HYDERABAD, Oct 3: The representatives of civil society, intellectuals and scholars have recommended that the students unions should be revived with the nomenclature of students’ councils comprising meritorious students from various disciplines to play their role in promotion of education and parents and civil society representatives should be included in the discipline committees.

They were speaking at an Iftar dinner hosted by the vice-chancellor Sindh university Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, at the Jamshoro campus on Tuesday.

The speakers expressed concern over the recent clashes between two political groups which had destroyed the peaceful educational atmosphere. They proposed to improve security system and to provide protection to peaceful students specially those residing in hostels.

Speaking on the occasion vice-chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui said that university management is quite capable of dealing with the miscreants. He said that civil society could play a constructive role for the betterment of universities and improvement of educational environments.

He said that politics has become a norm of life and added that the university is also a part of the society. He, however, said that by awarding punishment to the miscreants and making concerted efforts, unhealthy activities can be reduced.

He expressed the hope that the civil society will extend its help to the university in creating and maintaining a congenial atmosphere at the campus. He said that the university has implemented teachers’ evaluation proforma to be filled by the students and added that this will certainly produce fruitful results.

He said that the formation of students’ councils comprising meritorious students would go a long way in the promotion of curricular and co-curricular activities at the campus.

Dr Asadullah Kazi, vice-chancellor Isra University Hyderabad said that in the present situation there are three main stakeholders—students, teachers and management.

He said for the betterment of youths, it is necessary to keep them busy with various assignments and involve them in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Captain (retd) G.H. Sacharvi was of the opinion that by giving due importance and authority to the teachers the problems of the students could be resolved.

A noted writer from Hala, Qazi Shoukat Hussain, regretted that the society on the whole was not showing any interest in the promotion of education. He said the universities should organise constructive functions at campus and involve students in healthy activities.

The president of Farmers Association, Ghulam Nabi Morai said that the teachers, parents and students will have to work together to promote education and healthy activities at the campus. He stressed the need for reviving the students unions and added that in the past, the students unions had played a key role in maintaining law and order in the institutions.

Jami Chandio, a noted intellectual, said that the need of the hour was to speak frankly about the bottlenecks confronting our educational system. He said that the universities should introduce the culture of reward and punishment to encourage the meritorious students and to discourage the miscreants. He suggested that a representative of civil society and parents should be included in the students discipline committee.

The university Registrar, Mohammad Saleh Rajar, Dr M.Y. Khuhawar, Dr Mohammad Qasim Bughio, Dr Lutfullah Mangi, Zulfiqar Halepoto and others also spoke on the occasion.