Voice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Friday, March 29, 2024

Universities in KP facing administrative and financial crisis

Majority of higher education institutes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been passing through administrative and financial crises as many of these universities are functioning without permanent Vice Chancellors and the provincial government is yet to make these long standing appointments within the stipulated time.

According to the data available with Voice of KP, a total of 7 universities in KP, including the university of Peshawar, Islamia College University, Peshawar, FATA University, Darra Adamkhel, Women University Mardan, Abdul Wali Khan university Mardan, University of Swabi and University of Engineering & Technology have been running without VCs and almost all of these universities are passing through financial crises as well. However, the government is yet to take the matter seriously.

The fact cannot be denied that flaws in education system of Pakistan has always been an issue since Pakistan came into being. It is one of the sectors which needs reforms and prompt measures to get it out of crisis.

According to latest report of UNESCO, Pakistan is among top 5 countries where almost 20.2 million students are still out of schools and the number is likely to increase in coming years if the government didn’t take any valuable measures.

Meanwhile, many educational experts have also raised their reservations over the plight of public universities in KP and they have been demanding the government to resolve the matter without any further delay. Else the education institutes are bound to be affected due to lack of finances and poor administration.

While talking to Voice of KP, a renowned educationist Sadeema Bano said that the after the 18th amendment the provincial government is responsible for all the administrative affairs of universities but Federal government has the constitutional responsibility to provide funds to these universities.

She claimed absence of VCs in many universities of KP was nothing but the incompetence of the KP government; adding that the rift between the centre and provinces on funds distribution was one of the main reasons of financial crisis in public sector universities.

She concluded that the government should not play anymore with the future of the students and must take the matter seriously as per it’s legal and constitutional responsibility.

On the other hand many top universities including Peshawar university, Agriculture University Peshawar and Abdul Wali Khan university due to financial crisis have approached Higher Education Commission and provincial government for special grants in order to pay salaries to their employees otherwise they won’t be able to pay salaries to their employees in upcoming months.

It must be noted that the consequences of such ignorance and mis-management will not be good as thousands of students have already been on strike against the online classes and hike in tuition fees. If the government did not overcome all these administrative issues it will soon trigger a province wide student strikes which can create a law and order situation.

In order to avoid any further crisis, KP government should finalize these appointments at priority as they had no other way but to fulfil its constitutional duty and avoid any further crisis in education sector.

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