Irfan Khan |
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in several interviews and press conferences, made it clear that he will neither stay in the PM House nor enjoy VVIP protocol after assuming office before the elections. Now Imran Khan has fulfilled his promise of converting the PM’s house into Islamabad National University (INU). It is not only about his government austerity and mitigation but a vivid reduction of gap between public and government according to him.
On 21st December, PM Khan was addressing the Launch Conference for Islamabad National University titled “Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan” in Islamabad on Friday. He spoke on the occasion, that good quality education is required for the development of nations. Moreover, he gave an example of his care for public money.
Well done! Mr.PM, but?
The former Pakistan’s PM House is located on the main Constitution Avenue, covering an area of 135 acres, and luxuriously apartments. So, it meets the required infrastructure for a research institute.
It is not only about his government austerity and mitigation but a vivid reduction of gape between public and government according to him.
Well done! Mr PM but,
The land and infrastructure issues are somewhat less than some other burning dilemma in education, especially in higher education. Except a very few higher educational institute, the majority of them are providing poor quality education. Let me ask, how many students in Pakistan passed GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and IELTS? each year, the tests, every graduate must be capable of qualifying.
Read more: PM House to be converted into an educational institution, says PTI…
The number is very low. It reveals how, Pakistani students are adversely lacking mastery of subjective knowledge. Magnifying, the quality of higher education, Dr Farhan Saif, a Professor at the leading national institute Quaid-i-Azam University, remarked.
“On one hand in different departments, incompetent bosses invented ways to kill research programs for example by letting them get registered as directed by the chairman or director and not letting them to register with worthy and competent colleagues. On the other hand the greed to collect money in the name of PhD students gave an incentive to opportunistic professors to register students with them to the maximum limits and with junior colleagues in any number possible, trading unjust academic favours and tailoring admission committees.”
The land and infrastructure issues are somewhat less than some other burning dilemma in education, especially in higher education.
These overbooked students are treated in an unethical manner by the local setup of universities usually in the form of non-serious attitude towards coursework, corrupt examination system, poor or zero invigilation, engineered referee reports and nepotism in awarding grades. Plagiarism, which is considered as a menace in the developed world, and mediocracy in research which tarnishes its true spirit help here to produce a large number of low-quality PhDs per year by such self-proclaimed big shots, who eventually become a disgrace for the nation.
For the same reason, the latest word for plagiarism in Pakistan is being introduced as ‘academic misconduct’ and self-plagiarism is named as ‘academic neglect’ — that is to generate an illusion in the eyes of public and to change a disgrace to grace — eventually which shows that we are living in a fool’s paradise”. Will this be also the case with INU?
Read more: PM House to be converted into Institute of Higher Learning
Well done Mr. PM but,
Some year ago, a political figure, robbed and occupied hundreds of acres land of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad (QAU). Would you make them accountable? Would you inquire about it from the Capital Development Authority (CDA)? Would you take notice of current adverse infrastructure of QAU? When I checked into QAU, found that the campus was covered with dogs, cows and donkeys. Mostly lawns along with departments have become dilapidated, only a few are cured by few feeble weeders. The floor of many avenues connecting various internal places are bumpy and muddy.
Well done! Mr. PM But
Will poor students from the hot deserts of Sindh, from the cool mountains of Gilgit, from the devestated land of FATA be enrolled in INU. Many intellectuals and studious students, did not get a chance in the national reputed institution due to high fees. Will INU also kill the wishes of so many students and parents?
Well done Mr. PM but,
The basic requirement of the local research program is to solve the problems and challenges faced by a country by its own people locally. In contrast, our local faculty in higher education institutions and universities are least concerned with the purpose, instead of becoming a beacon of knowledge maximum are busy in self-projection and in making money by writing, low quality but high in number — papers. Will INU also face such circumstances?
Read more: Election promise: PM House converted into ‘Islamabad National University’
Well done PM, but..
Will INU, be the research institute of International standard? Will it provide a Post -Doc platform to national and international scholars? The gradual decline of higher education over last fifteen years has seen today a scientific culture based on greed and nepotism. The intolerable academic corruption in our universities has become a daily routine. Will INU be free of it?
Well done Mr PM, but…
Students group, founded based on race and religion in various Pakistani Universities have fought with each other, as a result the educational institutes have become a battlefield. Will INU be faced as such with the people of the same mindset? I defy, that Pakistan has failed to develop a university culture since independence because academic values, morality, and basics notion of justice have been ignored. Students unions should be based on ideology and leadership so that every degree holder at the end, must be aware of, what he/she must do for himself, for the nation and for the world.
What, you initiated till, probably is a great triumph in the land of the elite and the feudal. However, your education sector required more than that—emergency reforms.
Well done! Mr. PM
Irfan Khan is a freelance writer. He writes for Daily Times, Eurasia Review, Modern Diplomacy and others. He can be reached at Twitter:@IMK903. The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.