PESHAWAR, May 1: The successive governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have failed to launch four-year graduation degree programme in public sector colleges as enshrined in the national education policies.

“Structural changes were first witnessed in the education system in the country when the 1979 Education Policy was framed, envisaging a practical plan to replace the earlier four-tier system of primary, secondary, college and university by a three-tier system of elementary (from grade I to VIII), secondary (grade IX to XII) and higher education (XIII and above) in phases,” officials told Dawn.

They added that according to the plan, it was mandatory for colleges to launch four-year degree courses. The 1979 Education Policy was framed to initiate a process of far-reaching structural changes in the quality and quantity of education besides introducing reforms to harmonise the system with global standards, they said.

A general bachelor level degree has been conferred on students at the end of 14 years of schooling in the country. Except England, Australia, India and New Zealand, which have 15 years course for bachelor degree, the rest of the world follows a 16 years course.

One of the reasons for non-recognition of Pakistani degrees abroad is the short duration of study at degree level. “In Britain, our bachelor degree is considered equivalent to ‘A’ level qualification,” officials added.

The implementation process of the four-year degree programme in colleges was expected to be accomplished in a period of four to eight years but it could not be materialised even in 30 years, they said.

It has been, undoubtedly, a tragic and callous negligence on the part of the education department that, it not only failed to follow the directions of the national education policies, but also adamantly refused to change itself as desired by the needs of time and society.

Since then, no measure of change and reforms has ever been introduced in the colleges that is why, the system has all along suffered series of failures and setbacks.

The education department has failed to reform and refused to change itself according to the needs of time and challenges of the changing world.

For the last 60 years the college sub-sector has failed to respond even to the goals, objectives and imperatives of national education policies. The successive education policies of 1979 and 1998 envisage critical structural reforms in the education system prescribing far-reaching measures of change and transformation in the college sub-sector but the system failed to respond.

The introduction of four-year degree programme has long been overdue in colleges and the system needs up-gradation, expansion and reforms accordingly.

“In foreign countries bachelor degrees are completed in 16 years while in Pakistan under the two-year degree programme it is completed in 14 years so students having master degrees when go to the foreign for higher education are asked to first do master in the respective subject and then get admission in M.Phel,” officials said.

Higher Education Director Ghulam Qasim Marwat, when contacted, said that four-year degree programme was launched in 15 out of 150 colleges of the province.

“For the first time the present government has taken this initiative which is running successfully,” he said.

With the passing of time, he said, the programme would be implemented in the rest of the colleges. He added that government was intending to establish more departments in colleges where four-year degree programme was implemented.