| 26 April 2004 | Monday | 05 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
A principled stand
Coffins from Iraq
The 'education for all' week which was observed with great fanfare has elicited many high-sounding promises from the highest quarters. President Musharraf spoke of meeting the goal of universal primary enrolment by the year 2010.
The Sindh chief minister also pledged that all children in the province would be enrolled in school by the target date. Given the low level of literacy and the high percentage of out-of-school children - believed to be seven million 5-9 years of age - such noble intentions will be widely welcomed.
But scepticism is bound to be expressed about the goals being actually achieved. The fact is that no government in Pakistan has shown the political commitment to give a significant boost to education.
Even President Musharraf's government has failed to meet many of the targets it had earlier set. The key goal envisaged by the education sector reforms was to have all children in school by 2005. This has now been extended by another five years.
On some other issues the government has backtracked after taking some positive measures, as has been highlighted by the curriculum and textbook controversy. The programme to bring all madressahs in the mainstream by getting them to register with the education authority has met with resistance and has not taken off.
The government's own spending on education has fallen from 2.4 per cent of the GDP in 1998-99 to 1.7 per cent in 2002-03. As a result, the net enrolment at the primary level is only 66 per cent of which half of the children drop out with many of them lapsing into illiteracy.
It is plain that the government will have to improve its performance enormously if it really wants to change the education scene. The three basic requirements of an exemplary education system are the school infrastructure, trained teachers and good textbooks.
At present the country lacks all three. With less than a thousand new primary schools being opened every year and hundreds of them not functioning, one wonders where the children are supposed to go to learn the three 'Rs'.
The shortage of qualified and trained teachers is another major factor that has seriously affected the system. Moreover, the authorities' zigzagging on the quality and contents of the textbooks leaves little ground for hope that educational standards will at all be improved. The idea is not just to enrol children in school but also to impart meaningful education to them.
If the campaign for education for all, which was a worldwide one, has prompted a change of heart in our education planners it should show in the near future. The government should not leave it to the private sector to fill the gap which exists but should open schools in large numbers and revive the non-functioning ones.
Recruitment of teachers has been announced in Sindh and Punjab. It is equally important that the new recruits as well as those already in service should be put through crash courses to upgrade their expertise and knowledge. This should be a continuing effort.
As for the curricula, the government has announced that their revision will be completed in 2007. If the authorities are dragging their feet on the issue to avert a confrontation with the MMA, this will only have an adverse effect on the education sector.
The urgent need is to set the guidelines for the new curricula within a reasonable timeframe - the work started in 2001 - and leave the implementation to the provincial authorities.
A principled stand
Pakistan has opposed certain provisions of the US-drafted Security Council resolution seeking to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. The resolution requires all UN member states to enact laws banning the sale of WMDs, their component materials and delivery systems to individuals and non-state actors in order to prevent terrorists from acquiring the destructive weapons.
The draft resolution also invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which provides for imposing sanctions and using force, if necessary, against non-complying members. The mainstay of Pakistan's objections rests on the automatic application of this latter provision in case of a lapse on the part of a country.
Another argument put forward by Pakistan is that the UN Security Council is not the appropriate body to enforce a non-proliferation regime. This, it says, is because all five permanent members of the UNSC having the power of veto not only possess WMDs but also want to retain the right to keep and use unconventional weapons exclusively for themselves. The doctrine makes no sense in a world that has three other nuclear powers - Pakistan, India and Israel.
The truth about the proliferation of WMDs is that the majority of non-state actors and middlemen engaged in related illegal activities operate out of Europe and America. The denial of nuclear power status to India, Pakistan and Israel, when the former two are declared nuclear weapons states and the latter is an undeclared one, is all the more bizarre.
The big five, if they really want to prevent proliferation, do not have to look too far; nor for excuses to skirt their way round the issue. The only effective way to end proliferation would be to move towards a complete disarmament regime requiring all nuclear states to dismantle their WMDs.
In the meantime, the existing non-proliferation treaties and the role of the global watchdog assigned to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency should suffice. The UNSC would do well to aim for a fairer world order rather than act as a rubber stamp in the hands of the US.
Coffins from Iraq
The furore created in America by the publication of photographs of coffins carrying the remains of US soldiers killed in Iraq is understandable. But that does not in any way justify the stance taken by the White House restricting any further publication of such photographs.
The pictures found there way into some newspapers after a website filed a request under America's Freedom of Information Act with the US Air Force asking for their public release.
In a reversal of a policy dating back to the Gulf war, 361 pictures taken by the Pentagon of coffins arriving from Iraq at a US airbase were declassified and released. The dramatic policy change, however, lasted only a day.
An embarrassed White House said that the publication was in bad taste, intruded on the privacy of the families of the dead soldiers and said that the long-standing ban would continue.
A White House spokesman said that "attention" had to be paid to the "privacy and to the sensitivity of the families of the fallen". However, this needs to be balanced by the right of the American public to know that the their troops are up against a full-blown insurgency in Iraq and that it has not been as smooth a sailing as the White House would have the public believe.
It seems that by banning the publication of such photographs, the Bush administration wants to hide from Americans the very real and bloody consequences of the war in Iraq.
It wants to hide the fact that many US soldiers are dying every day (106 for the first 24 days of this month) and that American military planners face an increasingly tough time because of the fierce resistance being put up by the Iraqis fighting against their country's occupation.
To quote the White House spokesman again: "We have to remember the interests of the families and their privacy and their sensitivity during these tough times." The interest of the American public in knowing that these indeed are 'tough times' for the US military machine in Iraq far outweighs the concern for the families of the dead soldiers.
Unfortunately, there seems to be little hope of Washington realizing this and allowing the photographs to be printed, not least in an election year.