NA Education, National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training on Tuesday discussed the matter of establishing nine engineering universities in the country through HEC’s multi-billion Dollar project.
National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education, Professional Training and National Heritage was held under the chairmanship of MNA Makhdoom Syed Sami Ul Hasan Gilani. In his briefing to the committee Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that HEC budget has been decreased to less than Rs.106 billions as compared to Rs 119 billion in 2018. Dr Mukhtar informed that when HEC was formed, there were 59 public and private universities, while now the number has been increased to 244 across the country.NA Education, “We have started taking strict action on quality of education in universities” he added. In the meeting, three bills were to be reviewed, however, due to absence of the movers the bills were postponed for the next meeting. In the meeting, the matter related to the return of 300 women teachers working on deputation in the Federal Directorate of Education was also considered. On the demand of Member of National Assembly Alia Kamran, the committee decided to call the representatives of the victims in the committee. During the meeting, committee member Mahnaz Akbar Aziz raised the issue of flood-affected hospitals and schools and said that the conditions of houses as well as hospital and school buildings are also not good.
This issue should be discussed in the next meeting, she added. She went on saying that no data has been discussed about the affected number of children, hospitals and schools buildings affected by the flood. “We need to rebuild these buildings in better way” she added. Education Ministry officials replying to the discussion, said that a target has been given to various departments. NA Education, Many people have started collection in that regard, they said. The collected amount will be deposited in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, the official said. “We have started collecting data from the provinces” they informed. Committee member Hamid Hameed informed that important posts of Sargodha University are lying vacant. Chairman HEC also briefed the committee that the work on the university which was being established in Lahore had been stopped due to its cost of Rs 5 billion. He said that this project was started and stoped on the decision of the cabinet despite the fact that everything was done according to law. The committee also discussed the matter of establishing a university in Gwadar. There is a great need for educational institutions in Gwadar, the committee members stressed. Chairman Committee said that the students of Balochistan are studying in other provinces due to which there is a lot of burden on provinces.NA Education, Balochistan is our province which has left far behind, Nisar Cheema said, adding that it is very important to have a university in Balochistan. To a question, Chairman HEC said that the free education was being given to male and female students in FATA by the universities on their own pattern. He further said that all the VCs were called on the issue that happened after the flood. He said that all the universities in the flood affected areas were opened now. Dr Mukhtar said that all the medical university teams were sent to flood affected areas. “Our health teams and people from colleges are also working in the affected areas. The Agricultural University has been asked to work on the destruction of crops, Chairman HEC added.
Source: This news is originally published by urdupoint