12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 11: Karachi University Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim has called on the Higher Education Commission to listen to the concern of educationists and intellectuals regarding the reforms process.

Delivering his presidential address at a symposium on "Future of higher education in the context of Higher Education Commission's policies," organized by the United Teachers Forum at KU's Arts Auditorium, he said, "we should desist from saying no to everything but instead should propose alternatives."

An overwhelming majority of the 25 papers, presented at the symposium, demanded that reforms led by the World Bank were ruining the varsities and pushing the county into intellectual ruin. They demanded that the reforms from 'above' should be stopped and 'anti-people' policies should be discontinued.

Prof V.K. Tevari, Vice-President of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organization, compared the neo-liberal commercialization policies of the WB in India and Pakistan with reference to the GATS agreement.

He said Indian varsities were facing exactly the same policies of restructuring the Model Act, which he said would make education a commodity and would place higher learning into the hands of entrepreneurs, just as the Pakistani varsities were being targeted through Model University Ordinance, Task Force reports, Tenure Track System and Foreign Faculty hiring.

Eng Ghulam Kibria, who was the chief guest at the symposium, observed that the governments in Pakistan had been ignoring their duties towards education sector. Instead of making education inexpensive, it had been made a purchasable commodity, he said, adding that school education cost up to Rs5,000 per month, while university education cost up to Rs12,000 per month, which was affordable only for upper and upper-middle classes only.

Research was not being due importance here, which was keeping Pakistan underdeveloped, he commented. Prof Zafar Ali Khan of PPLA (Lahore) said so far the varsity, college and school teachers had resisted, what he called 'the grand design of depriving the poor masses of the country of health and education' but as the plan was unfolded by the Task Force report and further elaborated by the steering committee of the force, the university teachers rejected the proposals but they should now take a step forward and demand a new system based on peoples' needs.

Dr Taimur Rehman lashed out at the capitalist forces, accusing these of creating misery for common men through Higher Education Reforms. Elaborating his stance, he said that the entire paradigm of neo-liberalism began with the promise that the market was the best method of resource allocation, therefore, the partial commodification of health and education would lead to a balance between the supply and demand for educated individuals. Over 500 teachers and contributors from across the country attended the symposium. -PPI