Schools management System

03/06/2017

17/05/2014

23/04/2014

THE EDUCATION "HURDLE"

AS a doctoral student focusing on research on adolescent students and cultures, I am concerned by how peripherally, if at all, the government’s Vision 2030 document makes educational or social reference to this age group.

Despite a peak global interest in 16- to 18-year-olds worldwide, especially in the South Asian region (for instance, regular research is being conducted to find out what Indian adolescents want from life), the Pakistani government seems uninterested in hearing about its own young people’s learning preferences.

While in Pakistan for doctoral fieldwork, one of the questions I ask participants most frequently concerns the difference they think they can make to their country. There seems to be a consensus that ‘something’ must be done, but a majority seems to feel that that ‘something’ is an action currently beyond their reach.

To some students, that action can never be grasped; for others, it will be at least a decade before they can effectively contribute as useful members of Pakistani society.

This approach compartmentalises life into separate time periods of training, followed by implementation. It also supports a reductive perspective that equates the ability to effect change with the threshold of material security, such as buying a car, financially supporting a family, completing a university degree or landing a job (or husband) with a handsome income.

Anything short of such milestones is perceived as compromising one’s socio-political voice or capacity to wield positive influence on the thoughts or behaviour of others.

Responses like these raise questions about the message we’re communicating to a generation preparing to assume social and political responsibility in Pakistan and the world beyond.

Education, for these students, is not a source of empowerment, but a necessary hurdle to be overcome in the long march to a ‘good life’. School is not a space for critical thinking, problem-solving or question and debate; it is one in a series of partitioned steps towards adulthood.

Until just a few decades ago, sequential thinking such as this seemed acceptable. Western high schools, for instance, treated adolescents like incomplete adults, who could be excused for not meeting appropriate standards of grownup behaviour. More recent thinking urges those involved in education and counselling processes to examine adolescence as a human phase in its own right, not as a bridge between childhood and adulthood.

This makes sense in today’s world, where technological and media-based networks have connected the lives of ordinary people so deeply that societies feel compelled to think that older members may require significant guidance, or very young children may be conscious of their autonomy, depending on the context.

A similar framework, premised on the fluid nature of human identity, could be applied to subjects like Pakistan Studies to address questions of citizenship or cultural norms for a Pakistani society increasingly informed by foreign films, music, TV shows, products and news.

Part of this educational philosophy would thus involve encouraging 15- to 18-year-olds to use their school experiences to think about real-life issues that surround and affect them, and make decisions to help address those issues.

Yet, most of the students in my research and others like them, in Intermediate, make peace with learning as a marks-driven, mechanical routine starting at 8am and ending at 8:30pm at a tutoring centre.

Devoid of time for leisurely reading, co-curriculars, competitive sports and creative expression, even they know their education is unproductive and frustrating. Yet they hope it can lead them to a good university and, eventually, to the narrow criteria for successful living referred to above. By and large, they take these ideas and attitudes with them in life.

The problem with depending on a binary notion of success as a prerequisite to responsible citizenship is the underlying desire to compress life into neat categories that can match rigid timelines.

For most students, the pressing need to find cashable livelihoods and suitable life partners by their mid-20s leaves little to no time for seemingly idyllic preoccupations such as gap years, travelling, social activism, trying one’s hand at unfamiliar activities or jobs outside of one’s social class.

At school, strict instruction and assessment of subjects in isolation of their effect(s) on each other denies young minds exposure to the complex interrelationships and flows of information that are at the heart of being human.

Emphasising certain careers above others further allows the education system to present a simplified version of what society really needs from its upcoming generations. The thrust behind schooling therefore precludes many of life’s realities, such as multitasking, social gaps, tolerance for difference in ideas, conflict resolution or a constructive concern for those who struggle to fit in with social norms (eg disabled or special needs people).

Instead of facilitating the transition from school to university, vocational or family life, higher secondary education in the Pakistani context misinforms students about the concerns and challenges awaiting them in coming years.

It misleads them into thinking that time spent outside academic study is time wasted, even if it can ultimately give rise to well-thought-out ideas about life and the world. It also encourages the incorrect notion that education is largely about information retention and successful replication of somebody else’s knowledge.

Higher secondary schools should make students comfortable with creativity, doubt, curiosity and the opportunity to correct their shortcomings and failures. But our schools appear obsessed with restricting student autonomy.

Unless stakeholders in education throughout Pakistan express grave reservations over the philosophy and conduct of Intermediate education, we may well prepare for more generations of misplaced and perplexed Pakistanis. One genuinely hopes that is not what guides Vision 2030.

23/04/2014

EDUCATION AND EXTREMISM (MEDIUM OF EDUCATION VS MEDIUM OF EDUCATION)

IN reaction to Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the Youth Assembly at the United Nations in July this year, the Pakistani Taliban advised her to return home and to join any madressah for girls. In return, they offered her ‘amnesty’.

Interestingly, Taliban commander Adnan Rashid, who made the offer in a letter to Malala, did not have any objection to her right to education but to the medium of education. Not just the Taliban, a segment of the madressah establishment, too, opposes formal education provided by the public sector, looking on formal education as un-Islamic and believing this system spawns ‘secular’ generations.

On the contrary, social scientists and educationists are concerned about the curriculum taught in public schools and think it is fixated on religion and ideology and that it needs to be reformed. Many studies on the syllabi in Pakistan corroborate their view.

At the same time, a segment of Pakistan’s secular elite opposes campaigns for the equal right to education for all citizens. They have a set of reservations which reflects a pessimist mindset. Their major objection is also related to the curriculum. They argue that it is producing generations that will push the country further into extremism. They also argue that the economy cannot afford the burden of more literates and the market has already absorbed more than its capacity.

Interestingly, both the madressah establishment and secular segments of society oppose the formal education system for divergent ideological reasons. Though these anti-public education segments do not represent the majority of their class, they do contribute to the state’s attitudes towards education. Despite the Constitution’s Article 25A, which ensures an equal and compulsory right to education for every citizen, the federal and provincial governments are not prioritising education in their development discourse.

Both segments are the beneficiaries of their own educational systems. Both madressahs and elite educational institutions target the public-sector formal education system and demand reforms. At the same time, they contest demands for reforms in their own education system. Both have active alliances and unions to resist any attempt at the reform of their respective educational systems. These alliances also enable them to safeguard their so-called class interest through resisting educational reforms.

The formal education sector in Pakistan is believed to be catering to the needs of 75pc of the population, while less than 4pc of students go to religious seminaries. Elite schools enrol an even lesser percentage. Both the public and private services sectors heavily depend on the formal education sector. The increasing number of technical training institutions in the public and private sectors not only fulfils the internal demand for skilled labour but also for labour abroad. Increases in foreign remittances are linked to skilled Pakistani labour abroad.

The pessimist mindset is not ready to realise that education is a social instrument for developing human resources and for human capital formation. Pessimist elites in India and Bangladesh had similar fears until a few decades ago. But both countries gradually saw that literacy leads to education and results in empowerment, which enables one to contribute to community development.

As far as the question of extremism is concerned, it has its own dynamics which are linked largely to state policies as well as to the ideological and political ambiguities created by the establishment and its beneficiaries. Foreign and local scholars have done extensive research on the subject and are still exploring the changing dynamics of extremism and thinking patterns but nobody has proved education to be the sole factor in extremism. If this was indeed the case, then all social classes and educational institutions would not be facing extremism of equal levels within their respective spheres.

Interestingly, radical and militant groups also follow class distinctions and are quite aware of their constituencies and areas of support among different classes in Pakistan. For instance, sectarian and local Taliban factions function mainly in the lower middle classes and consider these an important support base.

Urban-based militants including Lashkar-e-Taiba and factions of the Punjabi Taliban (affiliates of Al Qaeda) depend on the middle class and have encroached into formal and private educational institutes. Radical groups such as Hizbut Tahrir and Al Huda are active in indoctrinating elite classes and have established their networks in their institutions. Al Qaeda is also a beneficiary of radical tendencies found among the elite as it is continuously producing terrorists like Omer Saeed Sheikh, Khalid Sheikh and Faisal Shazad.

Extremism is a complex phenomenon and cannot be understood in general terms. There is a need to evolve a consensus approach at both the state and society level to tackle it. Linking education to ideological, social and economic challenges is not the right approach. Such an approach cannot provide any solution and is nothing but an attempt to draw a curtain over the wrongdoings of the state and influential classes in the field of education. Blaming the education system alone will not help resolve the problem.

No doubt, the current education systems including the formal, the elitist and the religious education institutions need massive reforms, but on the baseless fears of extremism, a small job market and economic burden, the nation cannot be kept illiterate and ignorant.

There is a dire need to combine all energies to promote and reform the education sector. Instead of blaming the education system for the common man, there is a need to focus more on literacy and educational reforms.

23/04/2014

EDUCATION CHALLENGE (BY: MEER M. PARIHAR)

THE refusal of Laado to accompany her mother to the paddy fields during the harvesting season because of homework is an encouraging sign in a society where education for girls is still frowned upon. Laado belongs to the Ghuna fisherfolk community and is studying at a government school — practically run by an NGO — in a small village in the Sindh district of Badin.

Her refusal is the outcome of 10 years of tireless efforts put in by local community activists, who besides arranging for uniforms and reading material, have managed to make transport available for girl students.

After leaving government service, I decided to settle in the village, and after three years of interaction with the rural folk, have seen how wrong the general assumption can be that children help their parents earn a livelihood and therefore cannot be sent to school. Actual land is shrinking thanks to expanding villages; with greater infrastructure, rapid farm mechanisation and unchecked population growth the agricultural sector is losing its capacity to absorb more people in the workforce.

Most school-age children, who accompany their parents to the fields, do nothing but play in the mud, catch fish or collect leftover post-harvest stalks which they sell.

The challenge is to enrol such idle children in schools. For that, lucrative incentives are free lunches and cooking oil. These were introduced in selected rural schools for girls some years ago in many areas of Sindh; there was a remarkable rise in enrolment, but then many donors withdrew due to corruption in the education sector.

Besides offering such incentives, the need is to discourage parents to bring children to the fields, and to, instead, persuade them to send their offspring to school. Anyone closely observing rural life in Sindh can see the large shadow of the landowner hovering over the common man. However, success of the education project depends on the collective efforts of local waderas who enjoy authority at the village level under the patronage of big feudal lords.

Feudalism in Sindh, unlike in other parts of the subcontinent, has continued. Only education can undermine the evil. No government in Sindh has ever given sincere thought to educating the masses — despite the yearly increase in the education budget and multi-million-dollar foreign projects.

The deterioration of education in Sindh can be traced to the early 1970s; no government after that, elected or installed by a dictator, focused on education meaningfully. Political considerations have dominated recruitments and postings and the issue has been exploited to strengthen vote banks and usurp funds.

The poor commitment of Sindh’s rulers to education is evident from the fact that despite the selection of high-school, middle-school and primary-school teachers by the National Testing Service in October 2012 and January 2013 the recruitment process has not yet been completed. The Sindh education department might have been able to bring about some improvement in some of the schools in the category of public-private partnership, but the conditions in thousands of primary and secondary government schools are reported to have worsened.

Reports from independent agencies and donors such as the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development present a gloomy scenario with regard to enrolment, quality of education and performance of teachers. The Annual Status of Education Report 2012 paints a sorry picture of education “especially in Sindh” where the number of children who do not have access to schools has increased.

The state of affairs in the realm of higher and technical education in interior Sindh also leaves much to be desired. Except perhaps for the medical and engineering universities in Jamshoro, academic activities in other public universities are below par. Postings of allegedly ineligible vice chancellors and principals are a key cause of discontent.

Fortunately, there are still some competent and committed persons in the Sindh bureaucracy. Progress can be achieved if their services are more usefully employed to ensure that recruitment is made strictly on merit and postings as per policy and the focus remains on training and enhancing the capabilities of teachers.

Monitoring through effective community participation at all tiers and the constitution of a powerful independent board at the provincial level, comprising educationists and civil society members are necessary steps. Last but not least, across-the-board accountability including of the secretary who is not only the administrative head but the principal accounting officer of the department, is a must.

Bringing improvement in education appears to be a gigantic task but it is surmountable; when Punjab has shown that it can do it, why not Sindh? It may be a distant dream, but if the major obstacle of educational institutions functioning as the personal fiefdoms of feudal lords — to whom educating the public represents a threat — can be overcome, the battle would partly have been won.

23/04/2014

ENGLISH AT A COST (BY: FAISAL BARI)

A COUPLE of years ago, the PML-N suddenly announced that the Punjab government was switching to English as the medium of instruction in all public schools.

The switch was made, though the ground realities were incongruous. But a couple of months back, we heard that the government was having second thoughts and had stopped printing textbooks pending a decision on the language issue. We will know the decision soon enough as the new academic year is not too far off. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) manifesto promises that English would be taught as a language from the start but Urdu or the home language/mother tongue of an area would be retained as the medium of instruction.

This is what they initially announced when they took the reins of power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But recently it has been reported that they have decided to switch to English as the medium of instruction. Since they have also promised a uniform education system for the province, eventually at least, the policy will apply to all schools of the province.

How many times have we changed the medium of instruction in public schools in Pakistan? Why can we not decide the issue for the medium to long term if not for ever?

Political parties and governments keep responding to a number of important considerations. Parents want their children to learn English. They feel, quite rightly, that proficiency in English is an important factor in determining the kind of opportunities their children can have in life. This, partly at least, explains why many parents prefer sending their children to private schools that charge a fee rather than public schools that are free (leaving aside quality issues). Punjab’s switch to English was partly to address this parental concern. The PTI’s change in policy also seems to be an attempt to appease the same constituency.

At the same time educationists keep pointing out that there is plenty of evidence showing that children understand concepts better, at least in the early years, if they are taught in their home language or mother tongue. For most children in Pakistan, barring a few living in cities and going to elite schools, the language spoken at home is not English.

There is also the argument that since Urdu is our national language should we not make an effort to ensure Urdu is taught and understood across the country?

We do not have enough teachers who can teach English as a language. Those who teach social studies, mathematics or science do not have English skills. How are they going to explain concepts to their students in English? Will they be able to make the concepts intuitive enough? Will they be able to relate concepts to the lives and realities of students when they are not comfortable in the language they’ve been asked to use?

This is what empirical studies show. Teachers usually fail to explain concepts well in English so they resort to teaching in the vernacular or Urdu but then ask students to learn answers in English so they are able to take formal examinations later in the year. This is not optimal.

Is it possible to reconcile the various objectives that society seems to have? Is it possible for us to acquire proficiency in English while at the same time allow children to learn in their local language and/or Urdu?

Part of the problem lies in governments not realising (or not wanting to realise) that the medium of instruction debate is and should be distinct from the language acquisition debate. Children do not learn English if they are taught social studies, science and mathematics in English. English is learnt by learning English as a language.

If we have good language teachers, children will learn that language. And they will learn or understand science, mathematics and social studies better if they are taught these subjects in a language they know well or know the best. For most children in Pakistan their best language is not English.

This is the problem. We do not have enough good teachers to teach English as a language. The governments, instead of focusing on improving the teaching of English as a language, use the medium of instruction issue to mimic elite English-medium schools so they can appear to be addressing parental concerns about access to English. The result? Children do not learn English. They do not learn mathematics, science and social studies properly either.

The government vacillation is costly. When Punjab suddenly shifted to English as the medium of instruction, it made the life of many teachers very difficult.

They were not comfortable in the language, did not know their subject matter in English and did not know how to teach children in English. A number of headmasters said that some of their teachers were disheartened enough to request that they be shifted from teaching social studies or mathematics to Urdu or Islamiat.

Clearly, we need a saner debate and policymaking. We need to separate the issue of medium of instruction and language. We need to find better ways of teaching English. But we need to move in the direction of teaching in local languages, at least in the initial years, to ensure better conceptual development in our children.

Will the provincial governments, individually or collectively, have the courage to take on this issue?

23/04/2014

EDUCATION FOR ALL????????? (BY: SYED MOHAMMAD ALI)

The deadline for achieving the UN devised Education for All (EFA) targets to help make universal education a reality is now less than two years away. Yet, the education situation remains far from encouraging across much of the developing world, particularly so in our country. Unesco has released its 11th EFA monitoring report this past week. This report’s analysis indicates that the situation is particularly alarming in 21 countries, where less than half of the children are learning required basic education skills. Besides, 17 sub-Saharan African countries, India and Pakistan are listed amongst these 21 countries.

Moreover, Unesco emphasises how even a basic level of education helps improve productivity. It compares data from Pakistan and Vietnam to illustrate the importance of ensuring equal access to education. In 2005, the average amount of time spent at school by adults in both countries was similar (4.5 years in Pakistan and 4.9 years in Vietnam). However, the number of years spent in school by different types of people varies greatly in Pakistan compared with Vietnam. This difference in education inequality is cited as a major factor for stark differences in per capita growth in the two countries between 2005 and 2010. Vietnam’s per capita income was 40 per cent less than that of Pakistan during the 1990s, but it became 20 per cent higher by 2010.

While there are several other factors which have also contributed to the above described variance in per capita income levels, education’s impact on improving the lives of ordinary people is hard to ignore. Working Pakistani women with good literacy skills are, for example, estimated to be earning 95 per cent more than women with weak literacy skills. Basic education also allows women to become more empowered and exert greater influence on determining how many children to have.

Yet, despite the evident need for equitable education to help empower vulnerable people, educational access and outcomes are often hindered by geographical disadvantage, poverty and gender biases. In Balochistan, only 45 per cent of children in grade five are able to solve a two-digit subtraction problem, compared with 73 per cent in Punjab. Merely one-fourth of girls from poor households in Balochistan achieve basic numeracy skills. However, boys from rich households in the province are doing much better on standardised tests than children from poorer households.

Teacher absenteeism remains a major problem as does the quality of teacher training. In Pakistan, trainee teachers only spend 10 per cent of their training time in classrooms.

Unesco estimates that if the government were to increase its tax revenue to 14 per cent of GDP (up from 10 per cent) by 2015 and allocate one-fifth of this amount to education, it could significantly improve the education situation. While the need for our government to raise more funds to invest in education is a good suggestion, Unesco should also take note of the adverse impacts of market-based policies towards education being propagated by entities like the World Bank across the developing world. Such policies, which have placed increasing emphasis on low-cost private education, remain unable to fulfil the goals of providing universal education or bridging educational inequality gaps.

15/04/2014

A SECOND MESSAGE TO CRIMEAN TATAR MUSLIMS IN THE LIGHT OF HOLY QURAN!!!!!!!

News - Current Events
Thursday, 25 Jamadil Awal 1435

Assalaamu ‘alaikum Wa Rahmatullah-e-wa barakatoh!

I greet my Tatar Muslim brothers and sisters in Crimea at this most critical moment in their sad and painful history, to offer to them a kind word of advice that is based on the guidance located in the blessed Qur’an.

If you choose to seek guidance from sources other than the blessed Qur’an, and if you respond to your present predicament in Crimea with policies other than those permitted by Allah Most High, you will pay a terrible price for your mistake. In addition, you must not expect support from your Muslim brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.

Those who criticize the Russian Crimeans for their morally and legally valid choice to return the territory of Crimea to Russia, display lack of integrity by dismissing as irrelevant the mysterious act of the Soviet Union of gifting the territory of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 (just 6 years after Israel was born) without consultation and consent of the people of Crimea or the people of Russia. In fact the Bolshevic Communist Soviet Union stabbed Russia in the back on Zionist Israel’s behalf. This was not the first time that they had acted in this treacherous anti-Russian way.

The present Turkish Prime Minister and Government have chosen to willfully disregard Allah’s command in the Qur’an in which He has prohibited Muslims from being friends and allies (and hence from seeking financial and military help for waging Jihad for example) of such Christians and Jews who are themselves friends and allies of each other (Qur’an, 5:51). That Judeo-Christian alliance did not emerge in history until western Christians (including the Roman Catholic Church) and European Jews were mysteriously bonded together by Zionism.

It was that Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance which brought Israel into being and which has protected and strengthened Israel to the extent that the Zionist State is now poised to seek to rule the world, and that includes the Ummah of Nabi Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).

The verse of the blessed Qur’an went on to declare that “whoever from amongst you (Muslims) turn to them (i.e., Jews and Christians who are friends and allies of each other) for friendship and alliance, belong to them”. In other words, if Tatar Muslims were to take training, weapons and money from the CIA, Israeli Mossad, Turkey, Saudi Arabia etc, to launch a bogus Jihad against Russia in Crimea, you will no longer be Muslims (Qur’an, 5:51).

NATO is the military arm of the Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance, and so the blessed Qur’an prohibits Muslim membership in NATO. A misguided Turkey is not just comfortable as a member of NATO, but has even faithfully served NATO in bringing about regime-change in Libya (and attempting to do the same in Syria).

The rulers of Saudi Arabia have been faithful allies of that Judeo-Christian alliance from even before the State of Saudi Arabia was created. Hence friendship and alliance with the rulers of Saudi Arabia (whom Prophet Muhammad sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam described as Qarn al-Shaitaan) is also prohibited, but the traitors who now rule over Pakistan are prostituting themselves before a Saudi checkbook.

I expect that the Zionist Israeli Mossad and CIA and their servile satraps in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and elsewhere, will now seek to incite Tatar Muslims to join in an armed insurrection in Crimea against Russian rule. They will provide you with weapons, military training and money, as they are already doing in Syria and elsewhere, to get you to commit anti-Russian acts of terrorism in Crimea. If you foolishly disregard the Qur’an and follow such a misguided policy, the result will be such total failure that you will all have to flee to Ukraine and you will never again see Crimea. Such an event will constitute a tragedy for you worse than the one visited upon you by the Soviet Union’s Stalin.

If the Zionists find you unwilling to take up arms against Russia they will resort to acts of false-flag terrorism for which innocent Tatar Muslims will be blamed. If you do not respond convincingly to disown and to condemn such acts of terrorism, you will be suspected as the perpetrators and the end result will be positive for the Zionists.

My dear Tatar Muslim brothers and sisters, do please understand that this is Akhir al-Zaman and the world of Islam will now enter into alliance with Rum (i.e., Russia and its allies) as prophesied by Nabi Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). This will take place whether or not you approve of it. You have a choice before you of being either on the right side or the wrong side of history. The world is waiting to witness your choice. May Allah guide you to choose that which will please Him and will save you from failure upon failure. Ameen!

with love,

Your brother, Imran N. Hosein