| August 18, 2005 | Thursday | Rajab 12, 1426 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Focus on technical training
Extravagance unlimited
FINALLY, legal shape has been given to the directive to all madressahs to get themselves registered. So far, the government was dealing with the madressahs administratively. No wonder, the results have been disappointing, for very few seminaries bothered to get themselves registered. This came in handy to the Pakistan-baiters abroad who accused the government of lack of will to tackle the madressahs. The presidential ordinance amending the Societies’ Act, 1860, and inserting a new section in it promulgated on Tuesday makes it compulsory for all of Pakistan’s nearly 9,000 madressahs to get themselves registered. In deference to the madressah managements’ wishes, the government has decided to amend the Societies’ Act rather than create a new law. The presidential ordinance concerns madressahs only in the federal capital territory, but three of the provinces — Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh — have already issued similar ordinances, and the NWFP is likely to follow suit. This way all madressahs in the country will be covered.
The details of the amendment are not yet known, for the law has not been made public. It is, therefore, not clear what consequences a madressah management will face if it fails or refuses to register. Will the punishment be in the form of a jail term and/or fine or will the failure to register mean the institution’s closure? For the government, too, the law is a challenge. Arming itself with the law does not mean that authority will be able to achieve the aim of registration. Given the way the law is often flouted in Pakistan, a mere amendment is not going to discipline the madressah managements. Essentially, the task is that of the government itself. It must see to it that all madressahs get themselves registered and those not doing so face the consequences. The amended law makes a difference between maktabs and madressahs. The former are a part-time process, teaching the Quran for an hour or two to neighbourhood children, while madressahs are institutions which also provide lodging and boarding to students. Following the promulgation of the new law, the world will watch the progress in registration keenly.
A relevant question is the madressah syllabus. Its outdated curriculum is the major cause of the madressah products’ irrelevance to society in contemporary times. Developed centuries ago, the courses taught in madressahs have remained unchanged. The aim behind this curriculum is restricted. It seeks to produce imams and muezzins for ritual purposes — though madressahs have also produced some outstanding scholars of Islam. Nevertheless, the teaching courses in the madressah remain confined to theological subjects, so that their graduates have little value in the employment market. Even the law course does not include modern jurisprudence on which Pakistan’s judicial system is based. Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the sanad issue is revealing and serves to imply the need for radically altering the madressah curriculum. Without necessary qualifications in English and the two other subjects — Urdu and Pakistan studies — a candidate, in the eyes of the apex court, is ineligible for standing for an elected office. Both the government and those who run the madressahs should take notice of the Supreme Court’s observations and draw up a modern curriculum. Those planning the new courses must be experts in both Islamic studies and the demands of modern life and society in the twenty-first century.
THE Higher Education Commission and the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics have suggested to the government that it must diversify fast growing sectors such as engineering and electronics. In view of the present thrust in the industrialized and Third World economies, technical education has assumed greater importance than ever before. Although other developing countries such as India had recognized the significance of technological training and research soon after they became independent and reoriented their education system accordingly, Pakistan failed to promote this sector adequately. Hence our backwardness in science and technology. It is encouraging that this lapse is now being recognized and the policymakers have begun to focus on this area. The federal cabinet has approved the establishment of a national technical education and vocational training authority to train the workforce in the country. It is said that the existing training capacity will be increased from the present 142,000 to 300,000 and 752 instructors would be trained for the purpose.
One hopes that this scheme is put into effect without delay. It is a pity that not enough attention has been paid to this sector. It suffers from two basic problems. First, development has been lopsided with more engineers and specialists being produced than mid-level technicians. Second, the quality of training and education being imparted to them leaves much to be desired. At one time there were plans to set up a network of polytechnics to train people for various technologies. The professional colleges and universities were to take care of engineering education at the higher level. Apparently that plan has not been abandoned. But the six-month labour training course is designed to make the unskilled worker capable of handling specialized tasks. That is a sensible approach. But it is only a short-term and interim one. One hopes that the long-term plan of developing polytechnics and trade schools will be actually implemented so that a stable and sizable pool of technologically trained youth is produced in the country. Given the trend towards outsourcing in the industrialized countries, such people could easily be hired for these jobs.
IT WAS reassuring to read on Tuesday that Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro is making efforts to reduce Senate expenditure and keep it within available budgetary allocations. However, documents obtained by this newspaper show that budgetary approvals made by the Senate finance committee this year tell another story: one of extravagant expenditure. For instance, the committee approved an expenditure of Rs 6.09 million for dinners and gifts to foreign dignitaries and the installation of an electric generator — priced at Rs 2.79 million — at Mr Soomro’s residence. This is indicative of misplaced priorities being practised. It is hard to fathom why the committee was busy figuring out which generator to purchase? As far as holding lavish lunches and dinners for foreign dignitaries is concerned, one can understand the need to create a favourable impression on foreign guests but it should be done within rational limits. Documents show that so far, the Senate chairman has spent a sum of Rs1.6 million on eight dinners and lunches, which works out to something like Rs 200,000 per meal. Does this befit a developing nation where the average person is struggling to make ends meet?
It seems almost futile to ruminate on our legislators’ skewed priorities, which have little to do with providing good governance but more to do with ensuring more perks and privileges for themselves. Such extravagance is sinful, particularly when there are no tangible results to show for it all. Mr Soomro’s statement should therefore be welcomed if it is based on a realization that there is no need to waste precious resources on entertaining guests. The money thus saved should be spent on public welfare — for easing the problems of poverty and deprivation and creating employment opportunities for people.