| November 13, 2005 | Sunday | Shawwal 10, 1426 |
Callous attitude towards education
THE omniscient Jamat-i-Islami stalwarts must be out of their minds to suggest that time is now ripe to launch an all-out anti-government drive. The JI leadership, after falling out with its MMA ally, the JUI-F, has reportedly approached the PPP and the PML-N for the purpose. The single point agenda now is to ‘oust’ the Nato and other western forces from Pakistan which have been lending a helping hand to facilitate relief supply deliveries to the quake-affected areas.
Briefing the city’s media corps on Tuesday, the JI’s secretary-general, however, also hit on a pertinent issue for a change. He said that parliament had been bypassed as far as the official relief effort was concerned. On another point, giving his assessment of the relief goods reaching the affected people, he said there was need for at least 200 truckloads of food supplies on a daily basis while only 30 were being realized. If true, this does not compare well with the official claim that sufficient food was being provided to the relief camps.
A local channel interviewing Sheikh Rashid Ahmed the other day also took the information minister to task regarding the absence of the country’s largest-ever cabinet from the scene in these trying times. These are valid concerns and must be voiced to shake the government out of its alleged apathy towards the quake victims and to correct the delays caused in getting succour out to many of them.
But to say that the government must step down for allowing foreign servicemen to operate in the affected areas is taking matters too far. The truth is that the country, for obvious reasons based on a faulty national priority list, woefully lacks the ability to cope with a natural disaster of the scale and magnitude of the Oct 8 earthquake. We neither have a permanent disaster management mechanism in place nor enough equipment or expertise to deal with such tragedies. If it weren’t for the generosity and the timely intervention of some of our foreign friends, the relief operation now under way would have been a disaster upon the disaster.
The problem is that the JI, under its current leadership, has made a radical shift from its earlier political positioning. Under Maulana Maudoodi and his immediate successors, the party was willing to work towards a longer term, thought-out strategy to make its presence felt as a political force. Under Qazi Sahib’s leadership, the reverse is now true: the JI seems to be taking its cue from its student wing, the IJT, which, in its own political arena of campuses, has always believed in either grabbing power or spoiling it for all others when it cannot do so. The existing state of universities in the country should make a case study of the emerging trend in the religious party’s modus operandi. The PPP’s abrupt decision to add its voice in support of the JI’s demand for the ouster of Nato and American forces at this critical juncture must also be viewed with equal scepticism. However, this observation by no means is to condone the government’s complete failure to activate parliament following the national disaster. What’s the point of packing assemblies with graduate MPs when parliaments with lower collective academic qualifications have shown greater mettle in the past in times of adversity, and many continue to do so in the rest of the world?
In the final analysis, it is the erosion of democratic institutions and successive attempts by the military establishment at reinventing the political wheel that must be blamed for this state of affairs. The result is that today we have over $12 billion in capital reserves presided over by a banker-turned-chief executive, who is blaming the world community for not doling out enough to foot the country’s bill of $5.2 billion in quake damages. We may have shaken the world by going nuclear, but the begging-bowl mentality of our rulers has remained unshaken.
THE city streets and recreation spots wore a deserted look during the Eid holidays, as hundreds of thousands of residents went home to their ancestral villages or towns to observe the festival. Those who remained behind wisely chose to mark the occasion in a low-key manner. There were no loud melas, displays of joy and merriment; even the kite-flyers remained off the rooftops to show solidarity with the quake-affected people.
The only places that Lahorites swarmed were the city’s hospitals where many of the injured were being treated. People brought sweets, wrapped gifts, clothes, food and cash for the affected families to make them feel at home on an Eid otherwise marked by personal tragedy and hardship for many. Thankfully, officialdom remained conspicuous by its absence, leaving the occasion for citizens to show their goodwill to those in distress.
SOME 6,000 Sikh pilgrims from across the world were transiting through the city as they arrived here earlier in the week to take part in the 536th birth anniversary of the founder of their creed, Guru Nanak. The main celebrations are taking place in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of the Guru.
The poet and iconoclast was among the greatest of classical Punjabi poet-philosophers, and it is indeed a matter of pride and honour for Pakistan that he should have belonged to this part of Punjab. That said, some narrow-minded academics have managed to keep the Guru’s magnum opus, the Granth Sahib, out of Punjabi literature’s syllabus books. The classic is otherwise acclaimed by many non-Sikh scholars of the Punjabi language in this country.
The few official and private bodies now striving for the promotion of the language in Pakistan should have seen the occasion as a means to publish a special edition of the collection of Nanak’s work, perhaps with a contemporary translation. Such works exist in plenty across the border, and all one needed was to reprint one of them here in the Persian script. But, like always, there seems to have been little planning on the part of those who champion the cause of Punjabi language — well, mostly by word of mouth. —Observer
OF course there is enough reason for students to be perturbed at the delay in the results of the Intermediate Part I, which were due to be announced by August 31st. But let us look for the inherent plus points that this delay could underline for the young!
It is, for students, a kind of wake up call that tells them in a small way of how tough growing up can be in this society. It should indicate to them the point that we reside in a society that is driven by delays and inefficiency.
After these students will hopefully enter university life and are given the kind of academic world that we have, (regardless of the promises and rhetoric of the Higher Education Commission) and the sort of university administrations and their reputations, will get many more such experiences of delays and incompetence. A taste of real life, in a way, was a caustic comment from someone as he responded to the delay in the results.
When these and other students are through with their education, the quality of which is itself a matter of continuing and agonizing concern as well as growing discontent to say the least, they will look for jobs. What is happening on the employment scene is almost a heartbreaking experience. Talk to employers, private and public sector, and they will openly complain about the quality of the graduates, and the professionals being produced by the institutions of higher learning. Talk to the men and women who are searching for jobs and they will not just complain, but their anger and their rebellion will be very obvious. They are generally distrustful of employers and disbelieve authority.
Now in this context, delayed intermediate results become a learning experience in itself. The Board of Intermediate Education has failed for a variety of reasons (as mentioned in a news item published in Dawn on Nov 10), which is obvious and perhaps reflects the opinion that the board is not functioning efficiently.
In education sector, nothing appears to be perfect. Unless schools, colleges and universities are managed well, and the students given a sound and realistic education at every stage of the multi-tiered framework, how does one move towards the creation of an educated, mature society? A balanced society, in today’s tough, competitive and forever demanding world seems a distant dream in such circumstances.
A quick look at some of the obvious, well-known facets of Pakistan’s educational system underlines uncertainties and ambiguities that exist about the syllabus that is taught; the quality of the teaching, the performance of the teachers, the system of examinations, the environment that the educational institutions have; the fact that important academic institutions are protected and secured by Rangers and other law enforcing agencies, the commercialization of education, the politicization of subjects, etc. One can go on as the list is long. It is truly disturbing as well as sad.
Isn’t it strange, for example that after all these years, since 1947, we have not been able to clear the mist and the cobwebs about what should be the medium of instruction, or the languages that are taught, or need to be taught to students at the school, college and university level.
Nevertheless, the issue that is being passionately argued and debated for the last several weeks now is the possibility of teaching Sindhi as a compulsory subject at the intermediate level. “How many languages do we want to teach students in Sindh, when there are no such requirements in the other three provinces?” asked some parents. They emphasize the details of how students are being thrust with subjects that are creating needless academic pressures on them, having an adverse impact on their overall academic performance. The language issue that has always been sensitive and controversial in the province need not be over stressed.
An interesting aspect of the educational system at the school level is the Cambridge system which reflects the rather elitist and presumably qualitative aspect of schooling. It also unfolds the oft heard opinion that these are some of the manifestations of the double standards that Pakistani society has. English medium schools, with O and A levels being implemented, exorbitant tuition and other fee structures being upheld are one face of education and society here.
The other face is the government school, Urdu medium, lower grade education, and where the fee structure is “low”. And in the Cambridge system of education is one which steers clear of the need to teach Sindhi. And that’s strange. There are people who believe that Sindhi should be taught at the intermediate level in the interests of the language, society and culture. There are others who believe that Urdu should also be taught at the intermediate for the very same reasons, besides it is the national language. There are others who advocate that English should be taught, as it is an international language, and is the language of the future, in this age of technology. Then there are those who advocate that Arabic should be taught for religious reasons.
And of course as education gets increasingly pragmatic and intrinsically job related, subjects like information technology, and computer science, besides disciplines like business administration and medicines are preferred. Students and their families believe that there is a need to reduce the volume of language teaching. They have been taught three languages, besides Islamic and Pakistan studies, for at least 10 years and this has given them the required foundation they need to become good citizens. They say that those who desire to learn the languages more should do so as optional subjects.
The recent dramatic surfacing of the Sindhi language teaching decision at the intermediate level has revived some forgotten and old dimensions of the issue, going back 30 years plus. It has also brought into focus the point that the colleges and higher secondary schools in Karachi, for instance, are, very obviously unprepared to actually implement the decision.
But let us return to the broader education theme and reflect over the general state of affairs which are symbolized by the fact of the disappointing performance of the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi with reference to the first year exam results. I am not sure if the men who run these systems understand the agony and harassment that students go through when their results are delayed. It is more than callousness rather disgusting.