KARACHI: Disaffiliation of DCET affects job prospects
KARACHI, April 8: 348 former students of the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET) Karachi, of the 1996-97 batch, are facing tremendous difficulties in getting employment in various national industrial corporations and concerns, owing to the disaffiliation of their institution from the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) a couple of years of back.
Scarcity of qualified teachers and absence of practical labs and industrial equipment resulted in the disaffiliation of the college from the NED University of Engineering and Technology and the Pakistan Engineering Council.
“Majority of the students of the 1996-97 batch of the DCET are facing difficulties in getting jobs at the KESC, the Pakistan Steel and other industrial concerns as they are not registered with PEC. Appointing authorities of these organizations are reluctant to consider the applications of fresh DCET students”, DCET students told PPI here no Tuesday.
They severely criticized DCET principal Saleem Chaudhry and the federal education ministry for the reinstatement problem with the council. They said the college was still facing acute an paucity of faculty, causing inconvenience to a large number of students as the schedule of the classes was being affected badly.
Currently, classes at most of the DCET’s engineering departments are not being held as many permanent faculty members are on leave, and the available teachers reportedly do not bother to take classes.
To overcome scarcity of teachers, the DCET had hired some qualified teachers on contract basis. Their majority has also abandoned teaching activities as their contracts have expired.
Sources at the DCET informed that the situation was worse in the departments of Electronics and Chemical Engineering where the majority of permanent teachers have been on leave since long, and the teachers hired on contract basis are also not available for their contracts have not been renewed.
In the department of Electronics, four permanent teachers out of nine are on leave. Only two teachers have been hired on contract for 650 students. Only four to five classes are currently being held at the department, against 28 scheduled classes.
“Majority of the students of the Electronics department have not seen their teachers for months,” said a student wondering how it could be possible for six teachers to take 28 periods as mentioned in the schedule of the department.
The student said two teachers working on contract were most keen to take classes, but their contracts were going to expire within the next few weeks. “The present administration is least concerned about the problem.” he said.
Not a single class has been held for the last many months by the four available permanent faculty members. There are 5 permanent teachers, of whom one is on leave, while the three teachers hired on contract left the college a few days back.
Principal DCET, Saleem Chaudhary, who is supposed to teach the final year Chemical Engineering class, has never taken a class ever since he took taking charge as head of the institution. Chairman of the department, Nisar Pathan, has also never bothered to take any class since his appointment as head of the department.
Two other teachers, Hanif Memon and Rashid Ali, at the department of Chemical Engineering, have also never taken trouble to take classes mentioned in the schedule.
The condition of the departments of Industrial Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering is as pathetic as almost 90 per cent teachers of these departments have been on leave for a long time.
Out of the five permanent faculty members of the department of Industrial Engineering, only one is currently available, and he has hardly taken any class for months. Not a single class has been held for months at the department against the scheduled 16 periods for 100 students.
Three of six permanent faculty members of the department of Metallurgical Engineering are on leave, and only one teacher has been hired on contract. Two or three classes are held in a week, against the scheduled 16 periods for students of four different batches.
DCET students say that the only engineering college in the metropolis, managed by the federal education department, is now in shambles as both the ministry and the college administration are least interested in educating the students.
No DCET official was available on Friday to comment on the shortage of faculty and non-holding of classes.—PPI
