THE HIGHER EDUCATION CRISIS

A television network has recently been running a scroll saying that scholarship holders for higher studies overseas are not receiving their scholarships and are being forced to beg for help in mosques in foreign countries! A headline says, ‘Congrats government, academicians have been made beggars’.

Stephen Hawking once wrote that during World War II, UK and Germany were engaged in fierce warfare but had reached an understanding that neither side would launch an attack on Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg and Gottingen, because the four places are great centers for learning and higher education!

Incredibly, even though we are in a position to sustain and promote higher education, our elected government is not providing much to help preserve our institutes of learning.

Pakistan just suffered an enormous natural disaster and now it is on its way to experience a colossal man-made disaster – or rather government-made disaster: the higher education crisis. It is unthinkable that the government can go so far as to cut the HEC budget by as much as Rs7 billion. This has hurt universities and will have a devastating effect on the students who are abroad, doing their MS and PhD on the HEC’s scholarship programmes.

Not only this, a reduction in funds will ultimately result in an increase in fees for students studying in government universities. This will make higher education a distant dream for talented but poor students across the country for whom studying in private universities is not possible.

I understand we are a poor country and we are going through a very terrible time but is a cut in education funds justified? Why doesn’t the government take measures to cut the massive spending on defense? Isn’t educating the masses the solution to half the country’s problems? University teachers and academic staff members throughout the country boycotted classes and held protest demonstration against the cut in the annual budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and non-provision of required funds to the public sector universities.Now before anyone criticizes the teachers and professors for going on strike and chanting their slogans, let’s pause. The lawyers did it, the nurses did it and the general public did it – all for various significant causes and because of the attention and pressure, certain results were achieved. Now we should let the education sector have their turn. I still don’t feel this is the best approach to being heard but then again this is a society where you need to scream and shout (and damage a bit of public property) until your demands are met – so honourable faculties, scream away.

Our government clearly does not care for the people or their future. Without higher education, there can be no development for Pakistan.