ISLAMABAD: The issues of devolution of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and determining its powers and functions have not been resolved after the passage of the 18th Amendment.
The devolution of the federal HEC is the biggest issue facing the higher education sector in the country. The matter was considered by the Council of Common Interests (CCI). Subsequently, the CCI constituted a sub-committee, headed by Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal.
According to documents available with Daily Times, a second meeting of CCI sub-committee was held last week at the HEC Headquarters. It was presided over by Joint Education Advisor of Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Rafique Tahir.
The representatives of all four provincial governments and the HEC participated in the meeting.
Surprisingly, instead of reaching any conclusion, the sub-committee once again asked the provinces to give suggestions and clarify their stance over the matter.
After detailed deliberation and discussion in the meeting, it was decided to seek suggestions from the provinces on the matter for appropriate amendments to the Section 10 of HEC Ordinance 2002. The section addresses the powers and functions of the federal HEC. The provinces were also asked to suggest provincial HEC’s powers and functions.
According to available information, the provinces had earlier given similar suggestions.
Sources in the Federal Education Ministry said that the provincial governments had a very clear stance over the devolution of federal HEC. “They state that the provincial HECs have been established under the constitution,” sources said.
Earlier the Implementation Commission had also contended that the powers and functions of HEC should not be beyond the constitution. “Most of the powers are aimed at getting undue financial and administrative control over universities who were charted by the federation and provinces,” read the recommendations given by the Implementation Commission.
It further recommended that the main powers of HEC would include evaluation performance of universities and degree awarding institutes (DAIs), setting up of national and regional evolutional councils, setting up testing bodies or designating any existing body for the purpose, developing guide lines for evaluation of performance of faculty members and universities and DAIs.
Separate letters sent by the Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan to the federal secretary of Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination also clarified their stance.
In the letters, they said that as per CCI directives, after the 18th Amendment, the powers of federal HEC had been limited to determining the standards of higher education sector.
Furthermore, according the available documents, recently the Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC) also decided to revoke the federal representation in the province.
The federal representatives in all higher educational institutes will be replaced with the members of SHEC.
The SHEC also directed the educational institutions of the province not to participate in the pre-entry test for admissions in the universities announced by the HEC.
The SHEC already has representation in the statutory bodies, board of governors, syndicate, academic councils, finance and planning committees of the public and private sector universalities.
Published in Daily Times, October 16th 2017.