Education Thread

[Neo]

Friday, February 02, 2007

Education Ministry’s assessment study: Women’s pupils good at language, poor at maths

* Survey results show male teachers better qualified than female teachers
* Multi-grade teaching in FATA 77%, in capital 19%
* Only 37% teachers use curriculum documents

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: An assessment study conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that students of female teachers scored higher in language tests, especially in Urdu, but that their performance in mathematics was poor.

The ministry, in collaboration with the provincial governments, recently conducted a study assessment for grades 4 and 8 for languages, mathematics, science and social studies. The findings of the report in “Teacher-related Variables and Students Achievements” said that male teachers were better qualified than female teachers in both rural and urban areas. There were more matriculate female teachers than male teachers.

Less than 50 percent teachers had secured any kind of training. The results of the assessment study said there were no significant differences in mean scores where teachers reported teaching two or more classes together in the same period compared to those where teachers taught a single class. The highest percentage of multi-grade teaching by teachers was reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) at 77 percent and the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) at 74 percent. The lowest percentage (19 percent) of multi-grade teaching by teachers was reported from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The availability of teaching resources such as libraries, teaching kits, textbooks, teaching guides, curriculum documents, etc, did not make any significant difference to the mean scores of students in either subject. Only 46 percent head teachers reported that curriculum documents were available in their schools and only 37 percent teachers said they used the curriculum documents. However, the use of curriculum documents and other teaching resources did not significantly increase students’ achievement.

According to the study, students who were never punished by their teachers performed significantly better. Amazingly, 58 percent students said their teachers never punished them and only 0.03 percent reported they were frequently punished.

Rewarding students’ performance increased achievement in all the subjects. A greater frequency of homework, assignments, monitoring homework and getting feedback on homework increased students’ achievement in all four subjects. More than 90 percent schools did not have medical and heating facilities, 20 percent schools had no toilets at all for either students or teachers. Less than 10 percent schools had up to three usable toilets.

In the October 2005 earthquake-affected areas, the performance of students was affected in all four subjects. Around 10 percent students from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) reported that they had to migrate after the quake.

The assessment took place in 127 out of 137 districts and federal regions, which is a major step forward from previous sampling designs that usually began by selecting a few districts, often for reasons of administrative convenience and financial constraints. The rate of participation was much lower than expected and instead of the desired total of 17,120 students, the actual sample was 11,954.

The ages of the grade 4 students as recorded in school admissions registers ranged from less than 9 years (0.06 percent) to between 12-14 years (42 percent). Only 50 percent students in grade 4 were registered within the appropriate age range (9-11 years). The increase in student ages did not show an increase in their performance.

Students taught by their fathers or brothers at home scored significantly higher in Urdu and mathematics compared to students who reported that their mothers or sisters taught them at home. Students who did not receive help from anybody scored the least.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\02\story_2-2-2007_pg11_1

 

[Neo]

Jana is going to kill me now...:read:

 

[Neo]

February 02, 2007
KARACHI: CM gives 6 govt schools under PAF management

KARACHI, Feb 1: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has ordered handing over of the management of six schools being run by the provincial government on the premises of the PAF Masroor Base to the Pakistan Air Force.

He also ordered release of Rs30 million to the PAF to meet the essential and routine expenditure incurring in the management of these schools.

The chief minister also pledged that the provincial government would continue to bear all the expenditure of the schools even after their takeover by the PAF.

Dr Arbab issued the orders during his visit to the schools on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, he observed that acquiring education was a fundamental right of every child but, regretfully, the successive governments had failed to pay due attention to this sector.

He impressed upon officials of the education department to ensure proper education and training of children instead of endeavouring to show 100 per cent results in examinations.

The chief minister expressed his displeasure over the lethargy and neglect of the schools on the part of the officials concerned, and referred to the inspection register which showed that over the past five years, i.e. from 2002 to 2007, they had paid only three visits to the schools. He also asked the secretary education to ensure effective monitoring of the schools.

Earlier, Base commander Air Commodore Syed Najam informed the chief minister that at this biggest operation base of the PAF, there were six Urdu-medium schools functioning on its premises. Four of them are primary and two secondary schools. He said that a total of 1,772 students belonging to lower-class families were studying at these schools. He told the chief minister that the schools were facing problems like staff shortage, lack of furniture and absence of essential facilities, including drinking water and toilets. Nor was there a Science lab or library for the students, he added.

He said the schools immediately needed teachers, watchmen and sanity workers who should be appointed from among the people living at or around the base as people living far from the area appeared not interested in being posted here.

Dr Arbab accepted the request allowing the PAF to go ahead with the recruitment.

Later, the chief minister was given a briefing about the missiles and aircraft being used by the PAF.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/02/local1.htm

 

[Neo]

February 04, 2007

Senators for check on private educational institutions

ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Senate Standing Committee on Education, Science and Technology has called for maintaining proper check on the capital’s private educational institutions in terms of fee structure, content of the curricula and skill and education levels of the teachers.

The committee, which met here on Saturday under the chairmanship of Razina Alam Khan, observed that such a check was imperative to secure the future of coming generations.

It termed the promulgation of “The Islamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Promotion) Ordinance 2006” as a positive step and appreciated the performance of the regulatory body mandated to monitor and regulate the 643 private schools.

The Senate body was given a presentation on the rules formulated for registration of private educational institutions in Islamabad and the methodology adopted by the Academy of Educational Planning and Management in conducting a survey for the National Education Census Report 2005.

Speaking on the occasion, Senator Razina Alam Khan said the basic purpose of promulgation of the ordinance was to ensure quality education and every child’s access to it.

She said illiterate nations could not make any progress in the contemporary world. “That is why high priority is being accorded to expanding and enhancing the level of literacy and education in the country.” The senator suggested that the amount of Rs25,000 proposed by the regulatory body as the security deposit should be reasonably reduced for the less privileged schools.

She said the committee recognised the useful role being played by the Private Educational Institutions, but also desired that the children of an average Pakistani should have access to these schools. These institutions they should impart quality education at reasonable fee.

The Senate committee hoped that with the promulgation of the ordinance and setting up of the regulatory body, malpractice in the field of education would gradually be eliminated, standard would improve and accessibility increased.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/04/nat9.htm

 

[Neo]

February 04, 2007

HYDERABAD: University projects completed

HYDERABAD, Feb 3: The Sindh University has completed four development projects, funded to the tune of Rs45 million by the Higher Education Commission, at Allama I. I. Kazi Campus in Jamshoro.

Vice-Chancellor of the university Mazharul Haq Siddiqui inaugurated the projects on Saturday. The deans of faculties, members of senate and syndicate, heads of institutes and departments and administrative sections, teachers and students attended the inaugural ceremony.

The projects include the post graduate girls hostel which has been constructed at a cost of Rs26.027 million. Project Director Ahmed Ali Abassi, briefing the vice-chancellor, said that hostel comprised 104 rooms, dining and TV Halls, library and other facilities. With the completion of the hostel, he added, accommodation would be available for 208 girl students.

Mr Siddiqui also inaugurated the building of the office of dean, faculty of Natural Sciences and extension of the buildings of the department of Statistics and faculty of Arts.

The directors of three projects briefed the vice-chancellor about the construction work. They said that construction of the dean office block -- comprising dean office, committee room, seminar hall, staff room and store – was started on November 2005 and completed in December 2006.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/04/local23.htm

 

[Neo]

Monday, February 05, 2007

Rich school, poor school
View by Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa

It is time the government made a plan for bridging the gap between the three systems of education prevalent in the country: private schools; government schools and madrassahs. However, that would require an even-handed approach, among other things

The demolition of an illegal mosque-madrassah complex in Islamabad’s G sector has drawn a very angry reaction from the female students, the mullahs and those sympathetic to their views. The female students have invaded and occupied the children’s library next-door and refuse to vacate it until the government restores the mosque.

What should we make of this?

The demolition of the mosque is part of an official decision to demolish all illegal mosques of which there are many (a long list of them in the Capital territory alone has recently been put out by the newspapers). Why must the religious elements protest the issue?

The government must remove all the buildings that have been illegally constructed by people and groups in collusion with corrupt political and administrative authorities. Mosques cannot be exempted in this regard. The religious life in a city or a community has to fit into the larger civic plan of a place. Demolishing or not allowing a mosque to be constructed at any place is not an anomaly. The government in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states has a total control of where mosques are to be constructed or even what can be said in a sermon in the mosque.

While we are at it, let me add to the list by pointing out the illegal mosque and madrassah in the greenbelt of F-8 sector. This mosque was constructed illegally under the patronage of (late) General Zia-ul Haq and is known for its firebrand imam who vociferously opposes the government and its policies. I am quite sure that F-8 will look better without the mosque and the hundreds of students trooping in and out of the madrassah every day where they are taught intolerant views.

I am completely with the government on this. But while it is essential to get rid of illegally constructed mosque-madrassah complexes, wherever they might be, what about other illegal buildings, most of which do not look like a mosque? For instance, in the same F-8 sector, there is also an elitist school, which like other private schools cannot be legally opened in a residential area. In fact, since I live in the neighbourhood, it is far more annoying to wake up in the morning to the din of noisy kids or listen to them swearing in English all day than the madrassah students who seem more disciplined.

This school is also an illegal entity. However, in this case, higher authorities intervened on behalf of the school administration to force some select neighbours to sign a no-objection-certificate to allow a school to be set up and run in the residential area. The Bosnian ambassador was prevailed upon to sign the certificate. Others neighbours were not even asked.

How is this favouritism different from the patronage General Zia-ul Haq provided to the mosques and madrassahs during his tenure? It is a coincidence that since Zia was religiously oriented and comparatively conservative than the present leadership, he allowed the religious schools to open up on government land without seeking permission. Interestingly, every authoritarian leader has his/her own hallmark. The current regime encourages the illegal act of opening schools in residential areas — all in the name of public-private partnership or improving the image of the country.

The students attending this uppity school do not seem to have learnt the fine art of tolerance and concern for ordinary citizens and neighbours. This particular branch is a nightmare for the neighbours, especially in the morning and the afternoon when luxury cars are haphazardly parked outside the neighbours’ houses. The parents and drivers of these privileged kids show no mercy for people residing in the neighbourhood. Not to mention the school bell which rings occasionally without any consideration that it might be disturbing the neighbourhood.

Islamabad has over 1,000 schools illegally operating in residential areas. The logic is that there is no facility to open these schools elsewhere and dislocating them to areas such as sectors I and H would be inconvenient. This is certainly a noble concern for the children of the elite who would not really be inconvenienced if they have to drive a little distance to reach their schools.

These schools have failed to become institutions of learning with the primary aim of building character. But since they are part of the free-market economy and will prepare young minds to go abroad or join the corps of the ruling elite, it is understandable that there is hardly any effort to remove them.

The children attending these private schools, especially the elite schools, are kids of influential people who can force the government to ignore any illegality. In the changing environment of the day, the political power of the rich and the influential is greater than the political clout or the street power of the mullah who is the guardian of madrassahs.

But the image of a country is not just a function of moving from one extreme end to another but by establishing rules and laws that are followed to the letter and spirit across the board.

Madrassahs have become a nuisance not because there is something innately wrong with the concept but because the State adopted certain policies for which it needed recruits and the madrassah was made to provide those recruits. In a country where the State has abdicated its responsibility to provide quality education — or any education — the madrassah is as much a part of self-help as the private schools. But unlike the private school-going kids, the madrassah-going kids do not have an option because they belong to the lower strata of society. Is it fair to take away their only form of activity without providing them with an alternative?

The opportunity cost of forcing these children out on the streets will be phenomenal unless the government comes up with an alternative plan for their future. The government only seems to be concerned about improving its image, which, besides other things, also involves removing all structures and symbols not popular with Islamabad’s foreign patrons. But this is really a one-legged policy and while it might change the image superficially, it wouldn’t solve the problems of underdevelopment.

How abut the CDA constructing residential schools for the needy and the destitute kids who are not left with any option but to go to a madrassah? One good look at the madrassah-going kids reveals their social status. Unleashing these kids into the streets would cause greater damage. It is not just about ideology, but also about lack of opportunities.

It is time the government made a plan for bridging the gap between the three systems of education prevalent in the country: private schools; government schools, and madrassahs. However, that would require an even-handed approach, among other things.

Islamabad, like other major cities in the country, suffers from the problem of poor real estate and social-sector planning. It has expanded without the capacity to cater to an ever-growing population. Resultantly, restaurants, schools and other businesses are opening up in residential areas. When it comes to allocation of real estate, the CDA has indulged in doling out land to generate revenue. This means that land is purchased by those who can afford it. This strategy does not provide opportunities to the poor segments of the population; indeed, it gives options to the rich and the influential at the cost of the deprived.

It is time that the real-estate distribution, town and civil planning and other related policies are re-structured to narrow the gap among the different classes of society.

The writer is an Islamabad-based independent defence analyst and author of the forthcoming book, Military Inc, Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\05\story_5-2-2007_pg3_4

 

[Neo]

‘Most Pak students try to settle in Switzerland’

By Awais Saleem

LAHORE: The president of the University of Business and Finance, Switzerland, Andre Schaffner, has said the genuineness of students aspiring to go overseas for higher studies is becoming a critical issue in their selection.

Talking to The News during a visit to the provincial metropolis here onMonday, he said that the Swiss embassy had given special instructions to the universities in this regard and he was undertaking this visit to personally interview the possible candidates.

“In the first leg of the tour in Islamabad, the Swiss embassy officials have asked me to approach the Pakistani market carefully,” he informed adding the assessment of possible students had to be done to minimise visa problems.

He said that he came to Pakistan several times during the last few years to recruit the students for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. “We had started from Islamabad and have gradually added Karachi and Lahore as well as some second-level cities like Sialkot, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Gujranwala recently,” he revealed.

He said that his university had 25 Pakistani students that also included residents of Quetta and Kashmir adding that only 10 per cent of the students interviewed in Pakistan during his visits managed to go for studies eventually.

Giving the reasons for this low output, he said that their intention to return to their home country always remained questionable. “Most of them try to settle in Switzerland or move towards greener pastures in other countries like UK etc,” he pointed out.

When asked to quantify the number of students returning to Pakistan after studies, he said it was not very encouraging. “Even majority of the students turning up for interviews are more interested in part-time and summer job opportunities,” he grumbled.

Andre said the varsity offered scholarships to genuine students besides paid internships. He termed his experience with Pakistani students at the university ‘mixed.’ “I fail to understand why they lose focus after reaching Switzerland and start running after jobs besides indulging in social ills like drinking etc,” he regretted.

Normally, the serious Pakistani students were very polite, hard working and law-abiding, the President acknowledged adding that the racial problems for students were not as much in Switzerland as in some other countries of Europe.

On a question about post-9/11 scenario, he admitted that there were cases of hidden racism at isolated places, but the Africans suffered more on this count than the Pakistanis or Muslims in general.

The bearded Muslims and Sikhs were at the receiving end of these occurrences owing to their distinguished identities, he opined adding that students from several Muslim countries were studying freely in Swiss institutions.

“We offer mixed residency to the students from various nationalities to enable them to get along well with each other,” he asserted and said that good grades and continuously improved performance during studies in Switzerland were the only criteria for getting scholarships and other incentives.

Andre said that he had also met the hierarchy of Punjab University’s Hailey College of Business and Finance to explore the possibilities of joint collaboration between both institutions offering similar educational opportunities to students. However, this was still at very initial level, he added.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=41730

 

[Neo]

February 07, 2007
Pakistan to build 4 new engineering universities

Pakistan plans to establish four engineering universities in collaboration with France, Italy and South Korea in south province of Sindh with a cost of 140 billion rupees (about 2.33 billion U.S. dollars), according to a website report of Geo Television on Wednesday.

Three universities will be established in Pakistan's biggest city and business center Karachi while the fourth one will be set up at Jamshoro, said the report, quoting Atta-ur-Rehman, chairman of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Pakistan has already signed cooperation pacts with France and Italy while the pact with South Korea will be signed soon, according to Atta-ur-Rehman.

Accordingly, the Sindh provincial government will provide the land while the cost of the infrastructure will be borne by the HEC.

The rector and faculty will come from the partner universities in the initial stages and then 25 per cent of faculty will be inducted from the alumni of the universities.

The estimated cost of each university will be around 35 to 40 billion rupees (about 583 to 666 million dollars) and would cover an area of about 500 to 600 acres each.

The universities will be fully functional within seven to eight years.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200702/07/eng20070207_348244.html

 

[Neo]

HEC’s unconvincing mega projects

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

THE on-going efforts at reforming higher education are turning into a disaster. Billions are being spent on mindless mega projects. The 15-fold increase in the funding of Pakistani universities over the last six years may have delivered a marginal improvement, but it is superficial and likely to be temporary.

These facts are the subject of a researched article, “In Pakistan, the Problems That Money Can Bring”, published in the January 2007 issue of the well-respected New York based Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle notes that in Pakistan the failure of the HEC (Higher Education Commission) to create and adequately implement rules has caused an explosion of substandard universities, fake and substandard degrees, meaningless research publications and a massive wave of unpunished plagiarised academic papers.

More grand folly is in the works. Among the government’s most expensive projects are the nine new engineering universities to be spread across the country. Officially associated with France, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan, as well as other countries, these universities are supposed to meet the acute shortage in Pakistan of international quality engineering education. Contrary to the general impression that these are foreign funded, in fact 100 per cent of the development, recurrent and salary costs will be paid for by Pakistan. This would be okay if the basic ingredients for success were there. They are not.

First, there are far too few qualified Pakistanis who can teach modern engineering subjects at an international professional level. There may be no more than two to three dozen suitable engineering professors in all of Pakistan’s engineering universities. This is a tiny fraction needed by the Rs 26 billion French University (the proposed name is UESTP-France@Karachi) which will eventually require 600 qualified Pakistani Ph.D teachers. The Rs 37 billion Pak-Swedish University, to be located in Sialkot, will need even more. Add more universities (Italy, Austria, Japan…), and you begin to glimpse the scale of the problem!

Looking for so many Pakistani engineering professors living abroad will not help. A national and international search by the upcoming LUMS School of Science and Engineering has – after two years of intensive effort – netted less than a dozen suitable future faculty members, with perhaps another dozen or two in the pipeline. This is despite LUMS’ good reputation and the very high salaries it has offered. Nothing can change the simple fact that Pakistanis in science and engineering subjects, whether at home or abroad, are far too few in numbers.

So, does the answer lie in sending thousands of Pakistanis to the West for a Ph.D in engineering or science and then waiting a few years? This route, while superficially attractive, also has serious difficulties. Foreign training is expensive. Many will not return, some because they did not succeed and others because they succeeded too well.One also fears that many of the ones who do return after completing their Ph.Ds would not have really mastered their respective disciplines. Approximately, a thousand Pakistanis sent recently to European universities have been selected on the basis of a rather trivial locally made numeracy and literacy test. International level tests were not required of students sent to Europe. (But, in a public declaration of its state of confusion and muddle-headedness, the HEC has placed advertisements in national newspapers formally requiring the authentic, but more difficult, international GRE subject test for registration into the Ph.D programmes of Pakistani universities!)

Visiting teams of European professors interviewed Pakistani students but, according to the students I have talked to, these were generally rather perfunctory. For whatever reasons, these teams were apparently softer than normal when selecting Pakistanis. This unfortunately means that Pakistanis returning from European universities will not be as good as others who have studied at the same universities.

So, what about hiring a European teaching faculty? Plans say that the heads of the new engineering universities will be professors from the EU countries, and Europeans will constitute five to 10 per cent of the total faculty strength. Let us set aside for the moment that Pakistan will pay the visiting European professors EU level salaries (with a 40 per cent mark-up to cover other expenses). The question still remains whether these professors will be accomplished teachers or researchers, or whether they are second-raters in their own countries.

Past experience of bringing faculty from abroad has not been good. There is scarcely a white European or American to be found in any Pakistani university. Huge salaries paid under the HEC’s four-year old foreign faculty programme has brought to Pakistan a handful of good dedicated professionals on contract appointments. They are guiding students, teaching and doing research. But the overwhelming majority of the foreign faculty comprises academic mercenaries from Russia, Ukraine, the Central Asian republics, as well as expatriate Pakistanis. They have little interest beyond the pecuniary.

The reliance on European faculty for Pak-European universities is obviously critical. But, according to French sources, as of early February 2007, no French vice-chancellor or faculty member has yet been appointed. (Pak-French will be followed by Pak-Sweden in 2008 and then other universities). Nevertheless, teaching officially starts in 2007. This bespeaks a planning disaster of grand proportions.

Worse may lie ahead. Suicide attacks within Pakistan are now averaging two a week or more. Will this discourage long-term European faculty in residence? How many professionally active foreign scientists and engineers will opt for a life under barricades and armed guards in places like Sialkot, Multan or Khairpur?

These are daunting conditions for developing higher education in Pakistan – for any policymaker. The problems are many, not just that of adequate faculty for the nine engineering universities. For example, the tens of thousands of academically well-equipped, entry-level students, who would constitute the input into the Pak-European universities, will not be available for many years. This would be true even if things start going perfectly well as of today.

Whim dominates planning. The HEC’s urge to constantly trumpet victory is moving higher education away from the path of the patient and careful academic development that it needs. Various products of an unconstrained imagination, such as the nine Pak-European universities, have been approved without a proper feasibility study. Senior government officers, whose duty it is to guard public finances, have surrendered under fear and political pressure.

In any country that abides by the basic principles of governance, this would surely be sufficient reason for a public inquiry. The planning commission and the finance ministry are said to have already released hundreds of millions of rupees for the Pak-European university project on the basis of a skimpy two-page “concept paper”. This bypasses the usual “PC-1 form” procedure – a protective mechanism, which even if inadequate, was devised to prevent waste through haste.

Pakistan needs sober and reasoned education planning, not fantasy. Yes, we do need foreign assistance to build up a working higher education system. But a realistic and modest course of action with real chances of success would have to be designed differently. We should initially aim for, at the very most, two properly planned new engineering universities under the collective authority of the European Union. We also need external help for adding engineering departments to existing universities, and to massively upgrade existing ones. It is still not too late to ask for this.

The writer teaches physics at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

pervezhoodbhoy@yahoo.com

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/10/ed.htm#4

 

[Neo]

Education for all

This is with reference to an article by Ishtiaq Ahmed titled ‘Education for all’ (January 27) in which he writes: “The 60th anniversary of Pakistan will be celebrated in mid-August 2007. The noblest way to celebrate it would be to declare basic education not merely a human right but a constitutional right of all the citizens of Pakistan whose denial can be challenged in a court of law.”

It’s a pity that the government has still not placed the needed emphasis on this important ingredient of nation building, which is evident from the fact that when you pass through the rural areas of the country, you see schoolchildren sitting on the ground. The only furniture available in such schools comprises a chair for the teacher (if s/he’s lucky enough) and a blackboard. In one of your recent issues, a photograph of a school showed children sitting on staircases in the open, oblivious to the effects of the harsh winter season. Can’t these students be provided with rooms and simple wooden benches? Has any minimum criterion been set by our education ministry for establishing a certain school? If so, why is it not being followed?

It’s not that we are short of funds; it’s just a matter of priorities. We take pride in the installation of a fountain in the sea off Clifton beach and spend millions from the public exchequer in this worthless pursuit. We can also spend millions on the development of the F-9 Park in Islamabad but we cannot provide rooms and simple wooden benches to our school children.

If we can educate hundreds of our students for their doctorate degrees in foreign universities by spending billions, we can also provide items of basic necessity to the school children from the poor class of the country.

In our country, education has been made a lucrative business as far as private institutions are concerned. There have been instances where the owner of the school is a matriculate but the teachers working under him hold M.A./M.Sc. degrees. The emoluments being paid to the teachers are shamefully low. I was astonished to see a TV programme in which it was mentioned that a female school teacher teaching physics in a certain school was being paid just Rs3, 600 per month while another one who taught English was being paid Rs2, 700 per month. These days, even an illiterate daily wages labourer earns much more than these poor schoolteachers. But, on the other hand, in this very country, there are educational institutions where teachers are being paid salaries above Rs150, 000 per month. Can’t the government fix a minimum amount for the teachers of private schools, which the owners of the schools would be bound to pay.

Air Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan

Rawalpindi

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=42443

 

[Neo]

February 15, 2007 Thursday
Education to get 4pc of GDP: Cabinet wants cement price reduced

ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: The federal cabinet on Wednesday decided to increase the public-private investment in the education sector to four per cent of the Gross Domestic Product next year, from 2.6 per cent, and lift the literacy rate to 65 per cent from 53 per cent.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who briefed newsmen after a cabinet meeting, said the cabinet reviewed the educational atmosphere in light of the reforms introduced by the government and found all indicators encouraging.

He said billions of rupees had been set aside to enhance facilities in the public sector educational institutions, providing free education up to matriculation with textbooks and increasing scholarships.

The reforms programme, he said, aimed at mainstreaming the madressahs, providing training and maximum perks to teachers and improving the quality of education.

The cabinet took serious note of the increase in the prices of cement and decided to take immediate steps to bring it down.

The industries minister, who had worked out an accord with the manufacturers to fix the price at Rs260 per bag, was asked to take steps to reduce it and propose suitable measures to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, including import of cement and restriction on its export.

The Monopoly Control Authority was directed to investigate the factors behind the price increase. The cabinet discussed the Kashmir issue with reference to the ongoing dialogue with India and expressed the hope that the dispute would be resolved in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiri people.

The cabinet ratified a memorandum of understanding with Zimbabwe pertaining to cooperation between armed forces and endorsed signing an agreement with the United Arab Emirates on mutual legal assistance in matters related to crimes and an agreement with Egypt on abolition of visa for diplomatic passport holders.

The interior ministry’s proposal to enter into negotiations with Saudi Arabia on transfer of offenders was approved. The cabinet also approved the ministry’s proposal to negotiate visa abolition agreements with the UAE and Libya for holders of diplomatic and official passports.

The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the decision of the neutral expert appointed by the World Bank on Baglihar dam.

Agencies add: The prime minister said more than 95 per cent of the country’s estimated 13,000 madressahs had been registered.

Madressah students constituted 4.5 per cent of the enrolled students in the country, he said.

He said the government had introduced English language and computer courses from class I in normal schools.

He said the cabinet had decided to take measures to increase the number of vocational training institutes and improve the curriculum across the country.

Replying to a question about high fees, the prime minister said the provinces had made necessary legislations to supervise the private education sector.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/15/top1.htm

 

[Neo]

Better funding for education

THE government seems to be serious about pumping in massive funds into the education sector. While briefing newsmen about the cabinet’s decisions on Wednesday, the prime minister announced that in 2007-08 the education budget will be increased to four per cent of the GDP. This will be a hefty increase from the present 2.7 per cent of GDP, which amounts to Rs160 billion. Considering the rising GNP, the money going into the education sector will more than double next year. How this money will be used is not clear because the education policy in the process of being drawn up has still to be announced. It is encouraging that the government has now seen the wisdom of investing in the education sector, but only when some positive results emerge will this move be vindicated.

The fact is that education in Pakistan has suffered grievously for many years because the budgetary allocations for this sector remained dismally low. As a result, expansion did not keep pace with the growing population and the demands of the time. Since 1999 the education budget has risen and has been more than doubled from Rs71 billion to Rs160 billion. Has this brought about any marked improvement in the quality and quantum of education? The literacy rate is said to have grown from 47 to 53 per cent but the number of children enrolled in government schools has hardly increased, if it has not actually declined. As for the quality of education being imparted in the public sector institutions, the less said the better. Had it not been for the private sector, education in the country would have virtually collapsed. Simply injecting funds into the education sector will not take us far without the necessary absorptive capacity created for its utilisation. In the absence of this capacity and infrastructure that should have been created concurrently as expansion took place, the education departments’ funds have either remained unutilised or have been embezzled. According to one report, 92 per cent of the funds (Rs51billion) earmarked for the five-year Education Sector Reforms Programme (2001-2006) has remained unutilised.

It is therefore time that the government attended to this aspect of the matter, namely capacity-building. The white paper prepared by the national education policy review team suggests that the increase in outlays must be gradual and linked to capacity development so that the funds are fully utilised. It is essential that the strategy for capacity building — in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation — is formulated carefully and the budgetary enhancements made accordingly. This will ensure proper utilisation of the allocations apart from containing corruption. One reason why the increase in funding has made little impact on education is that a lot of money is now available and it has led to embezzlement and graft. In the absence of checks and proper monitoring, there is no foolproof way of ensuring that the funds are utilised honestly and for the purpose they have been earmarked. Ghost schools, institutions without basic facilities such as toilets, water and boundary walls, and absentee teachers are clear symptoms of irregularities and mismanagement. Were the education authorities to exercise controls by associating the stakeholders, such as parents and public figures with the monitoring process, it might be possible to contain, even eliminate, corruption.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/16/ed.htm#1

 

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Monday, February 19, 2007

NA’s education projects get Rs 167 million

GILGIT: The federal government has allocated Rs 167 million for 234 under-construction projects in the education sector in Northern Areas, sources said. They said that Rs 53 million would be spent in the current fiscal year for the completion of 53 projects. A total of Rs 67 million would be spent on 79 education projects in Gilgit, Rs 20 million on 29 projects in Skardu, Rs 23 million on 25 projects in Diamer and Rs 24 million on 34 projects in Astore district.

Ghizer district by-polls in March: The election commission of the Northern Areas has announced the election schedule for a district council seat in the Ghizer district. The seat became vacant two months ago after district councillor Aziz Ahmed’s death. The date for submitting nomination papers is March 3 and the date for presenting objections and complaints has been set at March 12. Candidates will be notified of the rejection or acceptance of their papers after scrutiny on March 13.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\19\story_19-2-2007_pg7_43

 

[Neo]

Higher education: the other side of the picture

By Dr Muhammad Zakria Zakar

THIS is with reference to Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy's article titled ‘HEC's unconvincing mega projects’ published in the February 10 edition of Dawn. Dr Hoodbhoy has painted a very bleak picture of the entire Pakistani higher education system.

Though himself a scientist, he has been emotional in his approach and largely unscientific in his analysis. Note the sweeping opening sentence of his article: “The on-going efforts at reforming higher education are turning into a disaster.”

To support his position, Dr Hoodbhoy refers to an article titled ‘In Pakistan, the problems that money can bring’ published in the New York-based Chronicle of Higher Education (January 2007). It may be noted that though the Chronicle is an influential magazine, it is not a professional peer-reviewed journal. The above-mentioned article is not based on empirical data nor does it contain any references. It is just a piece based on the private and subjective opinion of an individual. Can such a publication be presented as evidence of the failure of higher education in Pakistan?

Admittedly, Pakistan is a developing country and its institutions of higher learning need much improvement. Unfortunately, for the last 50 years, higher education has been grossly and deliberately neglected. As a result, our universities have turned into centres of power politics, violence and chaos. This is the painful reality. But chest-beating is not the solution. They must be reformed. For this, one needs to start somewhere and at some point. Reforms entail various risks and dangers of misuse of resources and corruption. But this is a part of the game; we have to pay the cost.

Dr Hoodbhoy has fiercely and unjustifiably attacked the HEC for opening new engineering universities. He has predicted doom for the planned universities because of the non-availability of qualified teachers and perceived poor planning. He fears that there is no way to attract competent engineering teachers to Pakistan and every effort in this direction is bound to fail.

He is also critical of sending thousands of Pakistani scientists to western countries for training. At the same time, he is sceptical of the quality of the local Ph.D programme. Further, for him expatriate Pakistani scientists also perform poorly under a foreign faculty hiring programme. However, after all this gloom and doom, he does not tell the reader where the solution lies.

While criticising the HEC, Dr Hoodbhoy terms the foreign faculty hiring programme a failure and notes that “Past experience of bringing faculty from abroad has not been good. There is scarcely a white European or American to be found in any Pakistani universitythe overwhelming majority of the foreign faculty comprises academic mercenaries from Russia, Ukraine, the Central Asian republics, as well as expatriate Pakistanis”.

I am not arguing that the foreign faculty programme is an absolute success but it does attract many scientists from other cultures. The programme infuses academic plurality and intellectual diversity in our otherwise monotonous campus life. All over the world, academic exchange programmes are encouraged for the cross-fertilisation of ideas and the programme under discussion has achieved this objective to a large extent.

For the last five years, Pakistan has witnessed a spectacular expansion and growth in the sector of higher education. Of course, this has raised many questions about the quality of education and the credibility of degrees. But one thing is for sure: both state and society have realised the importance of education and are willing to invest in it. In this context, a few points need to be kept in mind:

First, there is no need to predict doom and gloom about Pakistani universities. Despite all inadequacies, every year, thousands of Pakistani university graduates get jobs or admission in foreign countries and perform fairly well.

Second, when a new institution is established, many people try to abuse it. Nonetheless, if it is allowed to function, the system corrects itself through its internal dynamics. But wrapping up the system or killing the initiatives driving it in the fear of failure has never been a constructive approach. If one looks at the history of prestigious universities like Harvard or Oxford, one finds that they started out as ordinary institutions, and institutions, like living beings, undergo an evolutionary process: they need time, resources, and resilience to attain growth and maturity.

Third, modern information technology has globalised the world of science and scholarship. It has opened up new opportunities and options for learning, information dissemination and human resource development. Developing countries need to be proactive, open and vigilant to harness technological innovations to cut the shackles of poverty. For this, India and China have done well and Pakistan should follow suit. Instead of being cynical and negative, we should try to look around and grab opportunities. The best thing would be to develop an infrastructure for human development.

Few would disagree that Pakistan urgently needs many universities to teach science and engineering to its rapidly growing young population. At the beginning, the institutions may have problems, but gradually, the snags will be detected and removed. No society is without corruption and no initiative is without risks. But if we develop a habit of projecting everything in a dark light, we would not be able to take any initiatives.

Let us welcome the multibillion project of establishing some engineering universities in Pakistan. For the last 60 years, we have spent billions of dollars on defence. Let us spend a couple of billions on universities as well. Let us assume that, in the beginning, these universities will not produce world-class engineers. Education is a public good and investing in this sector is a win-win situation.

Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen reminds us that spending on human development expands human capabilities which automatically reduce the space for poverty and misery. We need hope in order to progress.

The writer is professor of sociology at Punjab University.

Email: drmzakar@yahoo.com

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/20/ed.htm#4

 

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February 23, 2007
Education policy review faces delay

By Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: The ongoing review of the national education policy is likely to be delayed as Javed Hassan Aly, heading the review team, has resigned from the job due to serious differences with Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi, reliable sources told Dawn.

Mr Aly, a former federal secretary, was hired by the education ministry as consultant of the national education review team in special grade (MP-I) in September 2005.

Recently, the review team issued a whitepaper to solicit general public response to make final recommendations for the education policy. The whitepaper drew opinion and analysis from prominent educationists and policymakers.

According to sources, the education minister was of the view that the new education policy should be formulated keeping in mind the government’s overall policies, but Mr Aly wanted taking all stakeholders on board. The whitepaper recommended mother tongue as the language of instruction during primary education, but the government had decided to start English from class I as a compulsory subject.

Aabira Afgan, another official of the team, has also resigned with her team leader.

The national education policy (1998-2010) is being reviewed keeping in view developments at domestic and international fronts.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/23/top17.htm