| 12 April 2004 | Monday | 21 Safar 1425 |
Dostum's power
Bouteflika's re-election
It is significant that the federal education minister has conceded that the existing service structure for government school teachers is unsatisfactory. Therefore, according to Ms Zobaida Jalal, the government is working on a scheme to improve the terms and conditions as well as the grades of school teachers.
This is a positive move coming as it does against the backdrop of the agitation being carried on by the teachers in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. Their grievances are genuine because the provincial education departments have not been efficient and prompt in granting promotions and increments, while the pay scales continue to be low.
Not surprisingly, the teachers have been constantly under monetary pressure which has affected their commitment and the quality of their work. As the government appears to be serious about improving the state of education in the country, one hopes that it will also address other very grave problems which have affected the teaching profession.
The fact is that the standard of education in a country depends foremost on the quality and commitment of the teaching fraternity. Pakistan has suffered on this count because as the education system has been in a state of decline over the years, the quality of the teachers, who are basically the product of this very system, has also gone down.
The failure of the government to allocate sufficient funds for education has also affected the quantum of intake which has left many schools inadequately staffed. This vicious cycle has been perpetuated by the lack of interest of governments in the education sector, as service conditions of teachers have led to discontent and made matters worse.
Education being a provincial subject, one hopes provincial governments will not delay the process of upgrading the pay scales of the school teachers and revising their service structure.
While this aspect of the problem is looked into, the government would do well to draw up a planned programme for the recruitment of teachers and their in-service training. Some vacancies have been announced in Sindh and Punjab and one hears of training being imparted in some areas.
But there is need to do this under a scientifically planned scheme rather than on an ad-hoc basis. The idea should be to arrange the training in such a way that every teacher attends the planned courses and workshops every few years.
The concept of continuing education now requires every professional to be put through refresher courses to keep abreast of new knowledge and new methods of teaching. At the same time, the regular teachers' training programme in the country should be revamped so that the graduates from BEd and MEd classes are equipped with new pedagogical methods.
A word of advice for the teachers would not be out of place here. As they well know, the success or failure of the education system ultimately depends on how the teachers impart knowledge.
One is quite familiar with the phenomena of ghost schools, absentee teachers and coaching centres run by teachers who advise their students to enrol there. With a better service structure and improved emoluments, the teachers will, hopefully, concentrate on giving of their best to the students whose future depends on what they learn in school.
Dostum's power
An indication of the anarchy in Afghanistan comes from the goings on in Faryab, the country's northern province. The Kabul government asked Anayatullah Anayat, Faryab's governor, to stand his ground as Abdul Rashid Dostum's troops advanced.
However, even before troops loyal to the Uzbek warlord could enter Faryab, the governor fled Meymanah, Faryab's capital, hoping to seek asylum in neighbouring Turkmenistan. The extent of Gen Dostum's power in the northern areas is evident from the way he ordered his militiamen in the neighbouring regions to disarm Mr Hashim Habibi, another warlord.
Mr Habibi was loyal to Gen Dostum but then switched his loyalty to President Hamid Karzai. Clashes then broke out, and his forces entered Faryab. Gen Dostam is now a law unto himself. He was appointed deputy defence minister by President Hamid Karzai but he never went to Kabul and is running a government of his own in the northern region.
Gen Dostam is not the only warlord defying the Kabul government. About 100 people were killed in fighting in Herat last month between warlord Ismail Khan and another favoured by the Karzai government.
It now appears doubtful if the election - scheduled earlier for June - will be held in September. While the registration of voters is in progress, the real task lies in creating peaceful conditions for holding elections.
This is not an easy task. The Afghan national army has not reached the strength where it could tame warlords and restore Kabul's authority, while the International Security Assistance Force has confined itself to Kabul and Kunduz.
In any case, taming the warlords by force will merely mean more bloodshed. Ultimately, President Karzai and his international backers will have to rely on the political process. Historically Afghanistan has been a tribal confederacy in which the provinces were given autonomy in return for loyalty to Kabul.
The Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil war destroyed this balance. If Afghanistan is to have peace again, it may have to revert to some such arrangement between the provinces and the Kabul government.
Bouteflika's re-election
Winning a thumping 83 per cent of the vote in last Thursday's polls, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been given yet another five-year mandate to consolidate the peace he brought to the North African country after his previous election in 1999, and to improve social conditions for his people.
While rival contenders for the presidential position alleged massive fraud, international observers and western diplomats were satisfied with the way the polls were held. Algerians, too, have responded favourably to the results - a far cry from the state of affairs in 1992 when the military blocked the success of an Islamic party poised to win the elections.
The move resulted in eight years of anarchy and violence unleashed by Islamic militants that led to the deaths of 100,000 people. Mr Bouteflika's overtures to the militants and the promise he made of amnesty, following the 1999 polls, have been largely credited with restoring peace to the country.
Mr Bouteflika will now have to prove himself equally committed in other areas. While, of late, Algeria's economy has been improving as the country strives to attract foreign investors, much of the population continues to live under depressed conditions, with a staggering unemployment rate of over 30 per cent and a lack of housing being cited as two major reasons of discontent.
Then there is also the question of tackling a surging Berber nationalist movement, demanding recognition for the Berbers' separate identity or, failing this, outright independence.
Mr Bouteflika will have to ensure that the benefits of an economy that is slowly recovering will trickle down to the masses - both Arab and Berber. Even as he addresses these problems, he will also have to work to strengthen the country's democratic institutions that have been a victim of military interference long after Algeria won independence from the French in 1962.
While this may prove a difficult task, it is of paramount importance as only a stable and democratic Algeria will be in a position to attack foreign investors and rid itself permanently of the stigma of Islamic extremism and military rule.