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NATIONAL SCI-TECH SCENE
Plan underway for multimedia services, spread to end-user
Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Thursday said the ministry was working on a policy for the spread of multimedia services to the end users.
The minister directed the ministry officials and experts to sit together and come up with a comprehensive policy within the next three to four weeks, said an official statement.
“There is a great need for such a policy in Pakistan as the end users are facing great difficulties in securing reliable internet connectivity”, he said during a presentation given to him by the PTCL.
Through a broadband service, the internet user is always directly connected to the service, instead of having to ‘dial up’ to an ISP every time he wants to access the internet, the statement said.
It also means that the speed at which he downloads information on the net is many times faster. Broadband network nowadays can also enable the service providers to offer multimedia services such as broadcast multiple TV channels, video on demand and telephone at the same time.
Aerospace curriculum finalized
The National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized the curriculum of Aerospace/ Avionics Engineering to be taught at public and private universities at graduate and post-graduate levels.
In this regard, a three-day meeting of the NCRC concluded at HEC regional centre, Peshawar, said and official statement. After discussing different aspects of the curriculum at length, the NCRC prepared a final draft of the curriculum of the discipline.
The NCRC also reviewed the recommendations and suggestions received from all the public sector universities where Aerospace/Avionics Engineering is being taught. The final draft of the curriculum prepared by the committee would be sent to all the universities of the country for implementation according to their set procedures.
The NCRC suggested that the recommended core courses should be made compulsory in all universities and a set of elective courses may be chosen to fulfil the complete curriculum requirement.
Universities may introduce additional elective subjects to meet their requirements on the recommendations of their board of studies. The committee was of the view that most of the public sector universities/colleges, laboratories needed improvements.
The education in the field of engineering, particularly in Aerospace/Avionics Engineering cannot be imparted without practical experiments and hands-on practices. Special attention and additional funds should be provided to equip the laboratories as for core subjects, laboratory work is deemed absolutely essential.
The committee felt that there was an urgent need to commence a Teachers Training Programme to assimilate modern technologies and for the enhancement of instructional methodologies, so trained and qualified manpower should be inducted on emergency basis to overcome the faculty shortage.
Surgeons’ moot
Paediatric surgeons have stressed upon the government to provide latest technology and investigation equipment for Hirschsprung’s disease in major public sector hospitals of the country so that diagnosis could be made early.
They made these recommendations on the second day of “First National Workshop on Hirschsprung’s disease” organised by Department of Paediatric Surgery, National Institute of Child Health (NICH) at its auditorium.
They said a patient suspected of having Hirschsprung’s disease should be immediately admitted to hospital, as early investigation and management of the disease could change the outcome.
“Management of such patients should be carried out by trained paediatric surgeons at specialised units, failing which the incidence of complications can be very high,” they said, adding that ethical issues along with other management aspects should also be given consideration and priority.
Proposal for medical varsity
The provincial development working party (PDWP) has approved a proposal for the establishment of Khyber Medical University and a separate campus of the Khyber Medical College for girls with an allocation of Rs270.08 million, NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan told reporters here on Thursday.
The minister said the PDWP had recently given the administrative approval of both the projects, and added that the works and services department was currently inviting tenders for the civil work on the projects, while specification of equipments at the department level was also in the last phases. — Sci-tech World Report
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