AQEELA ASIF
IN these challenging times, it is more apparent than ever that the universities and research institutions share their knowledge, innovation, and expertise they produce. It is essential for the wellbeing of our nation. The way government of Pakistan and universities with available resources have stepped up to lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is very encouraging. It is important to mention here that from cutting-edge medical science to support local communities, universities need to show how they can make a vital impact on society. The role of academia is needed most at international level in general and at national level in particular. It is also heartening to see that people-to-people contact has been enhanced in ongoing emergency situation and also continue to engage and collaborate across borders via social media and internet. The thriving virtual networks on climate change, peace building through higher education may be more effective as compared to other options to combat COVID-19. In order to better understand how the current pandemic is affecting higher education around the world, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and other concerned authorities need to study the policy formulation of successful cases to ease the issues and problems of students and faculty in Pakistan. There is dire need to find the ways in which we can reimagine the future of universities and review the policies of higher education in Pakistan.
Another big question is how long our shutdown will last, especially for the education sector and students. Lockdown almost everywhere in Pakistan is now in place and intend to contain an outbreak before it gets out of control. The lockdown started in Pakistan when spring semester was on, in universities all over the Pakistan. Online classes is the best solution to save the time and career of the students without any interruption but available insufficient facilities and expertise are big hurdle to start and mange it. Faculty is ready to teach and students are ready to learn but relevant authorities need to fund the universities to build their infrastructure for online teaching. There are many theory based courses which can be taught online, however, lab work needs another virtual lab infrastructure to be implemented. There would be breech of quality control if we teach the theoretical part of the course to students without associated experiment part in labs and award them engineering and professional degrees. The HEC needs to issue funds to universities on an urgent basis and assign them task with time bound. In this regard it is an urgent requirement to engage the capable youth and highly qualified manpower for the cause. Statistics reflects that all those countries that have followed precautionary measures and took practical steps, handled the situation and controlled the death rate, South Korea and Singapore are the examples. The countries which delayed the precautionary measures policy due to any reason have no control over the pandemic and experienced high death rate, for instance, Italy, Spain, Iran and USA are in bad state.
Speedy expansion of pandemic has changed the whole scenario of the world. Almost all countries of the world were not prepared to handle such kind of emergency situation. Sense of time and Corona Virus issue has created boundless misperception, within very short span of time the concept of short term and long term policies have been altered. International affairs, policies, politics, business, relations and declare friends and foes require another touch of policy formulation with unexplored angle. Although, there is history of such pandemic but at that time the scenario and requirements were different, now we are living in modern era with modern facilities and yet we have no idea how to deal with such kind of sudden problems. What kind of expertise we need? How to look into emergency situation and convince the masses with control and command? If the solution is not available in any state of the world then how to sustain with all strength or weaknesses? Covid-19 is the biggest challenge and no one is in a position to indicate the exact date and time of the end of social distancing and quarantine. No one seems to have any sense of how we will resolve the issue? How much capacity we have to contain the outbreak and at what levels we can cover? It is more than a month elapsed but no comprehensive and well defined policy outline has been surfaced in Pakistan. Whole system in this regard is operative under “Trial and Error” basis. The speedy outbreak of viral diseases is spreading with horrifying figures. Community awareness, participation, visionary decision making and implementation of policies in this regard may save us from extreme consequences. Of course, quality and sincere leadership reduce the damage and drive the nation and keep it on right track with comprehensive policy measures to avert turbulence in the State. The plan to deal with it needs sudden attention with capable and dedicated team members as it is the question of millions of lives. In a haphazard way, we cannot handle this crisis with positive outcome and ready to face pitch darkness.
—The writer is Assistant Professor COMSATS University.
