com