| February 4, 2002 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 20, 1422 |
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India’s paranoia
Plight of prisoners
Derecognition of medical colleges
16 years for a bachelor’s degree
Neglected road project
Demand for a secular state?
Provident & gratuity fund investment
Forgive and forget
Tarbela dam picnic point
Chaghai mountain
Steps for peace
Coaching centres
Putting the record straight
THE Chairman of NCHD, as head of President’s task force on human development, reportedly presented the main features of the proposals at a meeting of the board of advisers on Jan 28. The task force has proposed two concrete 10-year programmes, namely “literacy and sustainable livelihood programme” and “non-formal basic education programme” with an initial ramp-up phase of three years in the field of elementary education.
In the initial ramp-up period, the proposed literacy and sustainable livelihood programme will provide 1.5 million illiterate adults between the ages of 15 and 34 years with literacy, numeracy, and marketable skills, besides arranging micro-credit for selected trainees to help them build new sources of livelihood.
Under the non-formal basic education programme, some 750,000 children between the ages of 5 and 14 will be provided a condensed primary education course to enable them to re-enter the mainstream education system or enrol in skills’ development programmes.
Overall, these programmes appear beneficial for the common people of Pakistan and therefore are fully supported. However, in order to make these programmes better suited to the needs, and to the following proposals are submitted for consideration:
The lower age limit at 15 years for the proposed literacy and sustainable livelihood programme needs to be raised to 18 years. Let this programme cater to the needs of illiterate adults.
Similarly, the lower age at 5 years for the non-formal basic education programme needs to be raised to 9 years. At 5-year age the child is just ready to pursue the formal primary education and at this age has not suffered loss of any academic year. The programme should appropriately cater to the children who were not enrolled in the primary school at age 5 or 6 years, and now cannot pursue formal education being overage for the start of primary education at class one.
The children studying in a large number of Madaaris that provide purely religious education may also be considered for enrolment and assistance under the proposed non-formal primary education. It is important that such children are brought in the mainstream education system as well. The number of such students might be large.
Under the proposed literacy and sustainable livelihood programme, arrangements for specialized courses may be made separately for women and men. The technical and practical training may start from day one. Condensed education courses alone in the initial years may not be attractive to these young people. Their preference at this time in life may be to improve technical skills and thus enhance their capability to earn more and at the same time by putting in less hard labour. This is natural to all human beings.
These programmes appear exclusively for literacy and skill development of the illiterate adults and children. In Pakistan we have large number of boys, girls, women and men who are dropouts from the middle or high schools. Most of them now repent but find no supportive programmes to help them get the middle level or matriculation certificate after undergoing one or two years part-time condensed coaching. This will help them to continue formal education at higher level or to join technical training courses requiring middle level or matriculation qualification. In Pakistan the number of such people is large. The payback from this group may be quicker and better than any of the other groups. Therefore, the government might consider specialized educational programmes for rehabilitation of this group as well.
MUHAMMAD BASHIR CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THE article of Omar Kureishi “India’s paranoia” (Jan 29) is very convincing. His logical conclusion of events in India during the past few months is a statement of facts. He is correct in stating that “nothing violent happens in India without Pakistan being blamed for it”. I would add to it that India believes that there is an ISI agent behind every bush, responsible for wrongdoings. How funny is the perception of the largest democracy of the world.
India’s reaction and interaction to world terrorism could be classified in phases. The initial phase was the period just after Sept 11 when India presented all services to the US, as one columnist wrote “she continued gyrating her hips classically but could not attract US attention” rather the US decided to use Pakistan’s assistance for the operations. This caused psychic humiliation to the BJP government.
The second phase started after the Dec 12 incident at