Karachi, Teachers from all public and private sector were not satisfied with the budget allocation towards higher education for fiscal year 2011-2012. Different faculty members including Dean Faculty of Management Sciences at the Karachi University (KU), Dr Abuzar Wajidi, said that the 30 billion rupees set aside for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was not sufficient in the maintenance of high rate of inflation if we consider the current situation of the country.
“I think it will retard the pace of ongoing research work and new projects will be hard to come by. The education sector has always been given the lowest priority,” he observed.While Vice President and Registrar of Iqra University Dr Syed Akif Hasan agreed that the share was not enough, he gave suggestion that public sector universities should now strive for financial independence by generating their own funds.
“Dependence on the government for funds minimises the quality of research as well as the regular course curriculum. The money is either too meager or more than required, which negatively effect’s the financial management capacity of the universities. It reduces the decision making power and hampers growth in educational standards”, Dr Hasan said.KU’s Chairperson for the Department of Economics Dr Shafiqur Rehman termed the higher education budget as ‘peanuts’ and said that it seemed that the government give last priority to the education’s budget.
Vice Chancellor Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) Dr Muhammad Qaiser further explained that budget’s amount was not adequate for the education sector and the government has also raised the salary of staff members. He echoed Wajid’s view that the state of inflation in the country also called for a higher education budget.
“Research and academic excellence cannot be achieved until we have good faculty members that are adequate in number and are also well-equipped with laboratories as well as libraries”, he said.