ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The recently established National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) is facing the challenge of ensuring fulfillment of international standards in all agricultural universities.
The HEC has established the council in the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc), with the hope to ensure that all agriculture degree-awarding institutions meet at least the minimum international standards. But, this important task needs a lot of willpower on behalf of the NAEAC, keeping in view the rusty infrastructure of the country’s institutions, which award agricultural degrees with no or little recognition abroad.
Pakistan’s economy is largely based on agriculture, but the nation has been dreaming of a green revolution since its independence. The country is faced with the tough challenge of ensuring value addition in agriculture and improving the quality of agricultural institutions.
The first meeting of the NAEAC, which was held here the other day, was pre-occupied with discussing the challenges that lay ahead. Though, Dr ME Tusneem, chairman Parc and NAEAC, has shown his resolve to make the accreditation a pre-requisite for all the institutions, which award degrees in subjects related to the field of agriculture, introducing international standards to each and every degree programme would still require much more time.
A few of the council’s members told Dawn that the council was handling a large number of degree programmes and ensuring quality and standards for each programme was a huge challenge.
They said Pakistan was far behind other nations in producing quality agricultural scientists and experts.
They said the council was supposed to announce accreditation to various programmes, included Agronomy and Crop Physiology, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Agriculture Entomology, Plant Pathology, Forestry, Range Management and Wildlife, Horticulture, Soil and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Economics and Extension, Animal Science, Weed Science and Plant Protection. Some other programmes, like Agri-Bio-Technology is likely to be added to this list in the near future.
“The job is very tough and needs some serious efforts on behalf of the council. Mere holding meetings would not do any goods,” a member said.
The council members are drawn from faculties of agriculture universities, agriculture research institutions, provincial agriculture departments and leading agro-industries.
The HEC, as per its ordinance, had established the NAEAC last year. The council is mandated to administer the accreditation process, based on the approved policies, procedures and criteria and approve a list of evaluators and constitute an accreditation inspection committee (AIC) of evaluators, headed by the council’s chairperson.
The council will also collect, compile and develop a database of statistics on accredited programmes.