| January 13, 2003 | Monday | Ziqa'ad 9, 1423 |
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Recurring problem
Faulty grading system
THE crisis over North Korea worsened on Friday when Pyongyang announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The new development follows a series of steps set in motion since recent revelations that North Korea had an active nuclear programme. This led the US to stop fuel supplies assured under an agreement reached in 1994 according to which North Korea had agreed to freeze its small nuclear plant. Subsequently, it asked UN atomic energy inspectors to leave the country and said it was desealing its nuclear plant. The Bush administration has been handling the stand-off with Pyongyang in a manner quite different from its frenzied approach to Baghdad, and has described North Korea’s withdrawal from the NPT as not quite unexpected. Talks to defuse the new tensions are also being held between North Korea’s UN envoy and Ambassador Bill Richardson, one of the main trouble-shooters of the Clinton administration with experience of dealing with the North Koreans.
The United States Senate has still not ratified the NPT. Many other nations, including India and Pakistan, have also refused to sign it. Very few countries, therefore, are in a position to criticize the North Koreans. In fact, apart from its other ramifications, Pyongyang’s action may help focus attention again on the fundamental fact that a non-nuclear international order cannot be effective unless the major nuclear powers commit themselves to non-proliferation. So far, the campaign against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has been selective and has been led by powers that possess the world’s most awesome atomic arsenals. They want to retain their own WMDs and even develop more fearful versions while they want to deny others the right to do so. The moral argument is thus immediately lost and the language of power takes over. That has been the problem with the NPT, and so, it seems, it will remain. Nuclear weapons are evil and should be given up by every country. That is the only principled position to hold if the threat of a nuclear holocaust is to be exorcized.
But the North Korean attitude deserves a fuller explanation than that it is acting out of pique at the stoppage of its fuel supplies. At a time when it has daunting economic problems to tackle, a confrontationist posture seems unnecessary and wasteful. It jeopardizes the efforts of South Korea and China to bring the isolated Pyongyang regime into the international mainstream. Perhaps the trouble is more deep-seated, and stems from the hostility that has been displayed by the Bush people towards North Korea since the day they came into office. The Clinton administration’s attempts at reconciliation were set aside, and North Korea was included in the “axis of evil” along with Iran and Iraq, perhaps to dilute the impression that Muslim nations alone were being reviled. Perhaps there was aversion also to the long-term prospect of a reunified Korea. Pyongyang has now hit back by putting America in the embarrassingly odd position of going full throttle against Iraq, which denies any intention to acquire nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, and following a diplomatic approach to North Korea, which proclaims it is activating its nuclear programme. Nevertheless, the crisis does no one any good, and it should be hoped that the quiet negotiating work being carried out with North Korea would also force America to follow a similar course with regard to Iraq.
NATURAL gas supplies to upcountry have been falling short of the increased demand in winter months for a few years now. Whereas earlier the increase in demand resulted in low pressure, the on-going cold spell in Punjab and the NWFP has necessitated a complete shutdown of gas to the industrial sector, because the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited wants to facilitate domestic consumers. Consequently, some 121 factories in Punjab and 19 in the NWFP have reportedly been forced to halt their operations. The supply of gas to fertilizer factories across the country has remained suspended since December 31. But even these extreme measures have not been able to meet the ever-growing demand in the domestic sector. Consumers in the NWFP, who happen to be at the tail end of the pipeline, have to suffer low pressure or a total absence of gas for long hours on a daily basis. Peshawar, Mardan and the Swat regions are the worst affected. The SNGPL says that if the current cold spell continues and the domestic consumer demand keeps rising, they will have to stop supplying gas to CNG filling stations too or adopt a slab system of tariff.
The SNGPL has begun laying broader-gauge pipelines to pump more gas upcountry and it hopes to complete the task by next year. This is good news for next winter but offers little consolation to those having to deal with the current scarcity of this most affordable and least polluting of fuel alternatives. On the other hand, the reality is that the country does not have unlimited gas reserves, which underscores the need to use this natural resource sagaciously. The government has done little to educate the public on this score. It is time the Oil and Gas Development Corporation and the gas distribution companies came up with a long-term strategy aimed at dealing with the emerging challenges in the energy sector. An educational campaign aimed at conserving and using the existing gas supply more economically and avoiding waste is very much in order.
CONCERN has been rightly voiced over the way in which the various examining boards in the country grade examination papers. The issue is important as far as encouraging critical analysis and discouraging rote learning among school children is concerned. It is now almost universally acknowledged, even by the government, that the present system of public education mostly churns out students with little love for real learning or inquiry. This obviously has to do with the fact that in government schools they are told not to ask questions regarding the course material or what is said in the textbooks, and take everything as a given. What is worse is that they are then rewarded for reproducing this often dated and shoddy ‘knowledge’ at examination time because those who grade the papers are as much a part of the system. A deviation from the standard answers may indeed result in students being penalized.
It is important that the federal education ministry take note of this particular issue since it seems to get lost in the larger picture of education reform. With so many changes — some controversial and some not so controversial — happening in the education sector, it is imperative that the system of grading by the boards be overhauled so that students are rewarded for trying to be more imaginative and critical in their answers. This is something that is also linked to the poor quality of teachers, who themselves are products of the same assembly line. True, a change will not happen overnight, but a beginning has to be made towards improving the quality of instruction, by hiring better qualified teachers and spending more on teachers’ training.