LAHORE, Dec 21: Governor Khalid Maqbool has expressed the hope that the new elected government will continue with the agenda of educational reforms initiated by the Musharraf government.

Speaking at the first convocation of the Government College University on Saturday, the governor said the military government in its three-year tenure had made a number of breakthroughs in the higher education sector. He said an innovative approach would be required from the elected government to continue with the reforms. He stressed that there was a need to build up a long term and sustainable public-private partnership. He also asked the teaching community to accept the involvement of parents, stakeholders and the community to promote education.

At present, the governor said, some 125,000 students were studying in under-graduate and post-graduate classes in 370 government colleges in the province. He said the provincial government should continue to take steps to raise their number to at least 5.5 million.

In order to improve the affairs of higher education, he said there was a need to adopt modern teaching methodologies and revision of syllabi on modern lines. He said the availability of well-equipped laboratories and research centres were also required to strengthen the higher education.

The governor also called for developing strong PhD programmes besides focusing on pharmaceuticals, information technology and biotechnology sectors.

He also assured that the involvement of private sector in educational institutions would not result in increasing fee structure. —Reporter