Staff Reporter
Punjab Minister for Higher Education Department Raja Yasir Humayun Saturday said the government had planned to establish universities at district level across the province. Addressing a press conference at the Directorate General of Public Relations (DGPR) here, he said that initially eight universities would be opened at districts of Mianwali, Murree, Bhakkar, Chakwal, Nankana Sahib, Layyah and two universities at Rawalpindi.
“Models of these universities have already been finalised,” he added. The minister said that it was a roadmap and under this project, universities at divisional headquarters would be main campuses of the universities which would be inter-connected.
He said that the project would bring an educational revolution in the province. He said that the government had already been working on merit-base appointments of heads of educational institutions under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding that the vice chancellors of the universities had been appointed on merit in the first phase while work on appointments of heads in colleges and other educational institutions was under process.
He said that the government was also planning to ensure 4-year degree programme at district headquarters level, adding that already 73 out of 470 degree colleges had introduced 4-year degree programme.
The minister said that the government was also introducing guidance project ‘Rahnumai Markaz’ to provide career counselling to students so that they could choose proper programme for themselves according to their aptitude and the demand of the market.
He said that these centres would also guide students about domestic and international scholarships and work as job placement centres. He said that for bringing improvement in education standard in the province, grading system was being introduced and it would be implemented in five years. He said that grading system had already been introduced at grade nine.
Yasir said that sports leagues had also been introduced in the educational institutions as healthy activities and every student at university level would play any game or sport due to these leagues.
“These leagues would consist of several sports and players of 48 universities are participating in the leagues, starting from Jan 15, 2020,” he added. He said that another mechanism was being introduced in the universities through which the performance of the vice chancellors and the universities would be monitored.
