| 05 April 2004 | Monday | 14 Safar 1425 |
Reducing returns
Prisoners abroad
School and college textbooks have become the subject of a heated debate in the National Assembly and the media for the first time in the country's history. The reported move by the ministry of education to remove some Quranic verses from biology textbooks has provoked a strong protest from the opposition parties in parliament.
The federal education minister has been on the defensive, though her latest statement at the inter-provincial education ministers' meeting promises modifications in the curricula to make them moderate.
The positive aspect of the present rumpus is that the issue is at least being debated. For quite some time educationists and the press had been pointing out the flawed content and spirit of our textbooks, which have been affecting the mindset of our children, but no one seemed to care.
There are two aspects of the matter which need to be addressed now that the government has decided to take it up. First, the pedagogic style and methodology of the books, many of which are designed on an obsolete approach which requires students to follow the rote method of learning.
It is a pity that we should remain mired in an ancient methodology when educational concepts have transformed the world over. The second aspect which is worrying are the contents of the books, which are critical to the development of a child's mind, personality and character.
What a child is taught at a formative stage will affect his behaviour, beliefs and outlook throughout life. The contents of the curricula of the education system of any country determine the character and mindset of its citizens.
That is why authoritarian governments which have sought to exercise control over the people have had textbooks rewritten in a bid to manipulate the thinking and ideas of the population.
It is a matter of serious concern, therefore, that this issue should have been politicized and blown out of proportion by the opposition, especially the religious parties. Their main concern is that the government will tamper with the Islamic and the ideological contents of the curricula.
The government has denied these allegations and has assured the opposition that its aim is to place "equal emphasis on religious and worldly knowledge". The vital question is not so much of determining the ratio between religious knowledge and secular learning to be imparted, as that of deciding the thrust of the curricula taught in different subjects.
It has been pointed out by educationists, psychologists and parents that the textbooks being taught in our schools have failed to inculcate tolerance, love and respect for human life and dignity in our children.
Many experts have made an analysis of the contents of the textbooks and have reached the conclusion that quite a lot these have been torn out of context which results in distortions of a serious kind.
The textbooks do not place enough emphasis on tolerance, pluralism and humanism, although these are what Islam enjoins on us. As a result, the youngsters who read such books tend to be self-righteous, intolerant and aggressive. No one would dispute the need for a change in the curricula. If there were nothing wrong with the textbooks, why would our society be facing the crisis that grips it today?
Reducing returns
The net withdrawal of two billion rupees from the National Savings Scheme (NSS) in January 2004 by investors indicates that the scheme is no longer a popular choice for investment. Over the past few years, the government has made over ten successive cuts in the rates of return.
This has rattled small investors who saw the NSS as a safe and secure avenue of investment. As interest rates at which financial institutions lend money decline, the rate of return on saving schemes where people put their money have also reduced.
This is done so that people or institutions do not borrowing money from banks only to put them in government saving schemes and make a tidy profit. While there have been instances in the past where this has happened, the anomaly is easily checked with the reduction in the rate of return on the NSS.
The problem with slashing rates, however, is that this closes off another channel of investment for people looking for a safe and secure instrument in which to put their savings and one that guarantees them a reasonable rate of return.
The government now wants people to invest in the stock market through mutual funds and other instruments. But this is a riskier alternative and a concept with which most people are not familiar.
The worst hit in this rationalization of rates of return are widows and pensioners, many of whom have invested their life' savings in NSS. The drop in the rates of return hits them hard because, on the one hand they have to cope with the effects of inflation and, on the other, their profits from money invested in the NSS continues to decline.
In the absence of a social security system in the country, the government needs to make special arrangements for this category of people so that their rates of return are not affected. This can come in the form of a subsidy which would amount to a fraction of government expenditures provided adequate measures are taken to ensure against.
Prisoners abroad
Replaying to a question on behalf of the foreign minister in the National Assembly on Saturday, Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao assured the house of the welfare of some 1,048 Pakistanis being held in prisons abroad.
These prisoners are held in various jails in the US, UK and Afghanistan for violating different laws of the host countries. They include 211 Pakistanis in the US prisons - excluding those being held by the US security forces at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba - 314 in British prisons and 532 in Afghanistan.
The minister said that these prisoners were being provided consular services by the respective Pakistani missions abroad and that the government was in touch with the authorities in the host countries regarding their possible release and repatriation.
The foreign ministry, however, could not provide more details as to the number of Pakistanis being held in prison in other countries. This indeed is regrettable because, according to standard practice, a host country always informs the nearest foreign mission of a country whose national is being held in its prison.
It is common knowledge that many among the hundreds of thousands of economic migrants from poorer countries who go abroad in search of better earnings every year are Pakistanis, and not all of them are legal migrants.
A large number of recently deported Pakistanis from Oman are but one such case in point. The problem obviously calls for a more active role for Pakistani missions abroad, especially in countries whose justice systems may not be on a par with those of more developed ones.
One suspects that an unspecified number of Pakistanis may be languishing in jails in many countries for lack of timely help from our consular offices abroad. The tragic plight of those being held at Guantanamo Bay and in various Afghan prisons can well be imagined. The government must pursue their cases, along with those of prisoners being held in other countries and who are not yet accounted for, on a priority basis.