PESHAWAR, May 17: The NWFP Public Service Commission is concerned over the deteriorating standard of public and private sector education institutions, including Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

The commission, in its annual report, has recommended to devise an effective checking system so that a comprehensive feedback on the performance of administrative and teaching wings of the education department can be ensured, and organise regular refresher courses for teachers to improve their teaching skills.

The 40-page report, presented to the provincial governor, suggests that AIOU, the country’s sole open university, should review its examination and semester system and focus on quality of products.

Though the open university courses are highly developed, its evaluation system requires drastic changes to improve the level of understanding of the students.

Total 814 posts were advertised during the year 2001, of which, 121 posts remained unfilled due to non-availability of suitable candidates.

Expressing concern over the teaching methodology of public and private sector institutions, the commission observes that students “were taught in colleges and universities only to pass examinations and were not encouraged to study textbooks, consult libraries and develop the habit of independent thinking. Students had confined themselves to made-easy and aide-books. The anomaly between the degrees and the ability, knowledge and skill was very disturbing and in many cases the candidates could not explain their own research and thesis.”

However, according to the report, the standard of the students of the University of Peshawar had been found satisfactory as compared to the students of Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, AIOU and private sector institutions. Similarly, regular students were considerably better than private students. Despite high marks, the semester system’s products did not perform well as compared to the conventional system of examination.

The commission found that in many cases teachers could not read English newspapers. During interview, a candidate having MA Urdu did not know the author of Dewan-i-Ghalib and a candidate with MA Islamiat degree said: “Ghazwa-i-Khandaq is also called Ghazwa-i-Ohud.” Another candidate with MA History degree replied: “Baitul Moqadus is in Saudi Arabia.”