The political elite of Pakistan always considers the 18th amendment as an achievement, as it provided much-needed provincial autonomy to provinces in the form of an increased share in the NFC (National Finance Commission Award). As a result of this amendment, several departments have been closed or being shifted to provinces. Although many departments suffered due to this legislation two departments suffered at large due to poor structural mechanisms at the provincial level, these two departments are health and education, which are considered the backbone of any modern-day economy. In the aftermath of this amendment, the provinces established their own higher education commissions. These provincial higher education commissions failed to deliver due to weak regulatory control and least availability of funds. On the other hand, with every passing day, the federal Higher Education Commission is reducing the budgetary allocations for provincial universities. This makes the situation worse for the public sector higher education institutes, as most of these higher education institutes are relying on the federal Higher Education Commission for financial support.
The education sector is considered to be the backbone of any nation, as it provides much-needed growth ideas and innovative techniques to enhance the process of economic growth. The higher education sector in Pakistan flourished a lot in the Musharaf era, when Dr Atta ur Rehman transformed the traditional UGC (University Grants Commission) into HEC, and gave many learning opportunities in the form of foreign-funded scholarships and monetary benefits to the teachers for academic research. Several questions can be raised on the performance and effects of these incentives on the universities, but one thing which should be accepted is that the policy target of promoting higher education is achieved in many ways.
The basic purpose of the 18th Amendment was to decentralize the governance system, but decentralization is useless without effective financial and administrative mechanisms.
Indeed, in the last couple of years the higher education sector, specifically the public sector has not been able to deliver at its best. One of the prime reasons behind this failure is the availability of funds and political interference from the government in the public sector universities. The basic purpose of the 18th Amendment was to decentralize the governance system, but decentralization without effective financial and administrative mechanisms is useless. This is the story of public sector higher education institutes after the 18th amendment, the federal government is not ready to give the much needed financial support to the universities, and on the other side, the provincial governments are trying their level best to get the effective regulatory control of the universities through provincial higher education departments and the provincial higher education commissions in the provinces are still struggling to define their role. Meanwhile, the teachers and students who are the basic stakeholders are being left to face the consequences.
It is true that around the globe higher education institutes run on their own, they get very little financial support from the government, but one must remember the fact that in most of these nations higher education is not subsidized and public sector universities are free to increase or decrease the fees as per their financial needs. Yes, there is some flaw on the university’s side too, as most of these universities are not able to run the administrative and financial affairs transparently, and failed to achieve the desired targets, but this flaw is two-sided the political involvement of government and the university affairs is not a hidden truth.
In light of the recent development, where the federal government is going to further reduce the budget of the higher education institutes, the future of this sector looks uncertain. The lack of political will and least interest in the education sector will haunt the socio-economic development paradigm of Pakistan in the upcoming years. The executive and regulatory authorities must remember the fact that it’s been seventy-six years and it looks like Pakistan is still in the learning face and experiments are being done regularly. The world is moving forward at a higher pace, the need of the hour is train the human capital and make them efficient, and for this higher education is the key.
The writer is a faculty member at the Institute of Economics, Policy and Entrepreneurship (IEPE), GC University Lahore and can be reached at [email protected]