AS we approach the end of the year, it is worth looking back at major trends and developments in the education sector in 2024. I have prioritised developments with wide-ranging impact over small-scale and pilot initiatives.

We normalised days-long, citywide cellphone service suspension years ago. This year, the government decided to beta-test censorship tools on 250 million people without a well-planned rollout, effectively suspending internet access, both blanket and select services X, VPNs, even WhatsApp. Disruptions were so bad that even social media accounts loyal to the government earlier in the year either went quiet or switched sides. Why are internet disruptions relevant to education? While Covid necessitated school closures, this year made them a tool of first resort, whether the reason was politics, the summer heat, or pollution. The fig leaf justification given is that classes have been switched `online`, but how effectivelytheyareconducted-oftenannounced at short notice and taking on the form of WhatsApp messages is questionable.

This year, the encroachment of the administrative state into the affairs of universities, otherwise described as autonomous, continued and brought more dysfunction. Until much later this year, dozens of public universities across Punjab and KP were operating without permanently appointed vice chancellors. Soon after the 2024 election, we saw a public tugof-war play out in KP and Punjab between the respective chief ministers and governors. Politics trickling into academia is not new, but the public wrangling over the bounty of VC appointments was jarring.

This month, the passage of the KP Universities (Amendment) Act, 2024, gave the power of appointing VCs to the chief minister. It allows greater bureaucratic control of universities and political interference, trickling down to appointments of registrars, deans, etc. VCs will effectively report to a provincial secretary. A proposal for a similar amendment, vehemently opposed by VCs, has been made in Balochistan. Meanwhile, 14 public universities in KP have been declared unviable and will either be shuttered or merged with other universities. Eager to lead this race to the bottom, Sindh`s cabinet just approved draft amendments to the Sindh Universities and Institutes Laws Act, 2018, which, if approved by the Sindh Assembly, will allow a Grade-21 bureau-crat to be appointed VC. This could inspire Punjab to follow suit with a similar amendment.

The most consistent conversation in higher education was a constant mantra for public universities, still heavily subsidised, to become financially self-reliant because governments can no longer commit to supporting them. Governments are urging universities to generate their own resources,butnotlooseningthe ropesthattie the VCs` arms behind their backs. What it decodes to, but no one is willing to spell it out for fear of political blowback, is hiking the fees and/or selling part of their land grant. On the latter, public universities have been prodded in that direction to various degrees, depending on how juicy their lands are in the eyes of private parties. Another term that has recently entered the vocabulary of higher education discourse is `endowment fund`, but with little understanding of what establishing, maintaining, and growing one entails.Instead, many expect to be handed a readymade pot of money.

For years, computer science has been taking engineering programmes` share of enrolment.

Engineering programmes everywhere have been witnessing a declining interest, forcing some universities to shutter engineering departments.

Private universities, hit especially hard, lobbied the Pakistan Engineering Council to change entry criteria allowing FSc pre-medical students to be admitted. The HEC has locked horns with the PEC on this issue. Diluted admission requirements will likely further reduce trust and confidence in Pakistani engineering qualifications.

This year, we witnessed the impact of disinformation in the education sector when an unsubstantiated rape allegation (absent an accuser) upended campus life in multiple institutions for days. In the end, investigations by the state and private media failed to establish that an assault had occurred. Protest organisers realised theyjumped the gun and began back-pedalling, changing goalposts, claiming their protests were about the lack of student representation in universities, but the damage was done.

Despite laws passed in Sindh and a court decision in Islamabad, universities are dragging their feet on the functioning of student unions.

This year, we heard the prime minister twice declare an education emergency, making for progressive-sounding headlines. Twenty-six million children remain out of school and the learning levels of children have plateaued. There has been no action on the ground that matches the scale of the challenge. We only have made-for-media moments by savvy bureaucrats, some of whom have cultivated coteries of useful followers in the media and feed them feel-good stories published without critical thought.

In Punjab, a large number of public schools will be handed to private entities in the name of public-private partnerships, which have been shown to work in certain situations. However, I cannot recall any country with a school education sector worth emulating that washed its hands off running public schools, which is why this feels like a surrender.

If the government is incapable of delivering school education, what else is it incapable of? Is it qualified to regulate school education or dictate curriculums to private schools? Is it capable of providing basic healthcare services? Should a government incapable of fulfilling constitutional obligations shoot the breeze about bidding for and running a complex and competitive business like an airline? If it cannot deliver school education, what are the odds it can do better with higher education? How much longer will it be until public universities are privatised? Last year, the outgoing parliament scrambled to grant charters to dozens of private universities.

I salute elected representatives` dedication to the cause of higher education, but I wonder why so few have been willing to put in comparable efforts for the cause of school education that the state is responsible for providing. Going out on a limb, it could have something to do with the fact that schools do not require charters, which makes supporting them a lot less lucrative, but what do I know? • The wnter has a PhD in education.