Ehsan-ur-Rehman


Education, and especially higher education, is an important indicator of any country's development. However, our motherland, Pakistan, is among those unlucky nations who have never given due importance to this vital sector during the past 65 years.

We are even far behind our neighbouring country India, which got independence a day after Pakistan, as far as the literacy rate is concerned. Successive governments in the country have ignored the education sector, especially higher education, during the past six decades. Even democratic setups failed to give education priority. However, during the previous dictatorial rule of General Pervez Musharraf, at least higher education got some boost.

In response to the growing concerns about the nation lagging in higher education achievement, the country launched Higher Education Reform, led by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, adviser to then President Pervez Musharraf in 2002. The initiative resulted in over fivefold increase in public funding for universities, with a special emphasis on science, technology and engineering.

Various unprecedented plans were made part of the reform, supporting initiatives such as a free national digital library and high-speed Internet access for universities as well as new scholarships enabling more than 2,000 students to study abroad for Ph. Ds - with incentives to return to Pakistan afterward.

The years of reform coincided with increases in the number of Pakistani authors publishing in research journals, especially in mathematics and engineering, as well as boosting the impact of their research outside Pakistan.

The progress made by the higher education sector in the country in the last decade is reflected from the increase in enrolment from 276,000 students in 2003 to 803,000 in 2011; increase in number of universities and degree-awarding institutes from 59 in the year 2000 to 137 by 2011, and an increase in international research publications from only 636 in 2000 to 6,200 in 2011.
The Ph.D output too underwent an explosive growth. During the 55-year period from 1947 to 2002, only 3,281 Ph.Ds had been granted by all our universities (a shocking average of about 3-4 Ph.Ds per university per year)! During the subsequent eight-year period from 2003 to 2010, this number was exceeded and 3,658 Ph.Ds were granted. There was maximum emphasis on quality, as all Ph.D theses were evaluated by at least two top experts in technologically advanced countries before approval.

Talking to Cutting Edge, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the silent revolution that occurred in the higher education sector in Pakistan was lauded by neutral international experts and agencies and numerous reports published on it. In a book published by the Royal Society (London) entitled A New Golden Age, the example of Pakistan was cited as the best model to be followed by other developing countries. Nature, the world's leading science journal, published four editorials and several articles on the transformation that was occurring in Pakistan and advised the new government in 2008 not to go back to the "stone age" that existed prior to the reforms introduced after 2002 in higher education.

The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education declared it as "Pakistan's golden period in higher education" and called for Dr. Atta's reappointment after he had resigned in protest against the suspension of scholarships of the HEC scholars sent abroad. This scientist was conferred a high civil award by the Austrian government and the TWAS (Italy) Prize for institution-building, for leading these changes.

However, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman regretted that after the remarkable progress achieved in higher education during 2003-2008, we have been systematically trying to destroy the one sector that had raised a gleam of hope among the masses. He said that first the development budget of the higher education sector was slashed by about 50 per cent in 2009. Then, the scholarships of the several thousand Pakistani students studying in foreign universities were withheld, forcing them to go literally begging for funds on the streets of countries where they had gone to brighten their future. This was followed by the status of the executive director of the HEC as a federal secretary being withdrawn, thereby preventing the HEC from holding Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) meetings and approving projects for Pakistani universities. The projects to establish foreign engineering universities in major cities of Pakistan were closed down.

This would have saved Rs. 50 billion annually and provided Pakistani students with the opportunity of getting quality education with foreign degrees without going abroad, Dr. Atta added.

The former chairman of the HEC said that the Commission was, in fact, victimised by authorities for pointing out frauds committed by the parliamentarians to get their degrees. The HEC had found that 51 of our "honourable" parliamentarians had forged degrees and those of another 250 parliamentarians were doubtful. In any other country, such persons would have had to go to jail for cheating and forgery. However, the Election Commission, instead of declaring their elections null and void, became a party to the game, in clear defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, regretted Dr. Atta. "Why the Supreme Court has chosen to look the other way in this matter of enormous national importance is beyond understanding."
Dr. Atta said that a group of these "honourable" parliamentarians with forged degrees plotted to destroy the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, and under their pressure a government notification was issued on November 30, 2010, shredding the HEC into pieces.

The former chief of HEC said that on his appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the government notification was overturned and the apex court declared the move as unconstitutional. But greedy and evil designs continue, he said. Another bill moved in parliament recently was directed to take away the Rs. 44 billion budget of the HEC from the 17-member commission and give the funds to a secretary in the federal government to distribute. This would open the doors to corruption, he believes. At present, the powers to allocate funds are vested with a 17-member commission that included four provincial secretaries, two federal secretaries, vice chancellors and eminent citizens. But after a secretary becomes a custodian of the huge funds, it would be very easy for the corrupt government authorities to manipulate things, he expressed his fears.

Dr. Atta believes that India is far ahead of Pakistan in the higher education sector. Appreciating the neighbouring country's efforts in the sector, Dr. Atta said that over the next five years India would establish 200 new universities and 40 new high-level institutes. Nine additional IITs would also be established, bringing the total number of IITs to 16. A sum of Rs. 800 billion, the biggest-ever allocation, is being set aside in the 12th five-year-plan of India (2012-2017) to propel it into a strong knowledge-based economy, Dr. Atta said referring to a speech made by a minister in the Indian parliament.

He said that India has presently 17 per cent of its youth between the ages of 17 of 23 enrolled in the higher education sector (as opposed to Pakistan's 7.6 per cent). According to a report published in The Hindustan Times on April 25, India plans to increase this enrolment to 30 per cent of the same age group by the year 2030. India has decided to replace its University Grants Commission with a stronger federally funded organisation, National Commission of Higher Education and Research. This was approved by the Indian Cabinet in December 2011. But in Pakistan, it is regretable to see the dissolution of the HEC and devolving it to the provinces, as a weaker entity.

Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the recent steps taken by India are the result of a detailed presentation made to the Indian prime minister in July 2006, by Prof. CNR Rao about the threat posed by the remarkable transformation underway in higher education in Pakistan. In an article entitled "Pak threat to Indian science," Neha Mehta wrote in The Hindustan Times on July 23, 2006: "Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science."
This presentation to the Indian prime minister set in motion a whole set of reforms in the higher education sector in India with a sharp increase in the salary structures of academics and a manifold increase in the budget for higher education.

India had been giving the highest priority to higher education, science and
technology for decades.

Dr. Atta said that while India was progressing in leaps and bounds to strengthen its higher education, science and technology sectors, Pakistan was fast sinking deeper into a quagmire, created by incompetent and crooked parliamentarians.

-Cuttingedge