KARACHI, May 27: The Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS) has alleged that the task force on higher education was attempting to make the higher education a saleable commodity.
In a meeting on Monday, the teachers’ organization upheld its unanimous decision to reject the report of the task force terming it anti-education, anti-students, anti-teachers and as such anti-Pakistan.
The teachers viewed that if the recommendations of the task force were adopted, higher education in the country would be accessible only to those who could afford it, blocking the way of the poor but meritorious students to enter the institutions of higher education.
It was pointed out that if the recommendations were implemented, only the educational institutions and university departments offering the disciplines of IT, business administration, commerce, medicines and engineering and technology would flourish and the other departments of pure sciences, arts and humanities would gradually vanish and thus the entire foundation of the society would collapse.
The meeting, which was chaired by Karachi University Teachers’ Society president Dr Fahimuddin, upheld the recruitment policy at the public sector universities and maintained that one-plus point for the governance of the public universities was far more transparent system as compared to those prevalent in other institutions in the country.
According to KUTS secretary Sarwar Nasim, senior office-bearers of the Federation of All-Pakistan University Academic Staff Association, Sindh chapter, would announce their reactions on the proposed university ordinance and future line of action at a press conference at the University of Karachi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a senior teacher at the university has viewed that the task force had dubiously set aside the critical issues like autonomy, transparency, resource constraints, bureaucratic and political intervention, group politics and poor physical/ research facilities and focussed its attention on a single factor, ie. poor governance.
The recommendations marginalize teachers’ role in the organisational structure, decision-making and the developmental process, he observed.