| 09 January 2005 | Sunday | 27 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
President and COAS
Consistent inconsistency
'Growth with justice'
Reaching out to tsunami victims
American think tank's bias
Demands on NFC
Outlook for 2005
Rotten fish menace
Advertising billboards
Dealing with disasters
Traffic fines
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Mr Irfan Hussain deserves compliments for representing the silent majority of the country in his article "Obscurants blocking progress" (Dec 25).
It is surprising that those who head public examination boards are unaware of the modalities of conducting examinations and do not view this important issue academically. A group of student activists, who do not even know the technicalities involved in any examination system, are holding discussion on the role of these examination boards and reportedly putting pressure on the government to maintain the status quo in this respect.
The education boards in Pakistan are solely responsible for the deterioration in the education system. A "board syndrome" has gripped parents, teachers and students in a manner that bars them from thinking beyond the board-prescribed syllabus and five-year papers. Any attempts by schools or colleges to create an effective teaching and learning environment are always scuttled by relevant authorities on the pretext of their being futile and out of the boards' ambit.
The present examination system encourages students and teachers to adopt an easy way for learning and teaching and to resort to rote learning. It is also an impediment in the way of developing a book-reading culture and using libraries for reference purposes.
Most teachers refrain from going to school and college but dutifully make themselves available at coaching centres and prepare students solely for annual examinations. No eyebrow has ever been raised on these unscrupulous tactics, nor have any protests been made by students on the indefinite suspension of academic activities in public institutions.
A Unesco publication "Using assessment to improve the quality of education" of the International Institute for Educational Planning says: "All over the world educational reforms encompassing structure, curriculum and teacher training have to a large extent given way to more 'modest' reforms, oriented towards the improvement of learning achievements, school effectiveness, management and accountability.
"Decentralization, school-based management and learning assessment became key concepts in the educational reforms of the 1990s. Global economic competition has brought to the fore the critical importance of quality of human resources and the demand for new competencies in today's information society. Assessment, and particularly the assessment of students' learning achievements have become the object of a good deal of attention and activities all over the world in industrialized countries and developing countries alike."
Everyone would wish to know if students, as a result of exposure to schooling, are acquiring appropriate knowledge, skills, behaviour, and attitude. National and international assessments by specifying procedures to use data on individual students to describe the achievements of a whole education system or a part of it hold out the promise of providing this information. Since assessment is not just to describe achievement but is also used as a lever of change in the education system leading to improved quality and higher standards of learning. Considerations should be given to the effects of assessments on curricula, teaching and learning.
It would be in the fitness of things if the government in its endeavour to revamp the entire examination system entrust this important national task to some private but reputable education board along with conscientious educationists and intellectuals. This group should sit together and find a way out of our educational mess.
CDR (retd) NAJEEB ANJUM
Karachi
President and COAS
Out of the four letter writers who commented on the president's address to the nation of Dec 30, three, namely Ghulam Mohammad, Anil Khan Luni and Hashir Rasul ("President and COAS", Jan 3), questioned the rationale behind Gen Musharraf's decision to retain the offices of COAS and president till 2007. They say that the contradiction between his declared intention to abide by the mutilated Constitution and the original Constitution of 1973 was hard to be digested by the nation. They also opposed Gen Musharraf's flimsy argument that retaining the COAS portfolio was necessary to run and strengthen democracy.
Columnists Ayaz Amir ("Balance sheet", Dec 31) and Kunwar Idris ("The prospects of confrontation", Jan 2) have wondered about the rationale or the trigger behind the uncalled-for announcement in the president's address that the general elections will not be held before 2007. Thus, in one stroke, he has brought all elements opposed to him on to one platform. His nascent conciliation plan now seems to be heading towards a worse form of confrontation.
Is this strange approach reflective of his arrogance on account of the opportunistic support from President Bush or of the manipulative tactics of his courtiers and behind-the-scene king-makers and bureaucrats, as per their historic role?
Is this an unfortunate replay of the game like the "decade of progress" stagemanaged for the ouster of Ayub who earlier avoided the temptation of being declared emperor by the famous or notorious Pir Rashedi?
Likewise, Zia got carried away too far by the slogan of mard-i-momin, mard-i-haq and tried to enforce Shariat as per his own perspective not only in Pakistan, but also tried to do things across the border in defiance of the dictates of his masters and thus met his ultimate fate. In the same frame of mind, Bhutto was quoted as saying: "My chair is very strong." The fact is best expressed in the saying: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But as they say it is very hard to learn a lesson from history and only one in many millions could do it in time with the support and under the influence of not a coterie of servile selfish sycophants but maybe a small group of confidants with candour, sincerity, depth of vision and enough of self-denial and mental emancipation from dubious complexes.
M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY
Karachi
Consistent inconsistency
A team that consistently performs inconsistently must have an ailment, but somehow neither cricket coach Bob Woolmer nor the Pakistan Cricket Board has an answer. I think the problem lies with the players themselves. Batsmen and bowlers play both unorthodox shots and fail to maintain line and length. There is a total lack of commitment, mental strength and professionalism. Watch the interviews after the match; no player, not even the captain, can explain in the cricketing language the reasons for his or the team's good or bad performance.
Like all Pakistanis we thank God for having saved our skins, for we ourselves play by luck and not professionalism. God helps those who help themselves. Not one of our players has ever picked up a book on cricket and studied the art of batting/bowling in its true spirit. Has the management ever conducted classes in different disciplines of cricket?
Since cricket nowadays carries a lot of money, I see no reason why commercial organizations must employ players in order that they have an assured source of income. Remove this element of guarantee and see how a player will put in his best in order to stay in the team. If he fails to perform he knows he will be out on the street. The hallmark will be professionalism; right now it is maverickism.
The next thing is physical fitness. Diagnosing a problem and treating it is like an after thought. Players known to be prone to certain physical problems must be given prophylactic treatment and daily gym exercises to keep them in a state of fitness at all the time. Our players take corrective measures only before a match. And sadly when they are under pressure, they break down. Shoaib Akthar, despite his physique, has never been able to remain on the field throughout an innings. Then there are Inzamam, Youhana and Razzaq and quite a few others who are unable to play in crucial matches because of a fitness problem. As a Pakistani cricketing fan, it really hurts to see where we were and where we stand today.
SARDAR AHMED SHAH JAN
Peshawar Cantt
'Growth with justice'
Your leader "Growth with justice" (Jan 5) could not have come at a more appropriate time, if only to quell or at least curb a rather boastful tendency of our prime minister. You are right in suggesting that the government hire economists of some proven ability to put some sense into its wild-cat rhetoric and restore method to our pervasive economic mismanagement.
Given that Mr Shaukat Aziz is not an economist, yet one does not expect such wild estimates even from a layman, much less from the prime minister. Either he is completely ignorant of the basic principles of economics, or his enthusiasm has got the better of his judgment.
How can a country still mired in huge debt and with little to offer by way of productivity boast of an economic take-off or triple its per capita GNP in a few years? It is one thing to decline a modest amount of aid from the IMF, thanks largely to the returning expatriates, yet quite another when it comes to sustained economic activity.
The government would do well to eschew its Quixotic tendencies and focus instead on alleviating poverty through balanced growth so that some fruit of this growth also falls in the poor man's lap. The so-called trickle-down effect has never worked in such large economies as the US and is not likely to work in a minuscule economy as ours, no matter how flushed we are with expatriates' dollars today.
RASHED H. LODI
Karachi
Reaching out to tsunami victims
The Asian tsunami disaster has caused greater havoc than 9/11 and the continued devastation of Iraq by the coalition partners on one excuse or another. The widespread destruction wrought by the killer tidal waves on Dec 26, 2004, is unforgettable for the scar it has left on countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka. It is most heartening to read in the papers that the milk of human kindness has not yet turned sour, and there are countries that are rushing help to rehabilitate and mitigate the sorrow of the survivors with food, money and medicines.
Pakistan has always been in the forefront to extend help to the victims of earthquakes, floods, epidemics, famine-like conditions in a country and other unforeseen natural catastrophes. It is good that Pakistan has once again stood up to rush aid. Let our president, prime minister, federal ministers, provincial governors and their ministers donate generously from their own sources in addition to what the government does. We can set an example if our religious heads, politicians and others also see their way to contribute their mite. The public is already doing what it can.
The OIC and Saarc countries should also explore their resources to rush help to the tsunami victims. The affected countries should now be helped to establish a modern system of warning.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
American think tank's bias
A new study for the US Air Force by a leading American think tank, the Rand Corporation, advocates that Sunni-Shia and Arab-non-Arab divides should be exploited to promote US policy objectives in the Muslim world (Dawn, Dec 28).
One of the primary objectives of the study titled "US Strategy in the Muslim World After 9/11" was to "identify the key cleavages and faultlines among sectarian, ethnic, regional and national lines and to assess how these cleavages generate challenges and opportunities for the United States".
This is obviously an insincere approach by the US towards its relationship with the Muslim world and cannot help the goal of winning the hearts and minds of the Muslims, which many American leaders and officials claim to aspire for. The study appears to reveal the presence of an anti-Muslim bias in the people working for this prestigious think tank, whose opinion is said to carry much weight with the US administration, when one also considers the utterance of another senior analyst of Rand Corp., Steve Simon.
Speaking at a recent seminar in Washington, Mr Simon used the term "ummanitis" on the pattern of meningitis (an inflammation of membranes of the brain) to describe the notion that all Muslims belong to one nation (Dawn, Dec 4). Such a statement could have been overlooked as the product of an ignorant mind but the problem seems to be organization-wide, so it becomes necessary to respond to it.
The suffix "-itis" means an inflammation, i.e., a pathological condition somewhere in the body; hence its malicious application to the Muslim Ummah is evident.
What is wrong if someone living in Karachi, Istanbul or Jakarta tries to help a Muslim in distress in, say, Bosnia, Palestine or Kashmir? If there's a drought in Somalia, invasion in Kuwait or a civil war in Sudan, wouldn't it be desirable for other people, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, to reach out to them?
There are many Americans who had sent donations or helped otherwise when there was genocide in Bosnia and a famine in Somalia (where the effort was initiated by President Bush the senior, himself), all in the early '90s. By such acts the Americans had endeared themselves to the Muslims. But, unfortunately, a few prejudiced and hawkish people are now bringing a bad name to their compatriots. However, one would not stereotype all the good Americans just because of the doings of a minority amongst them.
In the same way, terrorists and militants are fringe elements among the Muslims and can easily be sidelined if our friends in the West take the trouble to learn what Islam really teaches and what most of its adherents stand for, besides treating the Islamic community fairly.
The Muslims do not hate the Americans, but only some of their government's policies such as the blind support for Israel or the occupation of Iraq on false pretexts. So, instead of spreading hatred against each other which can only form a vicious circle, let's learn to love each other.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
Demands on NFC
This is with reference to Mr Fayaz Soomro's letter (Jan 8) on Sindh's demands on the NFC.
I strongly favour giving Sindh its due share under the NFC award, but I fail to follow Mr Soomro when he says that "one province (Sindh) is giving 69.02 per cent revenue and, in return, it is not even getting a pittance".
Revenues are contributed by persons who bear the incidence of taxation. How can it be fair and reasonable to give credit to Sindh for taxes paid by residents of Balochistan, Punjab and the NWFP merely because the companies concerned have their head offices in Karachi? Can't we be a bit more honest when bandying about facts and figures?
There are pockets of abject poverty in all the four provinces, but it would be fair if the relatively more affluent amongst them, namely Punjab and Sindh, make a sacrifice to provide greater resources to Balochistan and the NWFP.
ASAF ALI SHAH
Lahore
Outlook for 2005
Mr Eric S. Margolis says in the last paragraph of his article "Outlook for 2005" (Dawn, January 6) that "outlook for Pakistan is not positive - Pakistan created as the standard bearer for Islamic democracy and good government is headed ever deeper into crude Third World-style military rule while India rightly crows that Pakistan is unfit for democracy and cannot be trusted. Washington will increasingly call the shots in Islamabad".
Will the drumbeaters in rule pay some heed to these few but very important lines?
ABDUL JABBAR
Chakwal
Rotten fish menace
The way things are run in Pakistan, there are several instances where thousands of people suffer for the benefit of a few corrupt officials. Take for example the daily stench that emanates from pick-ups carrying rotten fish that pass through various Karachi roads while the traffic police look the other way.
One wonders why the traffic police cannot make these vehicles cover their cargo in such a manner that the stench is minimized.
Instead, the police are content with charging the drivers a few hundred rupees every day for this malpractice while thousands of people have to suffer in silence as the stench spreads over a very large area in these localities.
NAEEM-UR REHMAN
Karachi
Advertising billboards
Advertising hoardings keep on growing bigger with each passing day, increasing the risk to passersby as well as being unpleasant to look at. The city government in Karachi seems to have made these billboards the mainstay of its income, with the result that many more are coming up all over the city. In fact, the situation has reached the stage where some hoardings have started to block out older hoardings, making the city look more untidy.
Is there a policy in place with the city government about#such hoardings? Are there areas where they cannot be placed or are all parts of Karachi within their reach?
Finally, one would want to know what precautions are taken in terms of securing these hoardings so that they do not cause injury in the case of a storm in the city.
SYED AZIZ AGHA
Karachi
Dealing with disasters
This is with reference to the news item "Aziz calls for steps to pre-empt disasters" (Jan 7). Coastal Pakistan has very low exposure to tsunami-like disasters because of the lack of active tectonic potentials along the off-shore Arabian peninsula or the East African coast.
The US has a an agency to prepare the public and the government against adverse natural or man-made situations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) studies all hazardous potential damage that could be caused by nuclear, seismic, flood and environmental disasters and forest fires, and helps prepare the public and the government to deal with adverse situations.
In view of the tsunami disaster in Asia, it may be prudent for us to create an organization similar to this.
SYED SAULAT SHERE
Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
Traffic fines
News that the traffic police were able to book a record number of drivers in Karachi during 2004 is encouraging. But if one look is taken at the state of traffic on our streets, it seems that the message is not getting through.
Traffic is at its worst in the city, with increasing number of vehicles competing for the limited space on our roads. The problem, however, is not the rising number of vehicles; it is more the unruly traffic that causes jams and accidents. In this, the traffic police have not been able to do much. One wonders what happened to the action plan that the Sindh IG had asked for last.
AHMAD MAZHAR ALI
Karachi
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