August 6, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched a Rs35 million scheme for writing monographs and textbooks of the disciplines being taught at the public sector universities in the country.

The HEC, in an official announcement issued here on Tuesday, said the scheme would help in tackling the problem of making high quality books available at low cost as currently the textbooks were very expensive and being imported in the country.

The scheme called ‘monograph and textbook writing,’ was approved at a meeting of the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) of the HEC held at its Islamabad campus.

The HEC executive director, Dr M. Akram Shaikh, presided over meeting which unanimously approved the scheme costing about Rs35 million for a period of three years.

The main objective of the scheme is to produce at least 60 (36 master level and 24 bachelor level) monographs on selected topics of the curricula in emerging fields like information technology, robotics, bio-technology, social sciences, management sciences, behavioural sciences, arts and humanities.

Under the scheme, at least 78 curriculum-based textbooks in the selected areas of the disciplines authored by the eminent educationists, scholars and professors of the universities and institutions of higher learning would also be produced.

The scheme aimed at producing low-cost textbooks and reading materials for related university/college teachers and students.

The programme of monographs and textbooks writing would not only serve to fill the void owing to non-availability of essential resources, but also identify and encourage promotion of indigenous talent and help in creating a strong base for writing books and other research documents in the universities.

The scheme will also develop strong authorship cadre in the universities and postgraduate colleges and might eventually develop into a lucrative expert market particularly for Afro- Asian countries.

The project would be helpful in production of better qualified manpower needed for different programmes/projects for socio-economic uplift of the country