The enrollment in government colleges of Punjab, including Lahore, has fallen to embarrassingly low levels. Recent reports show that almost 30 percent of the state institutions in the province have not been achieving their admissions target, and in 227 colleges the enrollment figures are abysmal. Some colleges did not enroll a single student and some only occupied a small fraction of the number of seats available.
Education commentators have cautioned that this trend indicates a serious lack of engagement and awareness on the worth of the public sector colleges among students. According to experts, low enrollment does not only impact on college funding, but also reduces the overall quality of education, leaving campuses underutilized and funds wasted.
Higher Education Department has duly asked Division Directors to provide detailed reports so as to understand why such poor intake has been happening. Some reasons given are absence of marketing, old facilities and insufficient career guidance which all discourage students to attend govt colleges.
Governments have been considering ways to make them more attractive, such as special admissions efforts, collaborating with industry to improve facilities, and offering scholarships to increase enrolment.
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In the case of businesses and educational service providers, this low-enrollment situation is a business opportunity to provide educational solutions, online courses, and student engagement services.
With such quick actions, the government colleges in Punjab might become popular once again and get a big number of students in their places so that the mission of making higher education affordable to all through the government colleges of Punjab is achieved.
