Author: Arshad Yousafzai

The Provincial Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah on Monday paid a surprise visit to the various offices of the School Education and Literacy Department at the Sindh Secretariat and checked attendance of staffers and officers.

The minister instructed the employees to wear facemasks and use hand senators during duty hours. However, he expresses anger over the lack of cleanliness situation at the offices of the department.

He asked the officers of the IT section to ensure cleanliness. Later the minister took part in picking up used papers and garbage from the offices. Directing the staffers, he said, to complete the files of public issues and strongly urged them not to keep any file in their office without any reason.

Shah warned the staffers to pay full attention to their work and said that he would visit the department from time to time. He said that he will check the performance of all staffers. On the occasion, Secretary College Education Khalid Haider Shah was also present.

Later in a separate meeting with the officials of the College Education Department, the minister expressed anger over frequent cases of unfair means in the ongoing intermediate and matriculation exams.

He said that the college principals would be responsible if any unfair mean case was reported at the college during exams. “The college principal would face disciplinary action and he will be suspended”

The minister also said that the quality of education of the private colleges would be checked in the coming days while all unregistered colleges should be closed. “The registration of new private colleges will be banned until the completion of quality checking procedure”

Sindh University’s deans committee has chalked out a plan to compensate academic loss by conducting the pending papers of the 1st semester examinations from August 11 to 16, 2021 in two shifts: morning & evening at the Allama I.I. Kazi campus and its constituent campuses here on Monday.

Chaired by SU vice chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro at his office, the deans committee approved to start the new academic year from August 23 in order to give back the academic loss occurred due to outbreak of COVID-19 since March 2020.

According to the details, the deans mulled over the matters pertaining to conduct of pending papers, start of new academic session and other issues in the meeting and then unanimously resolved that the examination process should be completed from August 11 to 16, 2021 before youm-e-Ashura.

The house also agreed to begin a new academic session from August 23 while the mode of teaching whether physical or online has been linked with the policy of the Sindh government.

“By August 23, if the provincial government announces the opening of educational institutions, then the physical classes will be commenced at the University of Sindh and its campuses; otherwise we would go for online classes”, the vice chancellor said.

The meeting also decided that the postponed interviews for admissions to M.Phil / MS and Ph.D would be completed from August 12 to 16, 2021.

In this regard, director Research and Graduate Studies Prof. Dr. Shahzad Ahmed Memon was directed to approach the chairpersons and directors of all the departments, centers and institutes to ensure implementation of the decision.

The house agreed that the teachers of all departments shall submit the results of the first semester examinations by September 20, 2021.

In this regard, the chairpersons and directors of the concerned departments and institutes have been asked to approach their faculty to submit results in due course of time so that there may be no further procrastination in announcing the results.

The meeting was attended by Dean Faculty of Pharmacy Prof. Dr. Abdullah Dayo, Dean Faculty of Engineering and Technology Prof. Dr. Khalil-ur-Rehman Khoumbhati, Dean Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration Prof. Dr. Javed Chandio, and others.

The authorities of Sindh Agriculture University have announced to re- schedule the examinations of remaining two papers of first year class, left over due to lockdown in province, the schedule will be released today on 9th August, 2021.

The Government has announced lifting the lockdown from Monday 9th August 2021, and activities have been allowed under strict SOPs, therefore, SAU authorities in principle have allowed to reschedule the left over papers of first year batches in all the facilities on main campus and also in constituted colleges Shaheed ZA Bhutto Agricultural College Dokri, Khairpur College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, and SAU sub campus Umerkot in physical mode.

According to a letter issued by Dr. Abdullah Arijo, Academic Advisor to the Vice Chancellor, due to the lockdown, two papers of first year students were left during the ongoing examinations at the university and its colleges, the new schedule of these examinations will be officially announced today, August 9, 2021 and all the information will be posted on the University website.

While undergraduate batch classes at the University and its colleges and sub-campus will continue in online mode till August 20, and from August 23, 2021, all classes will start on-campus mode. Students are directed to attend university and colleges, for regular academic activities.

CHAKDARA: Malakand University witnesses a spree of syndicates, targeting faculty members in discord with the inquiries-facing Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Gul Zaman who, as per sources, pulls the strings at the prestigious forums. The latest syndicate meeting held on August 3, 2021, became the 10th session during nine months; with the same period seeing three emergency syndicate meetings.

The sequence with which the syndicate meetings are held at the University of Malakand raises questions, as well as makes faculty members concerned after the latter signed a petition against the controversial Vice-Chancellor due to his whimsical amendments to the varsity statutes. Concerns of the faculty members are not baseless as varsity sources mentioned, stating convening syndicate meetings so frequently by the VC has got nothing to do with the welfare of the varsity “but are held again and again only to harass and torture teachers for showing defiance by signing a petition against VC Dr Gul Zaman.”

Malakand University’s administrative affairs face disarray, considering the VC-led victimization campaign against the teachers’ fraternity who, sources claimed, are refused NOCs, as well as their students’ synopsis in the ASRB, are deferred. “We don’t know what to do. Our MPhil and PhD students get their work done on time but we are unable to help them as they faced retribution for selecting us as their supervisors,” lamented a source who is also a signatory to the complaint against Malakand University Vice-Chancellor.

When asked another faculty member about the recent spree of syndicate meetings, he said the VC had nefarious designs of terminating dozens of faculty members not least those who led a peaceful protest wherein he threatened to shoot the protesters in the head. “Look, not only is he abusing his powers of calling a syndicate but is also presenting fake cases against us to the prestigious forum,” confided a faculty member, stating complaints are launched against them from the VC Office on the Pakistan Citizen Portal.

“We are caught up in a dilemma,” said the same faculty member who added: “On the one hand, we anxiously await reports of the two GITs, while on the other, the VC has been torturing us through these syndicate meetings for our defiance against his illegalities causing Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman to launch inquiries against him.”

“We have full confidence in the procedure adopted by the inquiry committee constituted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor after a petition was signed by faculty members against the Vice-Chancellor. But what makes us worry is the fact that it has been almost three-and-a-half months but no report of inquiry committee has been released yet by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government,” maintained faculty members.

It may be mentioned here that the above-mentioned inquiry body was headed by special secretary Higher Education Department Mr Qadar Safi who is known for his honesty and uprightness.

When this scribe dug deep into the issue of delay in the report of the GITs, it emerged that things are not as black and white as they seem to be; with sources in the provincial administration as well as university saying the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Malakand University might be hand in glove.

“You scratch my back, I will scratch yours” one source in the provincial administration told this scribe. “Release of the reports constantly hit snags as high-ups wheel and deal, giving time to the incumbent VC to complete his tenure until October 2021.”

Vice-Chancellor Dr Gul Zaman does not only wheel and deal with top guns in the province, he through his syndicates which, he regularly calls, victimize faculty members. “I was given a charge sheet in the previous emergency syndicate when I was accused of raising my voice with Deputy Registrar,” said Dr Muhammad Usman. “Then I was issued a show-cause notice for talking on a private television,” he lamented, bemoaning: “time of the syndicate was also wasted on a show-cause notice issued to me asking why I failed to complete quota of my classes. I answered the show-cause notice but was astonished to see the complaint against me was launched on the Citizen Portal through the VC Office.”

August 3 syndicate was also used by the Vice-Chancellor to take revenge on voices of dissent, alleged a university source. “Most of the syndicate decisions are given against those who signed the petition against the Vice-Chancellor,” maintained the well-informed source, stating: “Faculty members were issued charge sheets for merely sharing newspapers clips on social media. The same retaliatory measures were taken in the previous syndicates against Dr Muhammad Usman for talking on higher education issues on a private TV channel.”

The latest syndicate meeting also removed Dr Arshad Ali as chairperson of the Department of Management Studies. “This is a classic example of revenge taken by inquiries-facing VC against Dr Arshad Ali who being a sane voice signed the petition against the Vice-Chancellor,” he added.

KARACHI- The Neuroscience Research Center (NRC) at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), University of Karachi (UoK).

The prime objective of this MOU is to establish research programs in Dr. Panjwani Center and NRC with a commitment to the discovery in the field of neuroscience.

The Spokesman of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi on Friday said, “Dr. Panjwani Center works as a constituent center of the ICCBS – University of Karachi.”

He said that the MOU was signed in an online meeting held recently. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, and COMSTECH Coordinator-General, and Prof. Abolhassan Ahmadiani, Director Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences have signed the MOU on behalf of their institutions.

According to the spokesman, the MOU aims to establish a mutually beneficial relationship built on academic, scientific and cultural cooperation. This agreement may include faculty and research staff exchanges, study abroad program, collaborative research programs, including the exchange of voucher samples, and natural product extracts, joint seminars, workshops, and service programs.

The spokesman said that Dr. Panjwani center had initiated a number of scientific programs with the objective to find possible treatments of often neglected and prevalent diseases of Pakistan, as well as associated human resource development, he said, adding that the main objective of the center is to train highly qualified manpower in the emerging new fields of molecular medicine and drug development.

It is worth mentioning here that the basic conceptual aim of the Neuroscience Research Center of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences is to expand the destiny of scientific knowledge and finding appropriate and usable preventive and curative medical procedures.

According to the MOU, this agreement will be in effect for a period of five years from the date of execution and may be extended by mutual agreement in writing by both parties

Taking notice of the sexual harassment complaint posted on social media by a female teacher against Tando Muhammad Khan, the Provincial Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah has instructed the Director Primary Girls Schools Hyderabad to conduct a transparent inquiry into the matter and submit the report within three days.

In a statement, the minister has said that he will personally monitor the case and if he found that the employee was guilty of sexual harassment, he would be getting fired from his job. “If this incident proves to be true, then there is no need for such wolves in our department,” he said, adding “I will not tolerate any such anti-woman attitudes”

Meanwhile, the Director Schools formed a three-member committee and issued suspension orders of the employee allegedly involved in sexual harassment. The notification reads; “With the approval of the competent authority Mr. IA*, Taluka Education Officer of Girls Primary Schools Tando Muhammad Khan is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect”

During the suspension period, the headquarter will be at the Directorate of Primary Girls Schools Hyderabad Region. The employee should ensure his attendance in the directorate. Furthermore, a committee comprising of one female education officer and two males would conduct an inquiry on the allegation leveled by a female teacher on social media. The committee is bound to submit its report with three days.

Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology will award gold medal and cash prize of Rs. 2 lacs to Olympian Arshad Nadeem, the SSUET Chancellor Jawaid Anwar announced on Friday.

In a statement, the Chancellor said that he will award gold medal and cash prize of Rs. 2 lacs to Arshad Nadeem who qualified for the final round of javelin throw at Tokyo Olympics.

Chancellor Jawaid Anwar said that Arshad Nadeem qualified for the Tokyo Olympics due to his great performance. He not only qualified to participate in the Olympics but he also qualified for the final round and made history on the basis of his remarkable performance in the qualifying round at the Olympics.

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Vali Uddin said, Olympian Arshad Nadeem’s brilliant performance is a result of his untiring struggle, passion , and dedication by which he reached the final of the mega event. Sir Syed University and whole nation hope that he will perform much better in final round and will bring Olympic medal to the country. We wish him good luck.

Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali said that Sir Syed University will organize an event in the honour of Arshad Nadeem to award him a gold medal and a cash prize of 2 lacs. SSUET always encourage national heroes in the field of Sports. We organize sports’ events throughout the year for all the students of Sir Syed University and other academic institutes. In past SSUET student Abdul Haseem Khan has become captain of Pakistan Hockey Team and we honoured him too.

The Sindh Testing Services managed by the Sukkar Institute of Business Administration (SIBA) has raised objections over the applications of thousands of Madresah students who applied for the positions of Junior Schoolteachers, Sindhi Language Teachers, Primary Schoolteachers, and Junior Elementary Schoolteachers.

Earlier this year, former Provincial Education Minister Saeed Ghani had told the Sindh Assembly that the government had issued an advertisement for recruiting teachers, but due to the Covid-19 situation in the province, it could not hold exams. Later, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired a cabinet session in which a policy to hire as many as 46,500teachers through IBA Sukkur was approved.

Last month, while presiding over a meeting at the office of the school education secretary, the former minister informed that so far the SELD has received five hundred thousand applications for the recruitment of 46,500 PSTs, JESTs, SLTs and others.

Directing the IBA Sukkur, he said, to conduct a transparent recruitment test in the second week of August and ensure the installation of CCTV cameras at examination centers. On July 31, however, the government announced a 9-day lockdown across the province and halted all examinations.

At the same time, the SIBA while scrutinizing the documents of the candidates found that thousands of candidates especially the Madrasas graduates have not attached BA degrees with their applications. Later, they were informed through the STS portal to attach the BA degrees. However, these candidates were unable to follow SIBA’s instructions.

According to them, the Madrasah students have Masters Degree Equivalency issued to them by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. As per the HEC rules, the students who complete 8-year education in religious seminaries with matriculation are qualified to get an equivalency certificate of 16-year education from the HEC. Therefore, they have requested the SIBA officials to consider their equivalency certificates.

Muhammad Idress who faces the same problem told; “We have not been provided a separate BA degree or mark sheet while the two-year BA program has been declared unauthorized by the Commission. This is why a majority of the Madrasas students have not applied to get admission to BA programs. “However, we have Sands (certificates) which are equivalent to BA”.

He said that the SIBA should accept our equivalency certificate of 16-year education. “Rejecting applications of the Madrasas students without any valid reason would be considered the worst form of discrimination. We qualify to appear in the recruitment test for the positions of Islamiat teachers, Arabic schoolteachers, and Qeraat Schoolteachers on the basis of our or educational credentials. This is why it’s government responsibility to provide us equal opportunities of jobs”.

Karachi’s two districts lead in high literacy rate in Pakistan

Karachi’s two districts—Central and Korangi, have the highest literacy rate in Pakistan after Islamabad and Rawalpindi as compared to other parts of the country, the latest statistics recently issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reveal.

However, Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21 mentions the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement that read; “The literacy rate of the population aged 10 years and above is stagnant at 60 percent in 2019-20. But provincial analysis suggests that Punjab has the highest literacy rate with 64 percent followed by Sindh with 58 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 55 percent, and Balochistan with 46 percent.

According to the PBS census, Rawalpindi stands first with the highest literacy rate with 82.45 percent of its total population. The data shows that male literacy in Rawalpindi is 88.02 percent while its female literacy rate is 76.79. Similarly, the literacy rate in rural areas of the city is 79.89 and the urban are at 84.48 percent.

Following the city of Rawalpindi, Karachi’s Central District spotted on the second with the literacy rate 81.52 percent of its total population. Of them, 81.90 percent are male and 81.13 percent are female. The statistics also show that the literacy rate of trans-people for each district. In Karachi’s Central District, the literacy rate of transgender people is 47.98 percent.

Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad stands at the 3rd position in terms of literacy rate. The city has 81.49 percent educated population. Of them, 86.55 are male and 75.83 are female. The literacy rate of trans people in Islamabad is 55.36. Subsequently, Korangi stands 4th in the list of highly educated districts. Its literacy rate is 80.19 percent. Of them, 81.51 are male, 76 are female and 57.86 are transgender people.

Literacy in provincial capitals,

As per the PBS data, Lahore’s 77.80 percent population is educated. The male literacy rate in Lahore is 79 percent while it is 64 percent for the female and 46 percent for transgender. Faisalabad’s literacy rate is 69.83 percent, Multan has 60.21 percent and Sialkot has 77.90 percent literacy rate. Among other districts, Jhelum has the highest literacy rate with 78.94 after Rawalpindi. Also, Gujrat is spotted in the fourth position with a literacy rate 78.68 percent.

In Sindh province Kornagi and Central District have been listed in areas having the highest literacy rate. But, 65.76 percent population of Hyderabad district is also educated. Sukkar’s literacy rate is 54, Mirpukhas has 42 percent, and Larkana has 53 percent literacy rate. Other districts of Sindh with the highest literacy are included Karachi South with 77 percent, Karachi West with 65 percent, and Malir with 63 percent.

Peshawar city has 55.04 percent literacy rate while FR Peshawar has 53 percent literacy rate. However, Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the highest literacy with 76.20 percent as compared to other districts of KP. Haripur has 72 percent, Chitral has 64 percent, Karak has 63 percent, Mansehra has 62 percent and Malakand Protected area has 61 percent literacy rate.

In Balochistan, Quetta city has 58 percent educated population. Of them, 69 percent are male, 46 are female and 39 percent are transgender. The literacy of rural Quetta is 49 percent while it is 69 percent for urban areas. The districts with the top literacy rate are Kech with 62 percent, Pangur with 59 percent, and Pishin with 52 percent.

The worst literacy rate

The statistics reveal that FR Bannu has the worst literacy with 18.69 after FR D.I. Khan with a literacy rate 20 percent. However, FR Lakki Marwat has 20.37 percent and Torghar district has 22.01 percent literacy rate followed by Kohistan with the low literacy rate of 22 percent.

Also, the southern parts of Punjab have low literacy rate. District Rajanpur has 33 percent, D.G Khan has 46 and Lodhran has 47 percent literacy rate. In Sindh, Sujawal has 25 percent, Thatta has 27 and Tharparkar has 29 percent literacy rate.

In Balochistan, Kohlu district has the lowest literacy rate with 18 percent of its total population. And, three other districts included Washuk, Jhalmagsi, and Nasirabad have a literacy rate of 23 percent while Barkhan, Dera Bugti, and Awaran have 25 percent literacy respectively.

Read more: KPK shows the highest literacy growth rate in PES 2021-22

Sindh Nurses Examination Board Karachi on Tuesday rescheduled the first and second phases of annual examinations.

According to the notification issued by the SNEBK, the chairman of the board in the pursuance of the provincial government orders has suspended all the examinations. The concerned quarters are hereby informed that the examinations for the session 2020-21 which were earlier scheduled from August 8 to August 13 have been postponed due to the prevailing situation of the Covid-19 emergency.

The tentative date for first phase-1 has been rescheduled from August 22 to August 27. Likewise, the schedule for phase-II has been rescheduled from 29 August to September 4. It is further requested to the principals of nursing schools, colleges and institutes to inform their students to join their clinical duties for Covid-19 Vaccination Centers.