Peshawar, Several public sector universities have raised objections to the launching of four-year bachelor degree programme in the colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it has been learnt.

The administrations of the universities have expressed reservations that the implementation of the programme was not feasible, an official in provincial Higher Education department told.

However, Secretary Higher Education Farah Hamid Khan, when contacted, said the programme would be implemented in the designated colleges at all cost, saying “it is policy of the government”.

The government has introduced the programme from the current academic session aimed at bringing the education level to the international standard. The new programme is part of the National Education Policy with the changed curriculum fulfilling criteria of the international standard.

Of 134 colleges across the province, the new programme had been implemented in 19 post-graduate and degree colleges as a pilot project in the existing budget, the official said. The education department wants to implement the new programme in all the colleges of the province if is successful in the selected colleges, she further said.

Currently the project is underway in various colleges of Kohat, Bannu, Saidu Sharif Swat, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Haripur, Abbottabad, Manhera, Temergara and Peshawar.

The universities have also expressed no-confidence on the ability and capacity of the teachers in colleges, saying the new programme is based on the semesters which need a lot of assessment of the students.

The second major objection was that under semester system a teacher of the college has been given the power to give 60 per cent marks to the student through internal evaluation while 40 per cent marks would be given by external examiners.

They fear that the teachers in colleges would not be able to deliver on merit and in a transparent way, the official said.

The official further said that the universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have already launched the four-year degree programme at high fee; so they think that if the same programme was launched in colleges, it would decrease their earnings.

Defending the implementation of the new programme in the colleges, the official said that monitoring and evaluation committees would be established at provincial and divisional level to make programme successful.

There was strong opposition from the administration of Bannu university, she said, adding “we are trying to convince them; otherwise colleges in Bannu will abolish their affiliation with the Bannu University.”

The secretary higher education said she had summoned a meeting of the vice chancellors of the public sector universities on September 2 to solve the issue amicably.

Once the new programme was implemented in the colleges, it would reduce burden on the universities that would pave the way for the more poor students to get higher education, she said.