Annual meeting of IPS-National Academic Council (2020)
Deteriorating state of governance, education sector detrimental to country’s future: IPS’ National Academic Council
Senior academics and experts, including four
vice chancellors of different universities from across Pakistan have termed
unchecked governance deficit and institutional deterioration of education
sector, especially higher education, in the country as two of the biggest
domestic challenges, cautioning that failure in addressing these issues can
prove extremely destructive for the nation.
These apprehensions were shared at the annual
meeting of the National Academic Council (NAC) of Institute of Policy Studies
(IPS), Islamabad on September 12, 2020. The session was chaired by Executive
President IPS Khalid Rahman and addressed by Ambassador (r) Shamshad Ahmed
Khan, Syed Abu Ahmad Akif, former federal secretary, Dr Anis Ahmad, vice
chancellor, Riphah International University, Prof Dr Anwar-ul-Hassan Gilani,
vice chancellor, University of Haripur, Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat, vice
chancellor, University of Sindh, Dr Syed Tahir Hijazi, vice chancellor, Muslim
Youth University, Dr Syed M Junaid Zaidi, executive director, COMSATS
University, Dr Adnan Sarwar Khan, former dean of social sciences, University of
Peshawar, Dr Abdul Rauf Rafiqui, director, Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai Chair,
University of Balochistan, Dr Noreen Saher, chairperson, Department of
Anthropology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Fasih Uddin, former
chief economist of Pakistan, Mirza Hamid Hasan, former federal secretary, Air
Cdr (r) Khalid Iqbal, and Amanullah Khan, former president, Rawalpindi Chamber
of Commerce and Industry.
It’s worth mentioning here that IPS-NAC is a
supervisory consultative body comprising renowned intellectuals, scholars,
academicians and field experts from across Pakistan brought together on one
platform to deliberate matters of national significance and in turn help steer
the Institute’s research work with their guidance.
The speakers raised various governance-related
issues prevailing in the country, maintaining that the government’s machinery
depends heavily on bureaucracy and hence it was important for the latter to
play their part positively. They also suggested revisiting the colonial
structure of the bureaucracy and reforming it according to the contemporary
best practices. They believed that the country’s situation cannot improve
unless the bureaucracy begins to understand and play its role diligently.
Dr Burfat directed attention towards the
deteriorating condition of government educational institutions, especially
universities, due to lack of resources and political appointments creating
overemployment over the years. Speaking about the importance of strengthening
government institutions and allowing them to work as per their mandate without
any interference, Dr Burfat revealed that political intervention in
universities after the 18th constitutional amendment has increased
manifold and was affecting their autonomy and academic standard considerably.
Contemplating the prevailing deficiencies in
the country’s education system, Dr Gilani pointed out that a good education
system should be aimed at instilling confidence and creativity in students and
shaping their character. However, he said the current system was missing out on
this critical part comprehensively.
Dr Saher also spoke on similar lines, stating
that curriculum designing the world over revolved around three important
features; information, skills and attitude building. In Pakistan, however, the
focus was primarily on the informational aspect, ignoring the skills and
attitude building part almost in its entirety. The result of this approach,
according to her, was a lot well versed in information but lacking the skills
as well as the attitude to excel professionally.
Fasih Uddin and Dr Zaidi laid a lot of stress
on science and technological education, calling it the need of the hour,
especially in the wake of challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Dr Sarwar, on the other hand, was wary of
over-dependence of students on technology which, according to him, could
deteriorate their thinking and self-learning capacity, and hence he suggested
adopting a balanced approach.
Hamid Hasan talked about critically reviewing
the West-influenced mentality where every academic endeavor was evaluated as
per the Western paradigm while every locally generated discourse or
indigenously produced narrative was looked down as mediocre in nature.
Dr Anis called for forging
a proactive instead of a reactive mindset when it comes to research and
academic endeavors. He stressed that our beliefs and culture had their own set
of positives and strengths, and hence one should encourage local scholarship that
is pursuing any discourse with an indigenous approach.
