Speaking at the Punjab University's Human Resource Development Centre on Monday, Governor Lieutenant General Khalid Maqbool (Retd) pointed to an important national requirement.
The universities, he said, must establish a close link with society and industry in order to make education more need-oriented. As it is, there is no sense of direction in this vital field.
Every year, thousands of young men and women end up getting degrees which have no relevance to the job market, with the result that they are neither able to contribute to the country's socio-economic development nor to obtain gainful employment for themselves.
No wonder the country lags far behind its immediate neighbour to the east, not only in the field of basic education but also in higher disciplines, science and technology, that have made the latter a major centre of activity in the global trend for work outsourcing.
It is about time we adopted a well thought-out policy to determine what the country's needs are so as to address them effectively.
As Governor Maqbool rightly averred, the universities must work towards establishing a close link with society and industry in order to determine the content and direction of education in line with the country's socio-economic requirements.
Towards that end, the government must bring in well-known experts as well as representatives of industry to sit on university boards and curriculum development bodies.
Associating industry representatives with institutions of higher learning may also act as an incentive for them to come up with financial help. Some of them may want to create special endowment programmes for talented students and/or to offer support for research and development activities.
That, in fact, does not amount to hoping for the moon. Some of the biggest endowments for the progress of research and development as well as the arts in advanced countries have, for generations, been made by the private sector.
If they are given the opportunity and the right kind of encouragement there is no reason why the entrepreneurs in this country would shirk from making a meaningful contribution to the promotion of education.
Equally importantly, the education establishment must be delinked from politics, a factor that is largely responsible for having caused, during the 1970s and the 80s, major deterioration in the educational standards.
Aided and abetted by the then military ruler, some of the premier institutions of learning, such as the Punjab University and the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, turned into a power base for a certain religio-political party.
Violence became a recurring feature of campus life, while some of the best-qualified faculty members were hounded out of the universities for their progressive outlook on the subjects they taught. Resultantly, both the educators and those to be educated suffered.
The present government has a lot of work to do in order to correct the distortions that have continued to linger on from that time. It must institute a system that honours scholarship and professional excellence in appointing individuals to teaching positions as well as for curriculum development tasks.
Comments
Comments are closed.