| March 19, 2006 | Sunday | Safar 18, 1427 |
Their own paymasters
ON the uncertainty regarding the lingering controversy about the issue of composite exams in Sindh, I have before me some headlines that are self explanatory. There is one which says ‘Education department’s long silence irks students’ (17th March). There is another one: ‘Summary moved to Arbab, Education Department opposes composite exam.’ (16th March) There are two others: ‘No Class IX examination in 2006 in Sindh’ and ‘Decision on composite exams is final, says Hamida Khuhro’. And there is another one which says ‘Minister evades questions on composite exam system’.
Now before one reflects over this peculiar issue, which in a way reminds one of a host of issues that remain unsettled and debated for decades, I would like to focus on this student of class ninth who is happy that there will be no board examination this year. What does this mean? I asked him. He smiled spontaneously to say that since he was a poor student he wouldn’t have to go through the nervous scare of an annual examination, and that he would merrily go into the next class. He sounded naïve, looked innocent. He made me silent for a while.
I told him that he would definitely have to appear for an examination next year, and that he would have the burden of that many more examination papers at that time. The young of today, at times, do not care about tomorrow or the future, and reflecting this aspect this student very bravely said that he did not think about the next year. He stressed what really matters was this year, and he said cheekily that perhaps the authorities might actually reduce the number of papers next year. Was he trying to say that there is that much uncertainty in the system, in our lives?
I would like to think that while there may be other such students in town, they would be in a minority. The majority are tense, confused as they spend their present days in prolonged uncertainty. They believe that the government is actually indecisive on the subject of composite examinations. And that the final decision can go either way. The young heard from the old that “We live in a society which is forever reviewing and reconsidering every issue, as if searching for the perfect scenario always”! One Karachiite referred to the number of pending issues in the country, including that of the Kalabagh and other dams, and then cited the example of the National Accountability Bureau which had stepped in to inquire into the sugar price hike, and then for various reasons gave up the investigation.
From the look of things (as reported), it seems that there is scheduled for the 8th of next month an inter-provincial meeting in Peshawar of the concerned ministers who could review the entire matter. Does it means that until then this doubt shall remain? Why are we treating education sector like this? Looks shabby and pathetic, indeed!
I spoke to a school principal Mrs Habiba Azmat, a lady who has spent a life time in the world of teaching and management, on this issue of composite examination. She sounded emphatic and said spontaneously that the students, teachers and parents (read families) were upset and confused at what was happening. She disagreed completely with the idea of scrapping Class IX exams, and said that it would have long lasting negative effects on the quality of education. Nowhere in the world was there such a system, she added.
She said that students would never be able to do well in the composite exam and that they would not be able to remember all the subjects for two years. She went on to provide other practical details, and it gave the impression that there would be chaos in the schools. From whatever little we know about our educational system, it is common knowledge that there are a long list of challenges and hurdles in our schools also. And this measure would aggravate the situation, added another teacher and began talking about questionable decisions taken recently by the education department, making life difficult and frustrating for the players and stakeholders inn the educational institutions.
Now education is a provincial subject, says the provincial education minister. But what the concerned students, parents and teachers cannot understand is that this is the case why has the federal government sought to impose this system of examinations. There are reports that the governor has stepped into the matter and ordered the officials concerned to review the matter. But Dawn’s March 17 report reveals that the provincial education department has maintained a month-long silence on the matter. And at a press conference on Thursday, Sindh Education Minister and Secretary avoided media queries on this subject.
However, to add to the doubts that exist on this vital theme, it is to be noted that the provincial education department has opposed the composite exam option and sent a summary against it to the chief minister. It has suggested that if the decision could not be changed by the federal government for the whole country, arrangements should be made to hold Class IX exams in this province alone. A PPI story recalled that this proposal had come from then federal education minister Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, who had presented it to President Musharraf and persuaded him to issue orders to all the provinces to adopt without any hesitation.
Other provinces, including Sindh, have opposed it. There is evidently an absence of consensus on the subject of these composite examinations, and one apprehends that were this to be forced down on the schools, will have negative psychological impact. Let’s face it. The general environment prevailing in our schools needs to be changed for the better. And this cannot be done, ever, if the participation and consent of the students, teachers and managements of these educational institutions is not forthcoming wholeheartedly and on a long-term sustainable basis. One senses a disaster where this experiment would fail, ultimately and then one fine morning, another set of officials would be announcing the scrapping of this system too. How many times have we gone one step forward, two steps backwards? We have done that to democracy, among other things, said one colleague.
A Karachiite, who has been watching the various changes and developments in the education sector including the way in which schools, colleges and universities are becoming expensive, fears that such measures will ultimately prove disadvantageous to the middle classes in this society. He is a strong advocate of the need to have an educated middle class in Pakistani society, which for different reasons, is getting smaller.
I spoke to a cynical Karachiite, who laughed to say that he was happy that he was through with the educational system here, a long time ago, and was merrily looking forward to his retirement. He remarked that soon this controversy would settle down, but there would be another issue creating scenarios that would agitate the hearts and minds of the students, teachers and parents.
THE opposition in the Punjab Assembly would do well to resist the demand by the treasury members for an upward revision of the provincial legislators’ salaries and perquisites. The principled stand taken by the People’s Party, that measures should first be taken to off set the impact of inflation on the common man only then the party would consider the demand for a raise in the legislators’ package, is welcome. The ruling party, however, has taken its cue from the National Assembly, where the opposition and the treasury members joined hands to give themselves a raise, citing a rising cost of living.
Elsewhere in the democratic world, the MPs would have concentrated their energies first on assessing the impact of rising inflation on the general public, and not just on themselves. As it is, the majority of our MPs belong to a privileged class; there are businessmen, industrialists, land holders, or simply those with enough family money to last them at least a couple of generations. As for the more earthly minority making it to the assemblies, history has shown that not many of humble means came out of their tenures as elected members of a legislature as they had entered it. Fortunes were made when the occasion so permitted or was so manoeuvred; but here, too, the rich by far outdid the middle class MPs in amassing wealth, using their connections, even if not unfair means, while they were in office.
The sheer apathy of the rulers towards their voters is simply appalling. That this may have been the case under successive governments is of little consolation to the general public. Gone are the fabled days of the woodcutter’s son going to school and college and then getting into civil service to ease his poor parents’ misery in old age. Given the state of education now, and ever so limited access afforded to the middle class to get their children into the ‘right’ institutions, many of which also double as serious money-making ventures, there is little hope among the people at large of the next generation making it if they didn’t.
The prime minister says that even as inflation has seen a rise over the past years, there has been some trickling down effect of his government’s economic policies, and poverty levels have come down by some six per cent. How one wishes there were a universal ring of truth about this claim. A benchmark would be to review how much pay rise you might have given to your domestic help over the corresponding period, that is, if you have such help at all. If not, then don’t bother, because you can’t afford the luxury and certainly have not been able to do so in the corresponding period. Like the Americans say, just who is the PM ‘kidding’?
Insurance rates for policies that are hedged against inflation have gone up by 10 per cent between last year and now, while your income has likely seen no such rise, especially if you belong to the salaried class. The construction boom seen in Lahore, for instance, has not brought any job security to the thousands of labourers engaged by contractors, whose coffers may have put on more weight than the fat they themselves have added to their bodies over the past year or so. If anything the rich are getting richer, and the lower and middle class poorer.
How many lower or middle class housing units can you count on your fingertips that may have been added to this swelling city? A mad rush is on to widen the already reasonably good roads to accommodate the increasing number of jazzy SUVs now seen flashing past you, as trees are being pulled down to make room for their swift passage. Also, more and more roads in Gulberg and adjoining areas are being encroached upon by the construction mafia, as they set about commercialising residential plots and constructing multi-storeyed shopping plazas which will have no parking space, no emergency exits, shabby amenities and little in-built earthquake resistance, if any.
Lahore’s planners should have learnt a lesson from what their counterparts have done to Karachi, and avoided the pitfalls that have turned the country’s vibrant economic hub into a concrete jungle. But the former seem to be in a rat race with the unscrupulous building mafia of Karachi that have shown no sense of moral or civic responsibility, eating away at the very hand that feeds them. All this, while the city district government prides itself over amassing millions in commercialisation fees.
Only God can save Lahore from becoming an urban nightmare of the future; Karachi is more than halfway there, as we speak.
A DAY after President Musharraf, while on a visit to the city, hinted at reviewing the ban imposed on serving meals at weddings, the Punjab Assembly came out with a bill banning the serving of one-dish meals that it had permitted before it was declared unconstitutional by the court. The house had been sitting on the bill since November last despite the court’s injunction to the contrary, and one fails to see the cause of the hurry it has now shown in getting it passed. But such, then, are the issues that occupy the attention of our lawmakers. Whether this was done to placate the august court after the government made a hash of its policy on kite-flying, whereby neither the court nor the public had reason to be pleased, is anyone’s guess.
LAST week’s rain aborted nature’s premature attempts at jumping into summer at the rather warm tail end of a dry winter. The air has since been nippy fresh in the evening as heavenly breeze blows. Spring is very much the order of the day, with flowers blossomed all over and cultural activities firmly in the driving seat. A youth festival and many art exhibitions, some with out-of-towners’ work, are on and attracting a good number of people. That’s some silver lining in the dark cloud of commercialisation hovering over the city.
—OBSERVER