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The Task Force for Improvement of Higher
Education, appointed by Ms Zobaida Jalal, Federal Minister of Education,
commenced the first in a series of dialogues on June 19, 2001, with the
heads of degree granting public and private universities and colleges
as well as heads of selected higher secondary schools and chairs of Examination
Boards in Sindh. The Task Force Co-chaired by Dr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha,
President, Aga Khan University and Syed Babar Ali, Pro-Chancellor,
LUMS, consists of the Federal Secretary of Education, the Chairman of
the UGC, and Vice Chancellors of public universities and representatives
of private universities.
His Excellency Governor of Sindh, Mohammedmian
Soomro, addressing the heads of degree granting public and private
universities and colleges as well as heads of selected higher secondary
schools and chairs of Examination Board in Sindh, at the first in
a series of dialogues on 'Improvement of Higher Education in Pakistan',
held at Aga Khan University on June 19, 2001. |
At a seminar hosted by Aga Khan University in Karachi, some 75 heads and representatives of the institutions
and members of the Task Force participated in discussion groups dealing
with efficiency and quality assurance, research, students and alumni,
governance and management, financial and physical resources. Each group
identified factors that could improve higher education and presented its
recommendations for discussion by the whole group.
A summary of the recommendations was
presented to Mohammedmian Soomro, the Governor of Sindh, by Dr. Abdul
Rehman Memon, Vice Chancellor of Mehran University of Engineering, and
Dr. Zafar Saied Saify, Vice Chancellor of Karachi University.
In his address, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh,
the Finance Minister of Sindh, stressed the importance of focussing on
a few pivotal changes in the policies on higher education that would have
a significant impact on improvement and enable correction of the many
undesirable characteristics of institutional functions. Recommendations
on finance and governance will be critical. He encouraged the Task Force
to waste no time in implementing its confirmed recommendations without
waiting for the final report.
The Governor stressed the importance
of merit-based selection of students and faculty, and endorsed the statements
of the Finance Minister, assuring the support of the Government of Sindh
to consider seriously implementation of the recommendations of the Task
Force. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, who emphasised
the need to recommend solutions for obstacles to improvement of higher
education. Dr. Rashid A. Shah, Vice-Chancellor of Sindh University, gave
the vote of thanks.
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