Syed Raza Ali Gillani advises media to care about national interest

Lahore : The Pakistani media should always remember that national interest and integrity of the country reign supreme. Media has an increasingly important role to project the positive side of Pakistan, as it has multifarious dimensions of art, culture and history dating back to thousands of years. National interest should be our top priority as Pakistan is our only identity in the comity of nations.

Minister for Higher Education Syed Raza Ali Gillani said this while addressing the prize distribution ceremony of annual sports day at Government College of Science, Wahdat Road, Lahore on Thursday.

He said the youth should act socially-responsible citizens and use their educational experience for the betterment of the society. He told that all the higher education institutions have been declared drug-free, and asked the teachers to promote disgust towards drugs in their students.

He said a departmental committee has been constituted to ponder over the issues pertaining to Professors and Lecturers Association; and reiterated his commitment that departmental issues would be dealt with on priority basis. The teachers would be provided all the necessary facilities which they require, he added. He asked the students to participate in sports as it helps in becoming better contributors towards society.

Later, while presiding over an informal meeting of college teachers, the Minister said that a comprehensive teachers’ training programme is in the pipeline to educate the teachers about latest educational concepts. We want to bring our institutions at par with the international institutions and the Punjab would soon be known by its high-quality institutions, he added.

He told the government would be requested to arrange separate set up for hiring college teachers through the public service commission to fill the backlog of seven thousand vacant posts of lecturers well in time.

Similarly, it has also been planned to maintain one to 30 ratio of teacher and students in a class in higher education institutions, so that a teacher could give individual attention to the students. He asked the teachers to keep themselves abreast of latest developments in their subjects and may not rest on past laurels.

Earlier, the Minister Raza Gillani distributed prizes among the winning students.