JHANG: Parents of about 150 students of BS (Honours) English literature studying in the Government College for Women, Jhang, have expressed their resentment on the closure of the programme by the college principal.

In an application to the secretary of the Punjab Higher Education Department, aggrieved students and parents demanded intervention of senior officials into the matter.

Some parents, also signatories to the petition sent to the secretary, said the principal made it a point of her ego not to allow the progamme, even though the literature programme is being taught in other three institutions of the city - Government Degree College for Boys, Govt Ghazali Degree College for Boys and the Lahore College for Women University, Jhang campus.

Parents said when they requested her to continue the programme in the college, the principal lost her temper and told them to get their daughters enrolled in boys’ colleges.

They alleged the principal got ceiling fans removed from classrooms and when students started sitting under nearby trees, she got the trees chopped.

A student on the condition of anonymity said the principal was against the programme because most of the teachers in English department did not have the language proficiency to teach the programme.

She said that there was one PhD and two MPhil faculty members who were teaching students very efficiently. She said some teachers lacking teaching and language skills, and also very close to the principal, were against the programme.

Principal Asya Basharat refuted allegations, saying that she was not against the programme but there were certain logistic and staff related problems which she was trying to sort out, and once these problems are solved, the programme would be allowed to resume.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2019