KARACHI, March 30: The Senate chairman, Mohammadmian Soomro, on Tuesday advised business schools, especially the Institute of Business Administration, to create endowment funds to provide better remuneration to teachers and financial assistance to needy students.

Speaking at the concluding session of a two-day conference on "Challenges for management, development and education in Pakistan", which was jointly organized by the IBA and the Association of Management Development Institutions in Pakistan, he said: "You need trained, qualified and dedicated teachers to impart quality education to students. If you want to retain good teachers, you have to offer them salaries which are commensurate with their abilities."

Management experts from various Pakistani business schools attended the conference and presented their research papers. Mr Soomro added that in addition to offering attractive pay packages to teachers, business schools should also keep their fee structure affordable.

"Financial autonomy, if achieved by business schools, will enable them to get rid of the intervention of others in their affairs. It will also help them maintain discipline and continue to attach importance to merit," he observed.

Emphasizing the need for greater interaction between various business schools of the country, he noted that it was a good sign that more such institutions were coming up.

Appreciating the efforts of the organizers of the conference, the Senate chairman suggested that such conferences should be held twice a year. He advised the organizers to invite government organizations like the National Institute of Public Administration and the National Defence Programmes.

He pointed out that the abilities and skills of the teaching staff were not evaluated from time to time at state-run educational institutions. He said he was happy to learn that the admission quota of government functionaries in the IBA had been abolished.

The Senate chairman said former students of business schools could extend financial support. He said the main objective of educational institutions and the government should be the development of human resources.

Earlier, the AMDIP chairman, Hasan Sohaib Murad, spoke about the proceedings, objectives and achievements of the conference. He added that the participants gained a lot of experience from the conference.

"We identified issues facing business management schools in the country, discussed their solutions, alternatives and various methodologies to overcome hurdles," he said, adding that faculty motivation, curricula, research methodologies and other issues were discussed in detail.

He said that a South Asian Management Forum would be held in April in Lahore and over 300 business management experts from South Asia would attend it. Faculty and experts associated with local business schools should prepare themselves for it and participate in it, he added.

The IBA director, Danishmand, said the country was facing a shortage of qualified and trained business managers. He added that the IBA would take the emergence of new business schools as a challenge.

He said students were granted admission to the IBA only on merit. He promised that the IBA would continue this practice. The conference manager, Hassan Danish, delivered the concluding address. -Agencies