Category: Education

Government has increased quality enhancement cells from 10 to 84 to ensure the program quality and student learning. HEC is facilitating the universities by providing guidelines, trainings, awareness seminars and workshops. A number of steps taken in this regard include the integration of the concept of quality assurance in higher learning to achieve enhanced levels of international compatibility.

Activities include program self-assessment at one end to institutional performance review by peers at the other end. The Quality Enhancement Cells discussed the implementation status of HEC’s self- assessment model at their respective universities. Parallel to the meeting, a workshop for skill enhancement of Quality Enhancement Cells in the field of quality education was also held. The resource person for this workshop was Dr. Abdul Wahid Usmani, Director QEC, Dow university of Health Sciences Karachi.

 

Future Biz Technologies (FBT) is organizing online mathematics competition starting from Wednesday, June 15. This competition will be held country wide on mathlete.pk

Students can participate in the competition through online registration by June 15. Each candidate will have to submit entrance fee Rs100 through a scratch card. Each quiz will have 25 questions having four possible answers. Contestants will have 90 seconds for each question.

FBT Chief Executive Muhammad Nadeem Chaudhry said after initial online competition, first 100 contestants would be selected a second round of on-ground screening in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.

Of these contestants, only five top contestants would be selected in each age-group category for a grand finale to be held at Lahore Expo Centre on July 30.He said the winners of the contest will earn scholarship prizes as well as bonus prizes. The top three winners in each category will get Rs100,000, Rs50,000 and Rs25,000 prizes.

 

As per orders of President Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh Government has prepared a comprehensive plan to ensure that 1 million children are enrolled in schools.

Provincial Minister of Information, Sharjeel Inam Memon, told that government has provided free of cost textbooks to some 4 million students. He told that in last 3 years 14,000 teachers have been appointed on merit in the province, 4,000 schools were provided all basic facilities and 0.4 million girls were provided funds, on monthly basis, to acquire education.

He informed that with cooperation of IBA (Sukkur), 4 community colleges in Dadu, Naushehroferoze, Jacobabad and Khairpur are being established and Cadet Colleges are being established in Mithi, Dadu, Benazirabad and Garhi Khuda Buksh. (PPI)

 

Punjab Government allowed private and public schools to start summer camps during summer vacations.

The provincial government issued a notification allowing private and government schools to hold compulsory summer camps from 7:30am to 10:30am for class 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th from June 1 to August 14.

But the parents had a point of view that the summer vacations are given to provide relief from hot weather of June and July. They said that summer camps enable private schools to charge extra fees and earn money. Some of the parents said that during summer vacations they plan to spend holidays with relatives but because of summer camp they have to change their plans. This is unfair to start summer camps for class 5^th and 8^th.

The teachers of government schools also expressed resentment over the decision, saying summer camps in government educational institutes for class 5th and 8th was unjustifiable.

On the other hand, private school owners said the decision to hold the summer camps was in the best interest of the students. “The students of class 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th have suffered a lot during the last few days as textbooks were not available in the market and classes started late,” said Ibrar Ahmed Khan, the president of All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, Rawalpindi.

 

Two teams of Forman Christian College MBA students have won a reputed international honour by finishing first and second in the Globus Best-In-Strategy Invitational Championship where 139 teams from business schools all over the world were invited to compete on the basis of their performance within their schools.

All 139 teams were placed in 15 Industry groups and competed in a 15-year business simulation that mirrors competitive dynamics in the global digital camera industry. Student teams are scored on multiple financial and other dimensions as they make real time decisions on a number of complex business variables such as R and D, workforce compensation, production, outsourcing, product line performance, pricing, and finance in the simulated competitive space.

The team of Faisal Pervez, Syeda Ataat Zehra and Hassan Saqlain topped their industry, beating teams that included the formidable National University of Singapore among others. The team of Ali Imran, Sohaib ul Haq and Azhar Moazzam stood second in their industry. Remarkably, while the other competing universities have all used Glo-Bus for several years, the game was used for the very first time at FC College.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholar Muhammad Arshad has won Best Poster Award during a competition held at the School of Chemistry, University of Bath, England, UK in which 30 postgraduate students participated.

Arshad, who was pursuing his under Split PhD Programme, has returned to Pakistan and is working as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Punjab in Lahore under Interim Placement for Fresh PhDs Programme of HEC. Arshad’s field of research is more relevant to the medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical industry. He has also written two articles in reputed journals of England which have been highlighted as a significant contribution in Chemistry both by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and American Chemical Society (ACS) in their monthly magazines. So far, 86 scholars have been awarded scholarship under the scheme, out of which 52 scholars have returned and joined their parent organizations.

The King Edward Medical University will hold its annual convocation, 2011, on May 28 at the Library Hall of the university. According to a press release, the graduates from 1998 to 2006 will also be awarded degrees. Medal will also be given to position holders. On the same day the foundation stone of a new block of the university will also be laid. The new block will consist of offices of administration, lecture theatres, conference rooms and video conference rooms. There will also be inauguration of “donor wall” to generate funds for development of the university from the university alumni.

Spokesman for Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq rejected some media reports claiming preparations of direct recruitment on 540 non-teaching vacancies in 14 colleges of the province. In a statement, the spokesman clarified that all vacancies would be advertised in newspapers prior to recruitment. He said no appointment would be made in defiance of legal procedure. Education department and Director Colleges Sindh Nasir Ansar had already been directed to ensure following of rules in the recruitment process, he added.

It is surprising to see university students, especially in the public sector universities, seeking notes from their course incharges and expecting some hint from teachers about the “important questions” that will be taken for the mid-term or terminal examinations.

Visit to various classrooms in the Arts Faculty revealed that the lecturers delivered their lectures in a monologue and the students, in most cases, were just listeners. Sometimes the students mustered courage and dared discuss some points of the lecture. In a majority of cases the teachers took it as an affront to their professionalism.