Punjab college education | Edu project for FATA
students
Cracks in Punjab's college education system are
massive
Lahore, April 25: THE cracks in Punjab's college education system
are massive but the remedies being demanded and proposed are bound
to be inadequate and ineffective. Looking at the issue from the
teachers' point of view, it is just a matter of recruitments,
transfers, promotions, pay raises and pensions. For the government,
resources and administrative procedures seem to take precedence over
the delivery of quality education. Caught between the two, students
and parents can only wonder if anyone has any consideration for
their well-being. Protests over the last week or so by some 4,000
contract lecturers highlight all these issues: the government has
pushed itself into an administrative logjam by making frequent
changes in recruitment methods and other service rules; the teachers
continue grumbling about the pitiable remunerations they get with
little prospect of career advancement; and scores of colleges
outside Lahore are working without principals besides suffering from
an acute shortage of teaching staff. Anyone who gets an appointment
anywhere in Punjab wants to get transferred to the provincial
capital. That is a concern in itself but the government has helped
accentuate the problem by banning all regular recruitment of college
teachers. Devolving college education in 2002 and then reversing the
decision in 2008 was another blow that the government dealt to the
system.
Certainly, teachers at public-sector colleges need
better salaries and other benefits. But giving them a one-time pay
raise is hardly the ideal solution. Skyrocketing inflation will
ensure that they will be asking for another raise sooner rather than
later. The alternative is a thorough reform that addresses three
basic issues: one, lay down a recruitment procedure immune to
frequent changes and free of exemptions and exceptions; two,
stipulate salaries and other career advancement rules commensurate
with teachers' importance in the social order; and, three, address
teachers' lack of willingness to work in small towns and rural areas
where education is the only instrument for social mobility. Without
such a comprehensive action plan, lecturers may be better off in
terms of salaries for a while but the college education system will
continue to suffer. Dawn:April 09 |
