Lahore’s colleges have performed poorly in BA/BSc examinations this year as well, exposing the performance of the Punjab government in the education sector. College Teachers Association alleged that poor performance of Directorate of Public Instructions (DPI) Colleges and anti-teachers policies of the government were the main causes of the bad results.
Teachers also blamed DPI Colleges Dr Jalil Tariq for the poor performance. Only one top position was secured by a student of a government college while all the rest went to private colleges and no student in Lahore’s 50 government colleges was able to secure a top position. Around 153,688 students from 478 colleges appeared in the examinations, of which most were from government colleges.
The pass percentage in most of the government colleges was below 25 percent while some colleges also showed a zero percent pass result. Lahore has long prided itself for being a ‘city of colleges’ but this year’s results have let it down. These colleges have been provided with all sorts of facilities and funds but have not been able to benefit from them. “No position was secured by government school students in the matriculation exams also,” a college professor asking not to be named said, adding “the government’s poor policy is the cause”.
“Daanish schools will prove to be a failure also, like all the other projects initiated by the government,” a female lecturer asking not to be named said, adding that the government had appointed incompetent officers as DPIs. She said stern action needed to be initiated against officers and principals whose colleges were showing poor performance.
Punjab Professor’s and Lecturers Association (PPLA) President Dr Zahid Sheikh also criticised the DPI colleges and said he had no knowledge of how to run the affairs of colleges, adding that the government was hampering the development of the education sector because of its policies. He said bonuses and other initiatives needed to be introduced to encourage teachers and brilliant students to work even harder and policy hurdles needed to be removed. He said over 5,000 posts were vacant in colleges but the government was not hiring teachers, adding that difficulties were being created in the process of promotion of in-service teachers.
