100% increase in spending on education in KPK

[ghazi52]

100% increase in spending on education in KP
* Budget utilisation stayed at 104 percent in 2013-14, 103 percent in 2014-15 and 111 percent in 2015-16

PESHAWAR: With over hundred per cent increase in the spending on Higher Education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) the present government is determined to promote higher education and research in the province.

A report of Higher Education Commission (HEC) stated that the budget allocation for four years stands at Rs 22.80254 billion whereas previously, the budget allocation for the initial four years was Rs 10.347652 billion.

The official report stated that the budget utilization remained 104 per cent in 2013-14, 103 per cent in 2014-15 and 111 per cent in 2015-16. Similarly, promoting higher education in the province the Provincial Government has upgraded Havelian Campus to full fledge Hazara University whereas provisions have been made in the ADP 2016-17 to upgrade Chitral and Buner campuses to full fledge universities.

Moreover, the promotion of gender specific education, two colleges for home economics have been established in the Nowshera and Abbottabad and Women University has been established in Swabi and the establishment of another approved for Mardan.

In order to promote Research in Universities of KP, 199 M.Phill and 120 PhD students were provided financial assistance under the faculty development programme during the past three years, the report reads.

It is also pertinent to mention here that the current government has initiated BS programmes in various colleges for which Rs 424 million have been spent in recruiting teachers. Additionally, Rs 200 million have been released in the ADP 2015-16 for the same purpose.

Furthermore, 39 new colleges have been established in the province whereas 41 colleges are currently under construction. These colleges have been constructed after conducting feasibility studies ensuring uniform access to higher education in the province.

The report also claimed that Rs 81 million have been spent during the last three years for In-Service and Pre-Service training of teachers and more than 835 teachers have been trained by the Higher Education Teachers Training Academy (HETTA).

As part of bringing teaching methods in line with modern requirements, the government has established eight digital laboratories and three are included in the 2016-17 ADP.

According to report, the digital laboratories will help students to perform experiments using computer software. It will help them to identify the ratio of chemicals needed in various experiments.

An official of HEC claimed that the software will not only help students in avoiding mistakes generally committed during experimentation but will also help them in saving revenue by cutting down the use of live chemicals.

The ADP for 2016-17 also includes establishment of digital libraries which will help students in accessing books, latest learning material and libraries throughout the world.

The libraries will be established with the support of Higher Education Commission who has access to renowned libraries throughout the world. The facility will be extended to three Government colleges in the Province.

Additionally, three public libraries have been established in Kohat, Lakki Marwat and Chitral whereas work on libraries in Manshera, Charsadda, Buner and Ghazi is in progress. Around Rs 125 million have been provided for development of Public Libraries and Archives and Rs 30 million have been allocated for Scanning, Digitalization and Computerization of Public Libraries.

Talking to Daily Times Advisor to Chief Minister for Higher Education, Archives, Libraries, information & Public Relations Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani claimed that Rs 200 million have been spent on renovation of 132 colleges whereas Rs 87 million have been provided to 14 different colleges for providing clean water supply and construction of boundary walls.

He said that the promotion of higher education in the province has taken the center stage at the priority of PTI priority landscape. Moreover, Rs 670 million has been released to various colleges for purchase of computers, furniture, lab equipment and books for libraries.

 

[Joe Shearer]

100% increase in spending on education in KP
* Budget utilisation stayed at 104 percent in 2013-14, 103 percent in 2014-15 and 111 percent in 2015-16


PESHAWAR: With over hundred per cent increase in the spending on Higher Education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) the present government is determined to promote higher education and research in the province.

A report of Higher Education Commission (HEC) stated that the budget allocation for four years stands at Rs 22.80254 billion whereas previously, the budget allocation for the initial four years was Rs 10.347652 billion.

The official report stated that the budget utilization remained 104 per cent in 2013-14, 103 per cent in 2014-15 and 111 per cent in 2015-16. Similarly, promoting higher education in the province the Provincial Government has upgraded Havelian Campus to full fledge Hazara University whereas provisions have been made in the ADP 2016-17 to upgrade Chitral and Buner campuses to full fledge universities.

Moreover, the promotion of gender specific education, two colleges for home economics have been established in the Nowshera and Abbottabad and Women University has been established in Swabi and the establishment of another approved for Mardan.

In order to promote Research in Universities of KP, 199 M.Phill and 120 PhD students were provided financial assistance under the faculty development programme during the past three years, the report reads.

It is also pertinent to mention here that the current government has initiated BS programmes in various colleges for which Rs 424 million have been spent in recruiting teachers. Additionally, Rs 200 million have been released in the ADP 2015-16 for the same purpose.

Furthermore, 39 new colleges have been established in the province whereas 41 colleges are currently under construction. These colleges have been constructed after conducting feasibility studies ensuring uniform access to higher education in the province.

The report also claimed that Rs 81 million have been spent during the last three years for In-Service and Pre-Service training of teachers and more than 835 teachers have been trained by the Higher Education Teachers Training Academy (HETTA).

As part of bringing teaching methods in line with modern requirements, the government has established eight digital laboratories and three are included in the 2016-17 ADP.

According to report, the digital laboratories will help students to perform experiments using computer software. It will help them to identify the ratio of chemicals needed in various experiments.

An official of HEC claimed that the software will not only help students in avoiding mistakes generally committed during experimentation but will also help them in saving revenue by cutting down the use of live chemicals.

The ADP for 2016-17 also includes establishment of digital libraries which will help students in accessing books, latest learning material and libraries throughout the world.

The libraries will be established with the support of Higher Education Commission who has access to renowned libraries throughout the world. The facility will be extended to three Government colleges in the Province.

Additionally, three public libraries have been established in Kohat, Lakki Marwat and Chitral whereas work on libraries in Manshera, Charsadda, Buner and Ghazi is in progress. Around Rs 125 million have been provided for development of Public Libraries and Archives and Rs 30 million have been allocated for Scanning, Digitalization and Computerization of Public Libraries.

Talking to Daily Times Advisor to Chief Minister for Higher Education, Archives, Libraries, information & Public Relations Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani claimed that Rs 200 million have been spent on renovation of 132 colleges whereas Rs 87 million have been provided to 14 different colleges for providing clean water supply and construction of boundary walls.

He said that the promotion of higher education in the province has taken the center stage at the priority of PTI priority landscape. Moreover, Rs 670 million has been released to various colleges for purchase of computers, furniture, lab equipment and books for libraries.

Sad to see that they are falling into the same trap as other south Asian authorities dealing with education.

 

[maxpayne]

Sad to see that they are falling into the same trap as other south Asian authorities dealing with education.

Could not understand u. They are performing good in education imo. Please elaborate

 

[Joe Shearer]

Could not understand u. They are performing good in education imo. Please elaborate

I'm just coming out of four years spent in higher education, spent in increasing horror and discomfort. Our educational systems are broken, and we don't seem to realise it.

First, we DO NOT need more universities, more engineering colleges, or more medical colleges.

1. Any number of these can be set up, and they will only produce the most incompetent engineers and doctors, not to speak of ordinary college graduates. That is largely because to teach these professional courses we need high-grade very competent teachers, who are falling behind daily in the rat race, with everyone else getting better salaries than them. So, no high-grade teachers, no high-grade pupils.
2. In any case, the intake of students itself is tainted. Students either enter on the basis of totally unreliable school leaving certificates, where marks are awarded under compulsion, in order to preserve the good reputation and standing of that particular school examination board; or students enter through a common entrance examination, either one within a state, or one within a group of professional training institutions. For instance, for the MBA, in India, there are several common tests, and students are usually evaluated for admission based on their performance in any one or a combination of these. The tests are such poor discriminants of merit that the intake, except in the higher category of IIMs, for instance, the top six or seven, is terrible; the rest are practically not teachable, not in groups of thirty or forty. Only ten or fifteen of such a group is capable of learning, and the rest are just roughage; young people who enter with enormous sacrifice and are let down by the system.
3. The third and a very major problem is the quality of the curriculum and the utility of it in the workplace. Very briefly, almost all employers have to spend major time re-training their new recruits straight out of college, engineering school or medical or dental school, or any other specialisation, before getting any productive work out of them. They also have to indoctrinate them, painfully slowly, into the discipline of office life, and of office practices in writing, reading, communicating, storage of information, access to and use of information, all together. The colleges and institutions do a miserable job of teaching these skills, very largely because the teachers themselves are not competent in these skills.

Second, we do need strong secondary education, MUCH MORE than we need tertiary (college or professional course) institutions. It is here that the student is formed and equipped for further studies, and it is here that the biggest disasters in education, an annual wrecking of the minds and intellects of some millions of students, takes place throughout the sub-continent every year. Examinations for passing Class 12 are deliberately slackened in standard, so that no one has to repeat an examination; such students are considered drags on the system, and it is considered to be preferable to chase them out as soon as possible. Examinations for Class 10 have actually disappeared. Anybody can get access to the subsequent two years in Class 11 and Class 12; it is now a right, a matter of entitlement.

Third, the base of the pyramid is the shakiest. Primary education is perhaps even more rotten than either of the two stages further on. I despair when I think of this sector.

Fourth, in terms of age, in India, around 13 million - 1 crore and 30 lakhs - of young people come into the job market every year. Of these, around 500,000 get proper jobs with some opportunity to save money, put away provident fund and dream of buying personal transport, even if it is a bicycle, and accommodation, even if it is a one bedroom house in a shabby housing complex. Another group, ten times this size, serve in lower end restaurants and dhabas, assist in shops of all kinds, from textile to shoes to household goods to brown goods to white goods to durables.....or to assist a van driver in loading and unloading a van. There are construction labourers, workers on road building and civil works, specialist masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, plumbers, electricians, specialists in polishing and floor preparation, everybody whom we take for granted but without noticing them during the working day.

The balance 8 million - 80 lakhs - do not get jobs.

I believe that if they are taught certain skills they may be able to set up small enterprises of their own, not becoming millionaires, but at least able to stand up on their own.

It is for these reasons that I wrote what I did.

 

[salarsikander]

I'm just coming out of four years spent in higher education, spent in increasing horror and discomfort. Our educational systems are broken, and we don't seem to realise it.

First, we DO NOT need more universities, more engineering colleges, or more medical colleges.

1. Any number of these can be set up, and they will only produce the most incompetent engineers and doctors, not to speak of ordinary college graduates. That is largely because to teach these professional courses we need high-grade very competent teachers, who are falling behind daily in the rat race, with everyone else getting better salaries than them. So, no high-grade teachers, no high-grade pupils.
2. In any case, the intake of students itself is tainted. Students either enter on the basis of totally unreliable school leaving certificates, where marks are awarded under compulsion, in order to preserve the good reputation and standing of that particular school examination board; or students enter through a common entrance examination, either one within a state, or one within a group of professional training institutions. For instance, for the MBA, in India, there are several common tests, and students are usually evaluated for admission based on their performance in any one or a combination of these. The tests are such poor discriminants of merit that the intake, except in the higher category of IIMs, for instance, the top six or seven, is terrible; the rest are practically not teachable, not in groups of thirty or forty. Only ten or fifteen of such a group is capable of learning, and the rest are just roughage; young people who enter with enormous sacrifice and are let down by the system.
3. The third and a very major problem is the quality of the curriculum and the utility of it in the workplace. Very briefly, almost all employers have to spend major time re-training their new recruits straight out of college, engineering school or medical or dental school, or any other specialisation, before getting any productive work out of them. They also have to indoctrinate them, painfully slowly, into the discipline of office life, and of office practices in writing, reading, communicating, storage of information, access to and use of information, all together. The colleges and institutions do a miserable job of teaching these skills, very largely because the teachers themselves are not competent in these skills.

Second, we do need strong secondary education, MUCH MORE than we need tertiary (college or professional course) institutions. It is here that the student is formed and equipped for further studies, and it is here that the biggest disasters in education, an annual wrecking of the minds and intellects of some millions of students, takes place throughout the sub-continent every year. Examinations for passing Class 12 are deliberately slackened in standard, so that no one has to repeat an examination; such students are considered drags on the system, and it is considered to be preferable to chase them out as soon as possible. Examinations for Class 10 have actually disappeared. Anybody can get access to the subsequent two years in Class 11 and Class 12; it is now a right, a matter of entitlement.

Third, the base of the pyramid is the shakiest. Primary education is perhaps even more rotten than either of the two stages further on. I despair when I think of this sector.

Fourth, in terms of age, in India, around 13 million - 1 crore and 30 lakhs - of young people come into the job market every year. Of these, around 500,000 get proper jobs with some opportunity to save money, put away provident fund and dream of buying personal transport, even if it is a bicycle, and accommodation, even if it is a one bedroom house in a shabby housing complex. Another group, ten times this size, serve in lower end restaurants and dhabas, assist in shops of all kinds, from textile to shoes to household goods to brown goods to white goods to durables.....or to assist a van driver in loading and unloading a van. There are construction labourers, workers on road building and civil works, specialist masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, plumbers, electricians, specialists in polishing and floor preparation, everybody whom we take for granted but without noticing them during the working day.

The balance 8 million - 80 lakhs - do not get jobs.

I believe that if they are taught certain skills they may be able to set up small enterprises of their own, not becoming millionaires, but at least able to stand up on their own.

It is for these reasons that I wrote what I did.

Joe sir if i could give you positive rating I would have given 10 here

 

[Joe Shearer]

Joe sir if i could give you positive rating I would have given 10 here

I cannot tell you the pain and frustration I am going through as I think of how poor people are ill-treated throughout our wretched sub-continent. That post was from my heart.

 

[salarsikander]

I cannot tell you the pain and frustration I am going through as I think of how poor people are ill-treated throughout our wretched sub-continent. That post was from my heart.

I couldnt agree more the way you summed it up all

 

[Joe Shearer]

I couldnt agree more the way you summed it up all

Bless you for your kind heart. If I am spared to do so, I would like to work at this problem, at the lowest level, teaching scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, minority and dirt poor children and adolescents how to cope with the system and wrest out their livelihood from life and the government grants available that go begging.

 

[salarsikander]

Bless you for your kind heart. If I am spared to do so, I would like to work at this problem, at the lowest level, teaching scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, minority and dirt poor children and adolescents how to cope with the system and wrest out their livelihood from life and the government grants available that go begging.

Sir,

That is why we have this brain drain phenomena in this wretched region of world. Now I will really encourage you to write something like this. It is true that we have lots of engineers and MBA but truth is none of them are suitable for any job. Its just piece of shutty certificate that they posses. They barely have any practical knowledge and which is why the innovation is very hard to come by. TBH, with respect to that Indians are doing quite good as compared to Pakistanis, But I am not too sure of international ranking. We haven't really updated our curriculum to suit the todays need

 

[Joe Shearer]

Sir,

That is why we have this brain drain phenomena in this wretched region of world. Now I will really encourage you to write something like this. It is true that we have lots of engineers and MBA but truth is none of them are suitable for any job. Its just piece of shutty certificate that they posses. They barely have any practical knowledge and which is why the innovation is very hard to come by. TBH, with respect to that Indians are doing quite good as compared to Pakistanis, But I am not too sure of international ranking. We haven't really updated our curriculum to suit the todays need

I could not agree more.

 

[haviZsultan]

Sad to see that they are falling into the same trap as other south Asian authorities dealing with education.

I think the bigger problem is focus on higher education rather than building of primary schools and secondary schools. Most children drop out of schools by the time they are age 9. This is a bigger problem. Governments however have an unparalleled focus on higher education because it concerns these politicians children. They do not care about the poor state of government schools and the literacy rate has fallen by 2% in Pakistan because of our lack of focus on putting those children in school which are on the streets.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I think the bigger problem is focus on higher education rather than building of primary schools and secondary schools. Most children drop out of schools by the time they are age 9. This is a bigger problem. Governments however have an unparalleled focus on higher education because it concerns these politicians children. They do not care about the poor state of government schools and the literacy rate has fallen by 2% in Pakistan because of our lack of focus on putting those children in school which are on the streets.

Very true.

We concentrate on the top of the pyramid, and grow it and grow it and grow it, while the bottom gets narrower and narrower.

This is the most pathetic corner of the world. And if you go to another thread, you will find that such views are labelled Communist by the vast numbers of right-wing Indians who swarm around.

PS: I have taken the liberty of highlighting the most poignant part of your post.

 

[salarsikander]

Very true.

We concentrate on the top of the pyramid, and grow it and grow it and grow it, while the bottom gets narrower and narrower.

This is the most pathetic corner of the world. And if you go to another thread, you will find that such views are labelled Communist by the vast numbers of right-wing Indians who swarm around.

It is the very culture of tis region which reinforces such mentality ! The inability you could say or failure to acknowledge the shortcoming.

 

[ghazi52]

Great read.
Keep it up............................................

 

[maxpayne]

Sir,

That is why we have this brain drain phenomena in this wretched region of world. Now I will really encourage you to write something like this. It is true that we have lots of engineers and MBA but truth is none of them are suitable for any job. Its just piece of shutty certificate that they posses. They barely have any practical knowledge and which is why the innovation is very hard to come by. TBH, with respect to that Indians are doing quite good as compared to Pakistanis, But I am not too sure of international ranking. We haven't really updated our curriculum to suit the todays need

@Joe Shearer I agree with u on nearly all of the article. Honestly, by looking at your reply i can understand how it takes to spill out things and type them even when they are little painful. For u, me and i think for billions of people.
However, i would like to add that with the arrival of technical/qualified/trained people, we must also have opportunities for these people. There are millions of good teachers who could not teach because of no jobs or low salaries. I am an engineer and i saw experts rotting out in streets looking for suitable job. There is no industry to supports engineers, no hospitals to engulf numbers of doctors.
We must not emphasize quantity for the sake of quality. Both are important.

My two cents.