LAHORE - The purpose behind the introduction of new BS (Hons) programme in colleges was to promote quality education and capacity-building of students at existing tuition fee structure. This was stated by Secretary Higher Education Punjab Ahad Khan Cheema while addressing a cross-section of students and teachers at the Auditorium of Government MAO College here on Friday. The lecture, followed by vigorous question-answer session, was a part of the campaign launched by the Higher Education Department to remove misconceptions about BS (Hons) and to hear the views of stakeholders ie students and teachers. Govt MAO College Principal Prof Syed Irfan Hussain Zaidi while welcoming the lecture said that the College would introduce BS (Hons) in nine subjects of Science and Arts while it already catered to MA, MSc in six subjects. Similar orientation sessions of the HED will be held from the next week in six postgraduate colleges of the City, later to be replicated in 20 colleges in the Punjab selected for BS (Hons) programme, on which interaction with teachers and students will continue. The BS (Hons) is being launched from the coming session 2010-11. Ahad Khan Cheema who was accompanied by Additional Secretary (P&G) Yawar Hussain said that four basic skills including computer and IT education, projects/assignment, internship and bilingual rigorous classroom studies would increase quality of education and personality development of students enhancing their acceptability in job market. He said the higher education area was going in deficit as the general education was fast deteriorating for which intervention for quality education was imperative to save it from total collapse. There was no increase in the enrolment of students in colleges since the past 4-5 years while there was a tremendous increase in the enrolment of universities during this period. He said that a 2-year graduate degree-holder could not compete the four years degree holder and could only be superseded by Master degree holders in the job market. He said the government initially allocated an additional budget of Rs 250 million to meet the expenditure on human resource and infrastructure development. This expenditure was part of the budget approved by the Punjab Assembly in budget 2010-11. As such the question of raise in tuition fee to generate funds for the expenditure does not arise. The existing tuition fee of Rs 2500 etc will remain the same while the universities charge Rs 50,000 per annum and over 1.50 lakh by the private institutions for BS (Hons). The establishment of laboratories, libraries and faculty will commensurate with the demand of the semester based BS (Hons) studies in colleges. He said nowhere in the world, a college was without BS (Hons). A number of universities in the country have though introduced this programme for commercial reasons, but primarily this was a discipline of college education. Replying to a question, he said there was no truth in reports that 26 colleges were being privatised and the teachers and staff would be dislocated. He said the government had given the financial and administrative autonomy to the colleges only through BOGs so that the college administration could take decisions for faculty development and other local expenditure for uninterrupted disbursement of education. Instead of giving power to one person, the collective wisdom of BOGs would make decisions, 75 per cent of BOGs being the senior government officials, he added. The college authorities might not have to go to the Secretariat for approval but to make decisions at their end. In reply to another question, he said one should not compare government colleges autonomy with that of Kinnaird or FC which were returned to the original owners to maintain their previous status. He further said that there would be an exit after two years for those who were unable to continue four years study. This two years degree too would be comparatively more potential than the normal BA, BSc, as it would involve skill development, he added. Ahad Cheema said that the government had done a lot of brain storming on the new programme. The things will start shaping up within the next two or three weeks and the department will be able to make a breakthrough. He said that the BS (Hons) degree would be awarded by the varsities concerned where the colleges would be affiliated and the universities would arrange their own examination through external examiners. The students could take admission in MS (two years) which is equal to MPhil leading to PhD while BS (Hons) in Arts and Science has equivalence to MA, MSc, he said in reply to a query.