TAXILA: Slogans like ‘Education for All’, ‘Parho Punjab, Barho Punjab’ and ‘Parha Likha Punjab’, coined for the Education Sector’s Reforms Programme, rhyme well but don’t match the reality on the ground – least of all in Taxila tehsil.

A look at the Government Boys Degree College in Taxila shows why the slogans don’t appeal to students and their parents. The ‘degree’ classes introduced in the college 10 years ago exist in name only.

Institutions run by the Punjab government in the tehsil are under-funded, lack qualified faculty and facilities and their buildings are in disrepair. Parents have no choice but to take their children to private institutions which offer relatively better education and facilities.

Constructed in 2002, the Taxila Intermediate College was upgraded to degree level five years later. But that was done for political purposes and advantage, not to impart higher education. All that the college saw was the insertion of the word “degree” on its signboard and stationery. Nothing else changed.

Because of dwindling funds, students of the so-called degree college today sit on rundown furniture in the classrooms. Faulty fans and broken windows and doors in the dilapidated college building add to their discomfort and distraction from studies.

The college presently buckling under problems was upgraded to degree level in year 2007 by the then government to get political advantage but since then no degree classes were initiated despite the lapse of 10 long years. The signboard outside the college was amended from boys inter college to boys degree college and in papers it is referred to as a degree college.

Subsequently the education department has appointed no additional staff especially lecturers nor has it provided additional furniture, class rooms and funds to initiates degree level classes here. Students are studying on rundown furniture and in a depilated building.

Even the basic construction of the college is faulty. It was established on uneven and rocky land and deep ditches dug during its construction lie unfilled to this day. They are flooded during rains, making the area unapproachable and, worse, a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

In summer, the stagnating pools threaten students and locals with an outbreak of dengue fever.

“I have been in the college for two years. It is cold in the winters and we have to endure mosquito bites in the summer,” said Tariq Mehmood, a student of second year.

He has other complaints as well.

“I used to participate in and win in cricket tournaments, including those at inter-school and inter-district levels. But the college ground is full of rocks and unfit for sports activities,” he said.

“Our college is more like ruins from the past,” added his friend.

Student Shahid Ali was concerned about the shortage of lecturers. Many students give up their chosen subjects for want of faculty and any other government degree college in the area.

“The college’s condition is very discouraging for us,” he said. “We have the same dreams that city dwelling students have but I am not sure if we would be able to realize our dreams.”

Most parents in the Taxila Tehsil cannot afford to send their children to costly, private degree colleges in Wah Cantt or bear the travelling expenses to Rawalpindi, according to Saeed Ahmed, an aggrieved parent.

Lecturers of the Taxila college are also unhappy with the situation.

“Every year dozens of students fall sick because of mosquitoes bites,” said one lecturer requesting anonymity.

The seven-unit residential block in the college grounds for the staff is incomplete, and the unfinished principal’s house is referred to as “the ghost house”. Thieves and drug addicts have vandalized the abandoned houses.

“The plan of establishment of college at this site was unrealistic,” said Dr Hafiz Arshad, a senior faculty member of the college. One has to approach it through a narrow lane, he noted.

When asked about poor state of affairs at the college, Principal Ahsan Ahmed explained that the residential block was not handed over to the education department by the building department due to some anomalies.

About the paucity of funds, and other shortcomings, he said “the matter has been brought to the notice of director colleges and provincial higher education department but no funds have been released despite repeated reminders.”

Director Colleges Professor Asghar Malik, however, said general lack of funds prevented the providing of “adequate money for repair and maintenance work”. If the local MNA and MPAs share their annual development fund with the education department these issues can be redressed, he said.

And since the college was upgraded through executive order, without meeting the necessary requirements, he said, the degree classes could not be initiated so far.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017