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| November 24, 2008 | Monday | Ziqa'ad 25, 1429 |
A new labour law
Greening brick kilns
OTHER VOICES - North American Press
Reshaping plans for research
The smug generation
QUALITY and quantity can exist together theoretically but in real life there is an inherent tension between them which needs to be appreciated and resolved.
THEY are calling them the “smug generation.” These are the children of American baby boomers who are inculcated by their parents with such faith in their own brilliance that they are shattered in later life to discover that they are not actually much good at anything.
HATRED for taxes is universal, and more so in a country where people don’t see their taxes turning into functioning civic amenities. With this vast disconnect between money collected from citizens and the public services provided to them, it is hard to make a case for increasing existing taxes, let alone talk about levying new ones. Yet there are reports that a tax on agricultural income is imminent and debate about whether it is desirable is thriving. Going by what happened in the Punjab Assembly the other day, taxing agricultural income has been projected as a blight that will lay waste farmlands across Pakistan. Members of the provincial legislature forgot their political affiliations and rose in unison against the tax even though its imposition is still some way from becoming a reality. This is not the first time that the Punjab Assembly has echoed with cries against agricultural income tax. In the 1990s too legislators from Punjab were at the forefront of opposition to the tax.
Without venturing into the merits of the latest official logic or the necessity to levy the tax, there is strong evidence that a lot of untaxed income generated in rural areas ends up in cities as lavish houses, flashy cars and other symbols of conspicuous consumption. Taxing such income with a mandatory condition that the revenue thus earned will be spent only on rural communities and their livelihood can ensure that money does not fly away from the farms and villages that need it badly. This is not the only reason for bringing agricultural income under the tax net. There is a need for a non-discriminatory taxation policy for any income generated through any legal source, and it is also clear that exempting agricultural income from taxation rewards big landowners without benefiting the average farmer, thus perpetuating a feudal economic and political order in the countryside.
But the imposition of the tax will not automatically redress these imbalances. On no count should the small farmer be taxed. Levying a tax is as effective or ineffective as its assessment and collection. For instance, assessing agricultural income through land ownership will be as faulty as taxing businesses on the basis of the size of their premises. Similarly an inefficient and corrupt tax administration can defeat the purpose of taxation in any sector, let alone one where book-keeping is non-existent and price, productivity and income variations are huge. The government will do well to overlook the alarm over agricultural income tax even if it is raised within its own ranks but it should beware of the pitfalls of assessment and collection. Failure will allow opponents of the tax to claim that their apprehensions about its deleterious effects were correct after all.
THOSE who are distressed that the Industrial Relations Act 2008, passed by the National Assembly last Wednesday, does not address key concerns of workers and employers can take heart from the government’s promise that the new IRA is an interim law and will lapse in 2010. According to Raza Rabbani, the inter-provincial coordination minister, a new law will then be introduced following a tripartite conference featuring representatives of workers, employers and the government, and consultations with all stakeholders. But considering the gulf between promise and delivery when it comes to such assurances by the government, this consolation is cold comfort for all those who supported modifications in the draft IRA. They are now justified in wondering what good further consultations will achieve when the exhaustive changes that had already been suggested by them were not incorporated in the new law or even debated by a select committee of the National Assembly as proposed. Hopefully, the government will attempt to put their doubts at rest by actively seeking a consensus on the matter and reviewing expert advice given by the concerned parties well before it is time to replace the interim law.
Meanwhile, it would be useful to outline some debatable points. No doubt the last Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 was not acceptable but to base the present act on the anachronistic labour law of 1969 doesn’t say much for the government’s sense of reality. It would have been more pragmatic to amend the flawed IRO 2002. Although it has been called a ‘black law’ its features were more in conformity with the times. For instance, the term ‘contractor’ defined in the IRO 2002 has not been explained in the new law which may well cause confusion in the ranks of organisations and lead to litigation.
Other lapses may also hamper smooth working between employers and employees, as in the case of a provision that makes an ‘agreement between an employer and his workmen’ part of a ‘settlement’. Besides being unfair to many workmen, this would really defeat the purpose of having a union as workers should be represented by the collective bargaining agent, i.e. the trade union, and their grievances should be reflected as a shared concern. There are other disappointing features as well such as the government’s apparent dismissal of the level of qualification of those nominated as presiding officers in the labour courts. All this goes to show that without discussion with all stakeholders and an accommodating approach on the part of the government, dissatisfaction with the current law will continue.
EMISSION of pollutants that cause health problems has been one of the major criticisms of the traditional clay-brick industry in the vicinity of the capital city. Now emissions from these brick kilns — in the form of visibility-reducing smog — have also been blamed for disrupting and putting at risk flights at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport. Despite several attempts in the recent past to ‘clean up’ the polluting brick kilns, believed to number several hundred within the twin cities, the results have been discouraging. Pressurised into taking remedial measures, the brick-makers’ association in the twin cities, in conjunction with the environmental authorities, has been trying to introduce new kiln technology that is not only less polluting but also more fuel-efficient. However, nothing much has materialised from these moves, apart from the recent setting up of a ‘model’ brick kiln in the vicinity of Islamabad with the help of an international non-governmental organisation. A similar pilot project introducing new kiln technology was also launched in the 1990s in Peshawar and other areas in the NWFP, but for a variety of reasons the new technology failed to make any significant breakthrough in the brick industry.
The traditional attitudes of the kiln fraternity and the lack of policy intervention by the government have been the key constraints. The limited technical and managerial capability of brick-makers and their ‘mechanisation phobia’ have been major hurdles in introducing new technology in the industry. At the same time, there has been a lack of incentives to modernise the production process: the industry lacks access to institutional finance for investing in new but inexpensive technologies as well as technical support for adapting to new production methods. Policy support at the official level is therefore crucial for ensuring wide acceptance of new and greener technology in the sector. This together with steps to regulate the brick industry by enforcing environmental laws, implementing existing laws against bonded and child labour, for which the industry has been widely criticised, and formulating new regulations to improve the appalling working conditions in kilns will help improve an important industry which for decades has been resistant to change.
Al Qaeda’s silly slur against Obama
Los Angeles Times
NOTE to Al Qaeda: If you insist on trying to insult Barack Obama, the United States’ first African American president-elect, falling back on the tropes of an America that no longer exists simply is not going to work. ‘Field Negroes’ and ‘house Negroes’? Come out of the caves, blink in the sunlight of a new era and get it right — that’s ‘White House Negro’.
It’s not quite the same, is it? That’s because Obama isn’t moving into the attic or the basement or the butler’s pantry of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave; he’ll be in the Oval Office. And although it’s a given that Al Qaeda is stuck in a time warp — video capabilities notwithstanding — for Ayman Zawahiri to call Obama a “house Negro” shows how fervently the terrorists cling to an out-of-print edition of American history.
This isn’t the America of 1963. In the decades since Malcolm X divided blacks into those akin to slaves who worked in the fields (abused and rebellious) and those akin to slaves who worked in the master’s house (comfortable and servile), the racial complexities and the racial complexion of the country have changed dramatically. We are more diverse and more integrated.
Waves of immigration have brought millions: Koreans and Filipinos, Mexicans, Iranians, Russians and Africans from all over the continent. That said, our enemies are not alone in their outdated understanding of who we are. — (Nov 21)
This is so true in the case of the HEC’s desire and efforts to produce quality researchers in large numbers. This vision apparently had no problem as long as the enhanced numbers are produced with proper quality checks.
As I wrote in my previous article (Dawn, Nov 10) the onus of responsibility lies with the respective educational institution because the quality emanates from within and cannot be brought about and sustained by an external agency.
The HEC’s role has been commendable in terms of encouragement and provision of financial and resource support to the universities. There is, however, one decision which is highly controversial and needs urgent rectification on the part of the HEC. This is regarding the MPhil degree which can now be granted by a university even without the research dissertation component. A few universities have already started exercising this option by asking their students to do two more courses and get an MPhil degree without writing a dissertation.
In the case of an MPhil leading to a PhD it is understandable that students who are upgraded to PhD programmes are exempted from writing a research dissertation as they would be writing a research dissertation as a part of their PhD programme. However, in the case of an MPhil as a terminal degree the research dissertation should be mandatory, as was the case until 2008. Granting an MPhil, which is essentially a research degree, without a research dissertation component is tantamount to awarding a proxy MPhil which may enhance the number of MPhil degree holders at the cost of quality.
I discussed some of the challenges faced by our research programmes in the previous article. In this article I will attempt to explore some positive alternative practices which can improve our MPhil and PhD programmes.
First, launching MPhil or PhD programmes needs proper planning and preparation. The first and foremost factor is the acquisition of qualified regular faculty members in the relevant discipline. Most of the research programmes in Pakistan are facing problems as they were started with a couple of regular faculty members in the concerned discipline. A good model that can be cited here is the Aga Khan University Institute for Education Development (AKU-IED). The PhD programme there was started in the presence of 20 PhD faculty members.
The second crucial factor that impacts on the quality of a PhD programme is the number of students admitted to the programme. At the AKU-IED students are admitted in alternate years and the total number of seats is six. This principle of having a manageable number of students is the key to success. On the contrary there are some universities that are giving admission in their MPhil/PhD programmes in every semester and the total number in one academic year goes up to 70 students.
Third, the admission criteria need to be rigorous and subject-based which should allow only those students to study who have an aptitude for research and the subject. The actual practise in some universities is to admit a large number of students by introducing loose criteria. An admission test in such cases is just a formality.
Fourth, PhD students the world over are given the facilities of space, internet connections and access to the latest library resources. In good universities in Pakistan this practise is in vogue but in some universities PhD students do not have any of these facilities. They are not even provided a physical space to sit and work.
Fifth, the MPhil/PhD programmes should have some core courses directly linked with their area of research. Among the core courses there must be at least two courses on research methodologies. In some universities courses offered have no direct relevance to the main area of research, e.g. English PhD programmes have a number of courses on education. The simple reason for this is the presence of a couple of professors of education in the departments. The rationale of coursework should be to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of students besides giving them necessary skills in the process of research.
Sixth, the faculty members teaching the PhD programmes should be compensated in terms of workload as teaching on research programmes demands a lot of preparation in terms of consulting contemporary resources. A general observation is that teachers engaged in teaching in MPhil/PhD programmes are engaged in teaching in other programmes as well. This stretching is bound to dilute the quality of teaching and affect the quality of research programmes.
Seventh, research students should be assigned or facilitated to select supervisors in the first year of their programme. Early decisions regarding supervisors help students concentrate on their research topics and prepare research proposals in an effective manner. In a number of local universities students get stuck in the research phase because of the non-availability of supervisors.
Eighth, a well-written research proposal paves the way for successful research. The process of the approval of research proposals needs to be rigorous. A proper defence should be arranged where students and faculty members could come and ask questions about the various aspects of the proposed research. Grinding at this stage ensures smooth sailing at a later stage.
Ninth, students need to be exposed to research writing techniques. A good university would arrange seminars and courses to give training to its students in order to facilitate academic writing.
Tenth, the adviser-advisee ratio is a key factor in the success of a research programme. Since the HEC is offering the approved supervisors certain remuneration for supervision, a trend is seen, in some cases, to supervise up to eight scholars. This trend needs to be revisited. The temptation is such that a large number of teachers, without any research papers to their credit, are trying desperately to get the status of approved supervisors. The HEC, so far, is resisting the pressure.
In the final analysis, among other factors responsible for the declining standards in research programmes, money plays a central role. It is money that tempts the universities to enrol a large number of students in research programmes and treat them as undergraduates without investing in human, library and infrastructure resources. Earning money through educational programmes is fine as long as it is not at the cost of diluted, irrelevant and incomplete degrees.
The writer is director of the Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at Lahore School of Economics and author of Rethinking Education in Pakistan.
shahidksiddiqui@yahoo.com
It is, of course, impossible to get things right as a parent. In the old days, it was common, especially in America, for parents to assume the worst of their children and to believe that the only way to bring them success in life was to launch them unprotected upon the world to make their own way. Such parents would unquestioningly accept the verdict of schoolteachers on their children’s abilities, however derogatory, and concur with enthusiasm in their efforts to discipline them. This could make children feel unloved and unappreciated.
Now, according to research by American psychologists, it is the other way round. Modern parents praise and flatter their children to such an extent that they believe they are the cat’s whiskers and destined to rise effortlessly to the top of every tree.
Teenagers today think they are bound to outshine their parents in all fields and so succumb to depression when it turns out that they are fairly mediocre at everything.
The researchers found that there are no grounds for these feelings of superiority. Trawling through the results of previous surveys, they concluded that modern teenagers work less hard and are generally less competent than their parents at the same age. They are just a great deal more pleased with themselves.
One wonders why parents have come so blatantly to mislead their children as to their own abilities and prospects. They may believe, not without reason, that it is important to give children confidence in themselves.
But maybe it is also dissatisfaction with their own achievements — stumbling careers, broken marriages, and so on — that makes them want to believe that their children are better than they are.
— The Guardian, London
