MARDAN: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali inaugurated the Quality Enhancement Cell for Affiliated Colleges (QEC-AC) on the Bashkhali campus of Women University Mardan during a special ceremony on Thursday.

The eventwas attended byWUM Vice-Chancellor Dr Ghazala Yasmeen, Higher Education Commission’s Dr Arshid Bashir, Dr Shafiqur Rehman and Ataur Rehman, higher education department director (quality assurance) Imran Marwat, principals of the WUM-affiliated colleges, and university teachers and students.

The governor told participants that the government had been spending large sums of money for the development of the education sector in the province.

He said Rs97 billion was spent to pay salaries to employees of public sector educational institutions.

Mr Ali, however, said regrettably, students of the government’s schools, colleges and universities had fared badly in board exams compared with those enrolled in private educational institutions.

He said putting up beautiful buildings for schools, colleges and universities wasn’t the “advancement and development” of the education sector, which was rather about the provision of quality education to people.

The governor asked the VC to take effective steps to provide good education to the students of her university and affiliated colleges.

Earlier, VC Dr Ghazala Yasmeen said the Quality Enhancement Cell for Affiliated Colleges was established in the university with the collaboration of the HEC and the World Bank.

She claimed that the cell would ensure improvement of learning standards in the WUM and affiliated colleges.

The VC said the university and HEC had formulated rules for quality enhancement, so the students of the affiliated colleges following those rules would receive degrees.

She said 19 colleges were affiliated with the university.

Dr Arshid Bashir of the HEC said his organisation was committed to taking measures for improving the quality of education in institutions of higher education.

He said the QEC-AC would push colleges into focusing their attention on the provision of good education to their students.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023