LAHORE - The Punjab government ignored various art and social sciences subjects, engineering and commerce while announcing seats of lecturers in the public sector colleges through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday. Youth, student community, educationists and college lecturers unions have condemned the Higher Education Commission and PPSC on ignoring the faculty of arts and social sciences. They expressed reservations and demanded an equal share for softer sciences saying the move was a proof of poor planning and ignorance on part of the Punjab government.
The Punjab government, in face of criticism from various social sectors, had finally announced around 1,456 male and 1,050 female lectures’ seats to fill vacant posts at public colleges of the province through PPSE. The positions had been vacant for years and consequently the colleges were suffering because of an absence of staff. On the other hand, thousands of master’s degree holders in the province had been jobless, waiting for the posts to open.
After the announcement, it was observed that a large number of candidates submitted applications, however, most master’s degree holders in arts and social science subjects, engineering and commerce were left high and dry as a very limited number of seats were announced in their subject categories. The PPSC specifically neglected Arabic, electronics, commerce, geography, social work, Pakistan Studies, journalism and civics.
Rizwan Ahmad a master’s degree holder in Social Work said every year a large number of social science students get degrees and it was heart-breaking that only a few seats were announced for them compared to hundreds for other science subjects. He said if the government was not interested in promoting and supporting social scinces, the subjects should be closed for study and varsities should stop offering degrees in social sciences.
College lecturer Muhammad Shafique said: “It seems that the government handed over the recruitment process to incompetent people who did not calculate seats according to the requirement.” He said after spending time, money and energy, students got their degrees which now seemed worthless as they could not get them jobs.
Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association President Dr Zahid Hussain Sheikh said the advertisement showed that the PPSC high ups and even the government were not aware of the problems faced by the public colleges. He said: “Students are sufferings as the colleges lack staff. At various colleges, seats in 18 and 19 scales are vacant but the government did not coordinate with college teachers’ associations while announcing the seats. Neither did it consult the officials concerned.” The announcement was a clear evidence of government’s aloofness to the education sector, he added.