Welcome abolition of self-finance in medical colleges
By Khalid Khattak
LAHORE: THE recent announcement of Punjab Chief Minister regarding abolition of self-finance scheme for admission to the medical colleges has given hope to hundreds of prospective students of engineering, pharmacy and other demand driven disciplines.They are of the view that the government should ensure merit based admission in all disciplines without any discrimination. They believe self-finance scheme for admissions in engineering, other professional studies and even in general education was also depriving deserving students as were being deprived in medical colleges.Talking to The News, a number of students welcomed the recent decision regarding abolition self-finance scheme for admission to medical colleges of the province. Nonetheless they demanded the government to abolish such schemes from all the institutions offering professional as well as general education.Fahad, a student, said admission on self-finance basis should be abolished from all the public sector colleges and universities so that admission and educational facilities could be provided only to intelligent and deserving students. He was of the view that discipline of engineering and pharmacy were as important as that of medical. He said students now hoped that the government would also make efforts to eliminate self-finance schemes from other colleges and universities especially those offering professional education. Another student, Bilal, said seats reserved for self finance quota should be merged with merit seats so that more and more talented students could avail the opportunity to study at public sector institutions. He said poor but talented students could not afford education in private sector institutions because these were costly as compared to public sector institutions.According to the Punjab University (PU) website a student seeking admission on self-finance basis has to pay Rs 2, 50,000 for admission in, any one of, pharmacy, architecture and engineering programme of the university whereas Rs 200,000 are charged from a student seeking admission in BBA (Hons) in Banking and Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, MBA, BCom and MCom etc under the said scheme.Similarly, the Government College University (GCU), Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), Kinnaird College and many other public sector colleges and universities of the province offer admission on self finance basis. However, those who are at the helm are very critical of the emerging situation saying self-finance scheme for admission was introduced by the government for resource generation adding seats on financial basis were normally over and above the merit seats.Talking to The News, vice-chancellors (VCs) of various public sector universities said universities were ready to drop the self-finance scheme provided that government ensured matching grants as resource generation was certainly a tough job. “All the universities do not conduct examinations or grant affiliations like the Punjab University”, said one of the VCs, on condition of anonymity, adding these exercises were certainly sources of revenue. “But this is not the case with all the universities,” he said adding that admissions on self-finance basis were certainly helping institutions generate their resources.He said if the government ensured provision of appropriate funding for universities, public sector institutions would not hesitate to abolish self finance scheme for admission in all the disciplines.
Source: The News International
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
DHA schools deny admission to outsiders
Parents required to submit original allotment letters,tenancy agreements to prove residence in DHA
By Khalid Khattak
LAHORE: The administration of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has allegedly banned the admission of non-residents’ children to the schools run by the authority, The News has learnt.A number of parents expressed their concern over the ban terming it tantamount to infringement on the basic human rights. They said the administration had, in fact, adopted an unfair policy by restricting access of the non-DHA children to its schools, adding the schools should be open to all the children without any discrimination. An aggrieved parent while talking to The News said, after the ban, the parents seeking their children’s admissions to the DHA schools were required to provide original allotment letters or original tenancy agreements to prove their residence in DHA. Shahid, the parent of a child, said the new policy was affecting a large number of people of the DHA surrounding localities as their children were being denied admissions to DHA run schools. “The residents of Gulberg, Cantt and other localities prefer to send their children to DHA schools because of quality education being offered by the institutes”, he said adding “However, the new policy has disappointed and deprived them of the facility”.Shafiq, another citizen affected by the ban, expressed his apprehensions regarding the new admission policy saying it would promote corruption as some people might arrange fake tenancy agreements to prove their residence in the Defence Housing Authority in order to secure their children’s admission to the DHA-run- schools. “Such issues are likely to be witnessed in future if DHA does not reverse the policy”, he said, demanding the DHA authorities to immediately withdrawal the decision. “Is DHA out of Pakistan?” asked Sadia, a mother of two, saying it was unfortunate that children of non-DHA residents were being given the least priority for admissions to the DHA-run schools. “If things go on like this, the non-DHA residents may have to provide a visa for entry in the DHA in future”, she commented. It has been learnt by The News that around five educational institutions are currently operating in the DHA under the control of its administration where a large number of students, both from within and outside the DHA, are getting education.When contacted, spokesperson DHA, Tajamul Hussain, said the DHA residents had been complaining that their children could not get admission to the Authority’s schools, adding a policy had recently been introduced according to which children of the residents would be given first priority for admission. He said, earlier, the DHA schools had been following open policy, adding, from the new academic session, the schools would follow new policy according to which only children of the DHA residents would be given admission on priority basis. He further said non-DHA residents were not being denied admission, adding, however, they were on the second priority. DHA Director Education Col (r) K S Babar, however, denied introduction of any new policy in connection with the admissions to the DHA schools. He said DHA residents had been given priority, adding children of the non-DHA residents had also been granted admission since long.
Source: The News International
Sunday, 13 June, 2008
By Khalid Khattak
LAHORE: The administration of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has allegedly banned the admission of non-residents’ children to the schools run by the authority, The News has learnt.A number of parents expressed their concern over the ban terming it tantamount to infringement on the basic human rights. They said the administration had, in fact, adopted an unfair policy by restricting access of the non-DHA children to its schools, adding the schools should be open to all the children without any discrimination. An aggrieved parent while talking to The News said, after the ban, the parents seeking their children’s admissions to the DHA schools were required to provide original allotment letters or original tenancy agreements to prove their residence in DHA. Shahid, the parent of a child, said the new policy was affecting a large number of people of the DHA surrounding localities as their children were being denied admissions to DHA run schools. “The residents of Gulberg, Cantt and other localities prefer to send their children to DHA schools because of quality education being offered by the institutes”, he said adding “However, the new policy has disappointed and deprived them of the facility”.Shafiq, another citizen affected by the ban, expressed his apprehensions regarding the new admission policy saying it would promote corruption as some people might arrange fake tenancy agreements to prove their residence in the Defence Housing Authority in order to secure their children’s admission to the DHA-run- schools. “Such issues are likely to be witnessed in future if DHA does not reverse the policy”, he said, demanding the DHA authorities to immediately withdrawal the decision. “Is DHA out of Pakistan?” asked Sadia, a mother of two, saying it was unfortunate that children of non-DHA residents were being given the least priority for admissions to the DHA-run schools. “If things go on like this, the non-DHA residents may have to provide a visa for entry in the DHA in future”, she commented. It has been learnt by The News that around five educational institutions are currently operating in the DHA under the control of its administration where a large number of students, both from within and outside the DHA, are getting education.When contacted, spokesperson DHA, Tajamul Hussain, said the DHA residents had been complaining that their children could not get admission to the Authority’s schools, adding a policy had recently been introduced according to which children of the residents would be given first priority for admission. He said, earlier, the DHA schools had been following open policy, adding, from the new academic session, the schools would follow new policy according to which only children of the DHA residents would be given admission on priority basis. He further said non-DHA residents were not being denied admission, adding, however, they were on the second priority. DHA Director Education Col (r) K S Babar, however, denied introduction of any new policy in connection with the admissions to the DHA schools. He said DHA residents had been given priority, adding children of the non-DHA residents had also been granted admission since long.
Source: The News International
Sunday, 13 June, 2008
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