PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2022-02-10 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Pakistan province did not 'ban mixed-gender classes in private colleges' (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Facebook posts circulating in February 2022 claim the government in Pakistan's most populous province banned mixed-gender classes in private colleges. The claim circulated online in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan, where men and women are sometimes separated in specific public arenas for religious reasons. The claim is false; provincial authorities told AFP they had not ordered a ban as of February 10, 2022. This claim about colleges in Pakistan's Punjab province was published on Facebook on February 3, 2022. It says: The Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) has imposed a ban on co-education in BS (Hons) degree programs in private colleges all over the province. BS (Hons) refers to a four-year bachelor of science honours degree programme. The caption continues: The PHEC has directed all private colleges affiliated with different universities to make necessary arrangements for organizing separate classes of boys and girls enrolled in BS (Hons) degree programs. A screenshot taken on February 3, 2022, of the misleading Facebook post. The claim circulated online in local media reports here and here after a Pakistani journalist shared a purported Punjab government checklist for private colleges on Twitter that he alleged was evidence of the ban. Similar claims circulated on Facebook here , here and here. However, the claim is false. Punjab Minister of Higher Education Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz said in a tweet his department had not announced any changes to the local co-education policy. Higher Education Department hasn't issued any notification about Co-Education in Colleges, he wrote. Plz (sic) stop spreading fake news on Media. Higher Education Department hasn't issued any notification about Co-Education in Colleges. Plz stop spreading fake news on Media. — Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz (@RajaYassirPTI) February 2, 2022 Dr Ashiq Hussain, the head of the Directorate of Public Instruction in Punjab, a government body that oversees colleges in the province, also said the reports were false. There was no ban imposed on co-education in private colleges, he told AFP. On February 3, 2022, the Punjab Higher Education Department also said on its official Facebook page it had not announced any ban on mixed-gender classes in colleges: Hussain also shared the most recent checklist of requirements for private colleges from the Punjab government's higher education department, which does not include any reference to banning mixed-gender classes. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url