KARACHI: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood here on Thursday denied any cut in the budgetary allocation for Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan.
Responding to queries raised by students and educationists, following his detailed presentation on "Education System of Pakistan : Challenges and Way Forward organized by Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL), he strongly dispelled the impression that funds for the Commission may have been slashed.
On the contrary the allocation for HEC and its varied schemes were cited to be complimented by funding for its numerous ongoing projects under National Development Programs by the current federal government of the country.
They were released Rs. 65 billion in the previous fiscal year while Rs.58 billion have been allocated for current year and this is besides a substantial amount of funds for different ongoing projects of the HEC, said Shafqat Mahmood.
To another query about lack of jobs for by PhDs in Microbiology and many of the other subjects in the country, the Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National History and Literary Heritage attributed the situation to lack of planning.
"This is an issue along with that of questionable quality of the degree holders," he commented.
Shafqat Mahmood said that he in his personal capacity was of the view that Higher Education should be under the federal government and that he at the same time do believe that there should be least involvement of the governments in sphere of higher education and research.
"Public policy and policy implantation is a very complicated process in our country and for this we have to rectify the system." said the federal education minister in reply to a question about how to improve the process of recruitment and also how to hold the teachers accountable.
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