Prioritising Problems.

The higher education sector in the country is riddled with problems. From a shortage of qualified teachers, to problems in the curriculum alongside the provision of facilities - there are a lot of issues provincial governments can work on to improve the state of university education in Punjab and beyond. The Punjab Governor's decision to make reading the Quran and its Urdu translation compulsory in all public sector universities however, caters to none of the system's many exigent issues.

The move is indicative of the governor's disconnect from the urgent problems facing the higher education sector. When the system of Pakistan is such that Islamic studies and Quranic recitation make up a core part of both primary and secondary institutions - not to mention the focus they get within homes - why is there a perceived need to repeat the same education all the way up to the university level?

Previous editorials have already elaborated why the education system in Punjab does not need this in universities; apart from the obvious exclusion of minority students, the move is only an attempt at appeasement, not actual religious education considering that...