Ministry seeks applications from Information Technology (IT) institutes for accreditation
ISLAMABAD- Ministry of science and technology has launched much awaited accreditation process by seeking applications from private and public information technology institutes.
However, the much-trumpeted National Accreditation Council and the law, through which the system will be provided legal cover, are still nowhere in sight and reports suggest that they have fallen victim to bureaucratic wrangling.
The ministry has invited applications from the interested private and public institutes for teaching IT courses at the post-higher secondary level leading to a certificate, a diploma, or a degree.
Official sources said that the accreditation would only be a certification that the particular institute conformed to the minimum standards approved by the Accreditation Council and the institute would not be authorized to confer degrees on students. They said that ministry of education and University Grants Commission would form the National Accreditation Council, while the draft accreditation law was lying with law division.
They said the IT & telecom division’s committee, which had been given the task of implementing the law, was desperately watching the bureaucracy wasting time in finalizing the law by wrangling over petty differences.
The sources claimed that after helplessly watching the people being exploited by unscrupulous IT institutes offering substandard education and charging them exorbitantly, the minister for science and technology, Dr Attaur Rehman, had sought government’s permission to be allowed to constitute IT Accreditation Council exclusively.
The sources maintained that the invitation extended to the institutes for accreditation showed that the minister had been successful in getting a go-ahead signal from the government for setting up the IT Accreditation Council.
Giving details of the accreditation process, the officials of the ministry of science and technology said it was spread over three phases covering submission of application by the institute and review and visit of the institute by an experts’ team.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/21/2001
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