As many as 52 vice chancellors of public sector universities attended the meeting. Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the VCs said that under the current circumstances it would not be possible for the universities to provide the 50 percent ad hoc increase in salaries, 15 percent increase in medical allowance and 15 percent to 20 percent increase in pension to its employees. They called on the government to provide a supplementary recurring grant of Rs7 billion to give salary increase to employees. The VCs expressed the fear that the massive development made by the universities during the last five years would collapse if the government did not increase the budget allocation for the higher education sector. “The budget for the ongoing projects was approved during the last few years but now when these projects are nearing completion and only 10 to 15 percent of their work is remaining, the government is not willing to provide the required amount,” said Fatima Jinnah Woman University (FJWU) VC Syeda Asadullah.

Peshawar University Vice Chancellor Dr Azmat Hayat Khan said that 37 students of the university had been sent abroad for PhD for which they were paying 1,200 dollars per month for each student but now they were finding it hard to pay that much amount when their course was about to end. “What could be worse than not be in a position to pay the increase in the salaries and benefits to employees? Peshawar University alone has to pay Rs 250 million extra in this way,” he said.

On the occasion, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Executive Director (ED) Dr Sohail Naqvi said that they had taken the budget consolidation from all universities before handing over the HEC budget to the Ministry of Finance but even then the budget had been decreased instead of being increased. “We had been meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who also assured us that the budget allocation for the HEC would be increased but it never happened. On the other hand, the budget has been cut down,” he said.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran also criticised the cut in budget and simultaneous increase in the salaries at that moment. He said that there were 6,200 employees of the Punjab University while 1,960 were taking monthly pension. “The Punjab University is facing a deficit of Rs500 million due to the increase in the salaries alone,” he said. The news

Media Productions courses will be offered in following fields:

• Video Production
• Digital Photography for Multimedia
• Computer Graphic Design
• Motion Graphics/3D Animation

Eligibility: Intermediate or equivalent, with aptitude in concerned program.

Admission criteria: Open merit basis. An aptitude test will be followed by an interview.

Application form: Admission Form can be downloaded from College Website (www.nca.edu.pk/mediaproductions), forms are also available at the Department of Multimedia Arts information desk.

Submission of forms: Form must be submitted at the College Accounts Office or by registered post/TCS, along with a pay order/demand draft of Rs. 350 in the name of Principal, National College of Arts, and all attested documents.

Last date for submission of forms is July 26, 2010.

Contact Details

For further information and application form submission, you may please contact:

Director, Postgraduate Centre for Multimedia Arts
National College of Arts (NCA),
4-Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore, Pakistan.
Telephone: (+92 42) 99211622, 99210599, 99210601
Fax: (+92 42) 99210500
Email: mediaproductions@nca.edu.pk
Web: www.nca.edu.pk/mediaproductions



• French schools accused of stifling mental creativity
• Science workshops boost accidental inventions

Late in the 19th century, while investigating chicken cholera, Louis Pasteur infected some birds with bacteria that he confidently believed would kill them. He was wrong: not only did the chickens survive; they were completely immune. Pasteur had made a mistake. But in doing so he had also found a vaccine.

Fast forward to the 21st century and France, the country that gave the world the father of modern medicine, – as well as some of the greatest scientists and thinkers of history – is no longer quite so ready to see the benefits of getting things wrong, according to a growing number of intellectuals and education specialists.

They claim the French school system is leaving children bereft of creativity, flexibility of thought and – crucially – confidence in their own mental abilities.

In an attempt to counter this culture of “intellectual timorousness”, a group of academics from the country’s elite institutions is hosting a festival in Paris this week with a rather unusual mission: its participants are being encouraged to make as many mistakes as possible.

“A large part of the French school system is based on the idée reçue that errors are negative, when in fact it is by this very process of learning … that you make progress,” said Maëlle Lenoir, of the Association Paris Montagne.

“The French system is founded on a strict learning of knowledge, rather than on creativity or innovation. And yet it was Einstein himself who said that ‘the only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas’.”

Observers of the French school system, while praising certain key successes, have repeatedly highlighted the shortcomings of an educational process which is highly “top down” and results-driven, and which, they say, puts far more emphasis on having the right answer than the thought process by which a pupil might explore the question being asked.

“I’m a scientist. I had nothing to do with education. But then my six-year-old boy went to school and his teacher told me, ‘He’s a nice kid, but he asks too many questions,’” said François Taddei, the author of an education report published last year for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“This is the problem of the French system,” he added.

“You are supposed to know the right answer. You are not supposed to express your own opinions or ask questions.”

One teacher who has attempted to rebel against the national model is Girolamo Ramunni, a lecturer at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris, a higher education establishment specialising in science and industry.

Ramunni, an Italian who left school himself at the age of 14, says he tries to encourage his students to reject the pressure to always be right by, for example, giving them problems to solve “which could not be solved”.

“At the beginning they don’t want to take risks,” he said. “But after a while you notice that they are becoming more creative.

“Once they’ve accepted that getting things wrong is not the end of the world, yes, they may come up with some crazy ideas, but they will have some good ones too.”

Organisers of the self-declared “festival of errors”, which began in the École Normale Supérieure in central Paris and continues until Saturday, hope to demonstrate to young participants the potential wonder of making mistakes through a series of science-based workshops.

Yesterday, Arthur, 12, explained that it was “difficult” to get questions wrong. “You’re ashamed,” he said.

Waiting for him was Isolde Serfaty, a parent who criticised the “competition and pressure to always do better” that French children face.

“They are marked right from primary school,” she said, referring to the marks out of 20 used as measurements of achievement across France.

For Taddei, the problem is just a small part of a wider malaise which is leaving the national education system – which was born out of the revolutionary ideals of equality and fraternity – increasingly ill-equipped to help level out the injustices of modern society.

Many observers feel the present system, which has been largely unchanged for decades, is calculated to serve the interests of the privileged few.

Asked whether even pupils at exclusive lycées such as Paris’s Henri IV were blighted by the fear of making mistakes, Lenoir said: “I would suggest that at Henri IV they are not so scared of making a mistake because they already know they are right.”

The free festival is aimed at fostering scientific enthusiasm in under-18s from socially neglected parts of the Ile de France region around Paris.

Great mistakes: from penicillin to crisps

After inoculating several dishes with the bacterium staphylococcus, Alexander Fleming forgot to cover them up before going on holiday. On his return, one of the dishes had grown mould. Fleming observed that the bacteria around the mould were all dead, thus discovering that the mould Penicillium had antibacterial properties.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail westwards intent on discovering a new route to Asia. Miscalculating the Earth’s circumference meant he actually landed in America, opening up trade links between the old and new worlds.

In 1839 Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped some india rubber mixed with sulphur on to a hot stove, discovering the vulcanisation process which made possible the commercial use of rubber.

Chef George Crum invented crisps in 1853 when a customer at a restaurant in New York, returned his fries to the kitchen. In anger, Crum sliced them as thinly as possible, over-fried them and doused them in salt. The customer was delighted and the crisp was born.

The UET has announced that the candidates can submit their admission forms till July 28. The admission cell in the UET, Lahore, will also remain open on Saturday and Sunday for the convenience of the students. Dawn

This was stated by Chief of the Naval Staff and Pro-Chancellor of the Bahria University Admiral Noman Bashir during a meeting of the Board of Governors (BOG) here on Wednesday. Members of the Board of Governors, which include principal staff officers of the Pakistan Navy and representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and Military Finance were present on the occasion.

During the meeting, the naval chief highlighted that prompt action has been taken by the university management on infrastructure development currently underway, including construction of medical and dental college, electrical engineering laboratory at the Karachi campus, gymnasium and central block at the Islamabad campus.

The board considered and approved the annual budget of the university with a number of additional development programmes. The board also approved appointment of Professor Dr. Syed Tipu Sultan as dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and chairman of the Board of Studies of Faculty for Health Sciences and Professor Dr. Muhammad Altaf Mukati as dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

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