Ehsan-ur-Rehman


There have been serious controversies in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab provinces over content of textbooks for ninth and tenth grades, lately. A campaign was launched in the Punjab against a new Islamic Studies textbook for ninth and tenth grades by a religion party.

It was alleged that some Quranic verses had been removed from the new book. Various protest demonstrations were held in Lahore and "Open Letters" were published. A delegation comprising members of the party met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and demanded that introduction of the new book should be stopped and the old book be continued, according to official sources. Allegedly succumbing to the pressure, the chief minister ordered withholding of the new book and providing the old one in schools after getting it printed.

However, the publisher of the new book moved the Lahore High Court against the chief minister's orders, and sought directions for stopping printing of the old book.

The petitioner, through his counsel, told the court that he printed the textbook of Islamic Studies for the 9th class in consultation with the Punjab Text-Book Board (PTBB). The book was approved by a committee comprising educationists, experts on religious affairs and senior professors. They discussed each and every chapter of the book in detail and then gave approval for its printing after finding it completely fit for ninth grade students.
However, the Punjab government, after printing of the said books, decided to continue the old books and ordered their printing. The publisher contended that the decision would cause loss to the petitioner as well as the government. He requested the court to issue an order for stopping printing of the Islamic Studies books based on the old syllabus.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court stayed printing of the old book till May 11, 2012.

In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the situation is not very different.
Various religious groups charged the provincial government with playing into the hands of anti-Islam forces. They alleged that under a conspiracy against Islam, various Quranic verses had been removed from the 9th class Islamic Studies textbook. However, the provincial government has denied all these allegations.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board Chairman, Dr. Fazlur Rahim Marwat, told Cutting Edge by telephone that the textbooks of Islamiat and English, being taught in secondary classes, had not been changed. "The decision to bring changes in English and Islamiat courses has been withdrawn after some religious groups expressed their reservations," he added. The KPTB chairman said that the new curriculum had been set in a manner that it would discourage rote learning while students would not be completely dependent on teachers, as the books had been made interesting to engage the students.
Marwat said: "The new courses are designed in such a way that students will systematically progress from simple to complex topics so as to keep their interest in study intact."

The official said that the new curriculum was focused on clearing concepts for the students, as it was noted that most of the students had been appearing in the examinations without a clear understanding of many topics. Such students were often found in trouble whenever the pattern of papers was changed, he added.

The KPTB chairman told this writer that the new textbooks have been designed in the light of the curriculum approved in 2006 and the initiative has been taken from grade-9 subjects and the students have been provided new textbooks with the commencement of the academic year 2012. He announced that new textbooks for grade-10 would be introduced from the next year i.e. 2013.

Marwat said that the need for changing syllabus had been felt for long.
Various educationists and intellectuals had been objecting to the contents being taught to the secondary classes. According to their findings, some of the contents of textbooks taught in schools and colleges in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, had been overemphasised in a way that could undermine social peace and incite violence in society. The findings were shared with major stakeholders and the media at a seminar recently. The reviewers noted that the contents, inserted into the textbooks during the Afghan jihad era, were not in sync with the current socio-political realities of the country because of their controversial, discriminatory and gender insensitive nature.

According to officials concerned, the review of books for grade-1 to 10 was carried out in eight months by subject specialists under the aegis of Peace Education and Development (PEAD), a training and advocacy organisation. PEAD Foundation Executive Director Sameena Imtiaz presented the findings in the presence of government officials, academicians and civil society representatives last month. She said that some of the themes in the textbooks overemphasised certain tenets of religion while discussing politics, history, literature and linguistic studies. She believed that was detrimental to the growth of an enlightened, tolerant and inclusive mindset.

Sameena Imtiaz explained that the review took about eight months because the PEAD feels that the curricula should be free of hatred against other religions, communities and gender bias.

She told this writer that our education system should promote positive things to change our ethical and moral behaviour, something that developed countries have always treated on a priority basis.

Her views were endorsed by Farid Khattak, deputy director of the Education Sector Reforms Unit (E&SE), KPK, who admitted that the curricula needed to be reviewed in view of the grave challenges that society was facing today.
Government official's admission that the old syllabus had some content which was not fit for education of school students should be a matter of concern for all. Various educationists also say that much of today's curriculum and teaching-learning methods in education are irrelevant, at all levels, from primary school to university. We are often told "facts" in school that are not facts, sometimes even lies, and many things that are not important at all!
We are told not to rock the boat but conform. We should think, but only within given parameters.

Mostly syllabuses are not set keeping in view the psychological aspects of students' personalities. Students spend time learning facts and figures that are not important, and often outdated.

Teachers are often not capable of instilling in the students curiosity and interest in learning or, simply motivating them to work themselves, alone and in groups. Religious aspects aside, mostly textbooks taught in schools do not serve the purpose of grooming students as independent and responsible citizens.

Professor Johan Galtung, a peace researcher and activist, believes that at best a teacher could help a student through lectures to learn 10 per cent of the curriculum; the rest was entirely up to the student to learn alone. Therefore, the syllabuses should be set in such an interesting way that textbooks capture the attention of students and force their readers to learn from them to the maximum.

There is no denying the fact that setting syllabuses is a very laborious and sensitive matter. It is not a one-time activity. We need a broad-based education debate in Pakistan, on a regular basis.

Not only should the Federal Education Ministry keep active its curriculum wing, but also the education department in all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK should continue giving their input regularly. Also, all major political parties should also set up education wings, led by experts to formulate their education policy and aims and objectives in this most important sector.

The country could avoid controversies on syllabuses for schools and colleges and universities if the government engages all stakeholders in the process of finalising contents for the textbooks. Religion is a very sensitive matter in our part of the world. If religious scholars from all schools of though are included in the board, which deliberates on the Islamic Studies contents, controversies could be avoided and time and money could be saved.
More funds allocation is also very necessary for improving the working of all departments and wings of the Education Ministry.

Dr. Sohail Naqvi, the Director General of the Higher Education Commission, told this writer at a function in Islamabad that "we spend less than 2 per cent of the country's GDP on education, and only about 0.2 per cent of GDP on higher education that, in turn, is about 10 per cent of the education budget." This is miniscule when compared to UNESCO's recommendation: a country should spend at least 4 per cent of its GDP on education. Dr. Naqvi said that if
Pakistan fulfilled its own laws and regulations, about 3 per cent of GDP would have to be allocated to education. Increasing the budget for the sector would improve the situation in all its sub-sectors, including the curriculum wing.

-Cuttingedge

May 3, 2012
Shabnam Baloch

The most critical mistake of recent times is to take peace for granted. No formal action is taken to institutionalise peace in order to prevent wars, conflicts, violence and extremism. Education perhaps can be the most powerful tool to inculcate deeper values of peace, harmony and tolerance for diversity and differences in social fabric. Moreover, it can also help to revisit and understand the multiple dynamics of conflicts and the triggering factors, stimulating violent feelings and emotions among individuals and different ethnic and religious groups. This unbiased and neutral understanding is the only way that can lead to more meaningful resolution of the existing problems and prevent their existence in future.

The direct and formal role of education in promoting peace and the reconstitution of a tolerant society is clearly neglected in our policies and practices. Both our future and present generations have the fundamental human right to live in peace. All of us have an ethical responsibility to hand down to future generations a culture of peace and tolerance. We need not to overlook the key role of education in today’s globalised world, which should be more focused on promoting understanding of multiculturalism and civilised and non-violent coexistence.

Tolerance is the most critical prerequisite for peace. It is a formula for the civilised coexistence of all citizens of the world with their diverse range of perceptions, cultures and religio-ethnic practices and beliefs. This is the key ingredient for nurturing a harmonious, stable, livable and lasting existence of social life in its natural diversity.

It is estimated that there are around 7,000 various ethnic and national groups present in the world today. Most of these groups aim at some form of autonomy or recognition as an independent or sovereign state. All of them want to be mainstreamed in the global scenario. Such aspirations can lead to intensification of conflicts, mass migrations, and wars. Tensions between individuals, communities and states mostly stem from bias, intolerance and manipulation of the rights of others, which can be a major threat to stability and peace. As per the old words of wisdom, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ Education is the only means to prevent violence on a mass scale.

As per UNESCO’s Declaration on the Responsibilities of present generations towards future generations, “The present generation should ensure that both the present and future generations learn to live together in peace, security, respect for international law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Moreover, the same declaration further claims, “The present generation should spare future generations the scourge of war. To that end, they should avoid exposing future generations to the harmful consequences of armed conflicts as well as all other forms of aggressions and use of weapons, contrary to humanitarian principles.” All this can be materialised and sustained through predesigned and focused interventions of wide range educational policies and programmes.

In most situations of conflict, where religion and history is often manipulated or exploited, identity is enhanced to sustain the unity of the group. Education helps to explore multiple identities of individuals and groups and enables them to identify a million ways to relate to each other. It is especially meaningful in today’s modern world where ethnic, religious, social and cultural diversity is everywhere and only 10 percent of states out of more than 200 states are mono-ethnic.

Education though schools can be the most effective way to sensitise citizens for social and religious harmony, multiculturalism and pluralism. The curriculum should be conceived and designed in ways that help pupils internalise the values of respect for diversity, peace and tolerance. Approaches regarding teaching of history and religion need to be especially revisited to identify what message they are delivering to the young minds of learners and what can be the consequences of such messages in the long run. What may appear as balanced, justified and fair to one group may be perceived by another as a provocation and manipulation of facts and realities.

All cultures around the globe are the result of our learning. A global culture of peace, tolerance and respect for diversity can also be learned through planned educational interventions. The current education system should be able to promote understanding of multiculturalism and the philosophy of unity in diversity as a fundamental principle of civilisation. Unfortunately, since the last couple of decades, our education system is focusing only on creating an economically and technologically competitive citizenry. The world realised after the aftermath of 9/11 that global citizens should be educated for peaceful coexistence rather than economic competitiveness.

Policy reforms, curriculum enhancement with the integration of peace and tolerance as key components and teaching methodologies are the areas to be focused upon in order to unlock the potential of education to reconstruct a more peaceful, tolerant and inclusive society. It is therefore crucial to devise and implement preventive policies and educational programmes to obtain the maximum benefits of this approach.

Such a landmark move of introducing peace education and mainstreaming it in our educational policy and packages will be specifically beneficial in the context of Pakistan, where more than 50 percent of the population consists of youth who can play a significant role in redefining the social fabric by demonstrating values of tolerance and respect for diversity. It will help in discouraging extremism, discrimination and violence in any form and shape. This will also lead to the realisation of the dreams of those who aspire for human rights and social justice for all human beings irrespective of their caste or creed. Peace education should no longer be taken for granted and it should be institutionalised.

The writer is the Provincial Manager of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO). She can be reached at shabnam@spopk.org
-Daily Times

Ehsan-ur-Rehman


You talk to any education minister of the federal or provincial government, any senior or junior official, and he/she will deliver a long and comprehensive speech about the importance of education for development of the country.
They will stress more budgetary allocations and call for long- and short-term policies for promotion of education and enhancement of the literacy rate. But who should do it all, is a million dollar question, and finding an answer to it is not easy at all.

After promulgation of the 18th Amendment and devolution of education to the provinces, the Centre and provinces have found an opportunity to blame each other for non-development of the sector in the country. However, this blame-game is not going to bring about any change in the miserable status of education in Pakistan. There has never been any good news when education was a federal subject, and there seems to be no good news in the near future when the sector has been devolved to the federating units i.e. the provincial governments.

The facts and figures showing the state of education in the country have never changed. According to official and unofficial (but authentic) statistics, the country spends only two per cent of its budget on education, compared with the regional average of 4 per cent. Experts say that country needs to spend at least 5 per cent of its budget to sustain the current level of population growth! Also, 33 per cent of our children don't go to school, and if 100 students enter primary school, only three are left by the time they reach high school. 25 per cent of government teachers, some of the highest paid government servants on average, don't come to work on a daily basis. On an average day, 25 per cent teachers in government schools remain absent. According to official surveys, 60 per cent of government schools have no electricity and 40 per cent have no water.

Also, Pakistan ranks 166th out of 173 countries in the UN Index of Education Systems worldwide. At the rate our population is growing, 350 million people will live in Pakistan by 2050 and we will be the largest uneducated working population in the world by percentage.

In the field of education, Pakistan has its international obligations also. Being a signatory to UNESCO's Education Programme, Pakistan is committed to achieving an 86 per cent literacy rate by the year 2015, as envisaged in the Dakar Framework of Action for Education For All.

However, keeping in view the past record of successive governments, it would be extremely difficult to even get anywhere near the target of 85 per cent literacy rate in the next three years. Educationists say if we continue to spend almost 30 per cent of our annual budget on defence and only around Rs. 30 billion on education, there is no way the nation could bring about any significant improvement in the literacy rate. To achieve the goal, the government would have to substantially increase its allocations for education in the federal and provincial budgets.

Recently, attending a talk show at a private TV channel, the representatives of the federal and provincial government of the Punjab, stressed the need for giving top priority to education if we want to stand among the comity of nations with respect. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which is in the driving seat in the Punjab, the biggest province of Pakistan, was represented by Ahsan Iqbal, one of the main leaders of the party. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and the chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), spoke from the federal government side.

Both of them spoke at length about the problems facing the education sector in the country. But there was no clue as to why their respective governments were not implementing all those suggestions they were presenting at the show. PM Adviser Shahnaz Wazir Ali shed light on how the state had failed to give education: how so many things were wrong with the education system, and how they were continually failing to address the core issues.

The other participant, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal also talked about the need to change the state of education in the country, and how we had failed. The PML-N currently has nothing to boast about except for laptops which the Punjab government is distributing among college and university students. Ahsan Iqbal also mentioned IT laboratories, the provincial government has established in schools to encourage science and technology. But he failed to mention that over 70 per cent of those labs are non-functional for various reasons, from non-availability of science teachers to the experts to maintain those labs. He had no answer to a valid question as to why the huge funds spent on purchasing laptops were not used to provide missing facilities in the existing schools and colleges, which would have benefited a larger number of students.

A participant representing the youth asked why those funds were not utilised for making a uniform curriculum in the province. The PML-N leader defended the act by arguing that provinces making curriculums would mean that there would be separate curriculums across the country, and that is why they were not doing it. However, the problem with that is equally crucial. One may ask why they cannot lead a consensus and develop a model by themselves. Even if accepted that different curriculums in different provinces are a problem, then was only a dissenting note in the 18th Amendment, which devolved education, against this devolution, enough? As leaders of the opposition, did not they have a bigger responsibility to ensure that that did not happen? It becomes obvious that there is a priority to attain political benefits and education obviously doesn't make the cut when time comes.

Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali, former federal minister for education, believes that minimum national standards in curriculum and textbooks were essential for building national identity. Speaking at a seminar recently, he welcomed devolution of the education sector to the provinces, but stressed the need for a federal role in the education policy and curriculum to foster national unity. He said that there had always been lack of funds and political will for education and asked the provincial governments to allocate enough money in the provincial budgets to the sector. He said that the provinces' share in the National Finance Commission Award had considerably gone up. And the provinces should also try to expand their resources to meet the growing financial demand of the education sector.

Other speakers at the function said that devolution of educational responsibilities to provinces may create short-term difficulties, but it would have far reaching positive impacts in improving standards and delivery of education.

Famous scholar and educationist Dr. Rasul Bakhsh Rais termed the 18th Amendment an expression of broad-based national consensus and said that it would strengthen Pakistan as a democratic federal country. "We should not be afraid of change; instead, we need to get lessons from similar experiences of other federations regarding distribution of powers and responsibilities," he added.

Despite all these wishes and high hopes, the question remains as to who would take practical steps to strengthen the education sector in the country?

There is no denying the fact that education is not an issue which will ever be solved by one party or government alone. It needs a multi-partisan consensus and consistency in implementation to be solved. Experts also say our education system is divided on lines of geography, class, income/wealth, medium of instruction, cost, syllabi, curricula and gender and these differences manifest themselves in differentials in access, dropouts and in the quality of education that is imparted. And existing differences in educational provision will, inevitably, create even bigger differences in future.

Until and unless the federal and provincial governments join hands, own this vital sector, and also engage private sector positively, the problem of education cannot not be solved on permanent basis.

-Cuttingeedge

Dr Atta-ur-Rahman
Saturday, May 05, 2012


Over the next five years India will establish 200 new universities and 40 new high-level institutes. Nine additional IITs will also be established, bringing the total number of IITs to 16. This was stated by Indian human resource development minister Kapil Sibal in the Lok Sabha recently. A sum of Rs800 billion, the biggest-ever allocation, is being set aside in the 12th five-year-plan of India (2012-2017) to propel it into a strong knowledge-based economy.

India has presently 17 percent of its youth between the ages of 17 of 23 enrolled in the higher education sector (as opposed to Pakistan’s 7.6 percent). It plans to increase this enrolment to 30 percent of the same age group by the year 2030 (Chetan Chauhan, The Hindustan Times, April 25). India decided to replace its University Grants Commission with a stronger federally funded organisation, National Commission of Higher Education and Research. This was approved by the Indian Cabinet in December 2011.

The recent steps taken by India are the result of a detailed presentation made to the Indian prime minister in July 2006 by Prof C N R Rao about the threat posed by the remarkable transformation underway in higher education in Pakistan. In an article entitled “Pak threat to Indian science,” Neha Mehta wrote: “Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science.” (The Hindustan Times on July 23, 2006.)

This presentation to the Indian prime minister set in motion a whole set of reforms in the higher education sector in India with a sharp increase in the salary structures of academics and a manifold increase in the budget for higher education. India had been giving the highest priority to higher education, science and technology for decades. The first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had already laid the foundations of modern India in the 1950s and 1960s. The prime minister of India himself headed what he considered to be the most important ministry in India – science and technology.

The progress made by the higher education sector in Pakistan in the last decade is reflected from the increase in enrolment from 276,000 students in 2003 to 803,000 in 2011, increase in number of universities and degree-awarding institutes from 59 in the year 2000 to 137 by 2011, and an increase in international research publications from only 636 in 2000 to 6,200 in 2011. The PhD output too underwent an explosive growth. During the 55-year period from 1947 to 2002, only 3,281 PhDs had been granted by all our universities (a shocking average of about 3-4 PhDs per university per year)! During the subsequent eight-year period from 2003 to 2010, this number was exceeded and 3,658 PhDs were granted. There was maximum emphasis on quality, as all PhD theses were evaluated by at least two top experts in technologically advanced countries before approval.

The silent revolution that occurred in the higher education sector in Pakistan was lauded by neutral international experts and agencies and numerous reports published on it. In a book published by the Royal Society (London) entitled A New Golden Age the example of Pakistan was cited as the best model to be followed by other developing countries. Nature, the world’s leading science journal, published four editorials and several articles on the transformation that was occurring in Pakistan and advised the new government in 2008 not to go back to the “stone age” that existed prior to the reforms introduced after 2002 in higher education.

The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education announced it as “Pakistan’s golden period in higher education” and called for my reappointment after I had resigned in protest against the suspension of scholarships of HEC scholars sent abroad. I was conferred a high civil award by the Austrian government and the TWAS (Italy) Prize for institution building for leading these changes.

After the remarkable progress achieved in Pakistan in the higher education during 2003-2008, we have been systematically trying to destroy the one sector that had raised a gleam of hope among the masses. First, the development budget of the higher education sector was slashed by about 50 percent in 2009. Then, the scholarships of the several thousand Pakistani students studying in foreign universities were withheld, forcing them to go literally begging for funds on the streets of countries where they had gone to brighten their future. This was followed by the status of the executive director of the HEC of a federal secretary being withdrawn, thereby preventing the HEC from holding Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) meetings and approving projects for Pakistani universities. The projects to establish foreign engineering universities in major cities of Pakistan were closed down. This would have saved Rs50 billion annually and provided Pakistani students with the opportunity of getting quality education with foreign degrees without going abroad.

The HEC had found that 51 of our “honourable” parliamentarians had forged degrees and those of another 250 parliamentarians were suspect. In any other country such persons would have had to go to jail for cheating and forgery. However the Election Commission, instead of declaring their elections null and void, became a party to the game, in clear defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Why the Supreme Court has chosen to look the other way in this matter of enormous national importance is beyond understanding. A group of these “honourable” parliamentarians with forged degrees plotted to shred the HEC into pieces, and under their pressure a government notification was issued on 30th November 2010 shredding the HEC into pieces.

On my appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan this was overturned and the Supreme Court declared the move as unconstitutional. The greedy and evil designs continue. Another Bill moved in parliament recently is directed to take away the Rs44 billion budget of the HEC from the 17-member commission and give the funds to a secretary in the federal government to distribute. This will open the doors to corruption. At present the powers to allocate funds are vested with a 17-member commission that included four provincial secretaries, two federal secretaries, vice chancellors and eminent citizens.

So, while India progresses in leaps and bounds to strengthen its higher education, science and technology sectors, Pakistan sinks deeper into a quagmire created by incompetent and crooked parliamentarians. Following the spectacular successes of the HEC in Pakistan, India is in the process of closing down its UGC, to establish the National Commission of Higher Education and Research on the pattern of the HEC. Pakistan is however systematically destroying its HEC.

Clearly it is not India that is our enemy – we ourselves are!

The writer is former federal minister for science and technology and former chairman of the Higher Education Commission. Email: ibne_sina@hotmail.com

-The News

Ehsan-ur-Rehman


Education, and especially higher education, is an important indicator of any country's development. However, our motherland, Pakistan, is among those unlucky nations who have never given due importance to this vital sector during the past 65 years.

We are even far behind our neighbouring country India, which got independence a day after Pakistan, as far as the literacy rate is concerned. Successive governments in the country have ignored the education sector, especially higher education, during the past six decades. Even democratic setups failed to give education priority. However, during the previous dictatorial rule of General Pervez Musharraf, at least higher education got some boost.

In response to the growing concerns about the nation lagging in higher education achievement, the country launched Higher Education Reform, led by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, adviser to then President Pervez Musharraf in 2002. The initiative resulted in over fivefold increase in public funding for universities, with a special emphasis on science, technology and engineering.

Various unprecedented plans were made part of the reform, supporting initiatives such as a free national digital library and high-speed Internet access for universities as well as new scholarships enabling more than 2,000 students to study abroad for Ph. Ds - with incentives to return to Pakistan afterward.

The years of reform coincided with increases in the number of Pakistani authors publishing in research journals, especially in mathematics and engineering, as well as boosting the impact of their research outside Pakistan.

The progress made by the higher education sector in the country in the last decade is reflected from the increase in enrolment from 276,000 students in 2003 to 803,000 in 2011; increase in number of universities and degree-awarding institutes from 59 in the year 2000 to 137 by 2011, and an increase in international research publications from only 636 in 2000 to 6,200 in 2011.
The Ph.D output too underwent an explosive growth. During the 55-year period from 1947 to 2002, only 3,281 Ph.Ds had been granted by all our universities (a shocking average of about 3-4 Ph.Ds per university per year)! During the subsequent eight-year period from 2003 to 2010, this number was exceeded and 3,658 Ph.Ds were granted. There was maximum emphasis on quality, as all Ph.D theses were evaluated by at least two top experts in technologically advanced countries before approval.

Talking to Cutting Edge, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the silent revolution that occurred in the higher education sector in Pakistan was lauded by neutral international experts and agencies and numerous reports published on it. In a book published by the Royal Society (London) entitled A New Golden Age, the example of Pakistan was cited as the best model to be followed by other developing countries. Nature, the world's leading science journal, published four editorials and several articles on the transformation that was occurring in Pakistan and advised the new government in 2008 not to go back to the "stone age" that existed prior to the reforms introduced after 2002 in higher education.

The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education declared it as "Pakistan's golden period in higher education" and called for Dr. Atta's reappointment after he had resigned in protest against the suspension of scholarships of the HEC scholars sent abroad. This scientist was conferred a high civil award by the Austrian government and the TWAS (Italy) Prize for institution-building, for leading these changes.

However, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman regretted that after the remarkable progress achieved in higher education during 2003-2008, we have been systematically trying to destroy the one sector that had raised a gleam of hope among the masses. He said that first the development budget of the higher education sector was slashed by about 50 per cent in 2009. Then, the scholarships of the several thousand Pakistani students studying in foreign universities were withheld, forcing them to go literally begging for funds on the streets of countries where they had gone to brighten their future. This was followed by the status of the executive director of the HEC as a federal secretary being withdrawn, thereby preventing the HEC from holding Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) meetings and approving projects for Pakistani universities. The projects to establish foreign engineering universities in major cities of Pakistan were closed down.

This would have saved Rs. 50 billion annually and provided Pakistani students with the opportunity of getting quality education with foreign degrees without going abroad, Dr. Atta added.

The former chairman of the HEC said that the Commission was, in fact, victimised by authorities for pointing out frauds committed by the parliamentarians to get their degrees. The HEC had found that 51 of our "honourable" parliamentarians had forged degrees and those of another 250 parliamentarians were doubtful. In any other country, such persons would have had to go to jail for cheating and forgery. However, the Election Commission, instead of declaring their elections null and void, became a party to the game, in clear defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, regretted Dr. Atta. "Why the Supreme Court has chosen to look the other way in this matter of enormous national importance is beyond understanding."
Dr. Atta said that a group of these "honourable" parliamentarians with forged degrees plotted to destroy the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, and under their pressure a government notification was issued on November 30, 2010, shredding the HEC into pieces.

The former chief of HEC said that on his appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the government notification was overturned and the apex court declared the move as unconstitutional. But greedy and evil designs continue, he said. Another bill moved in parliament recently was directed to take away the Rs. 44 billion budget of the HEC from the 17-member commission and give the funds to a secretary in the federal government to distribute. This would open the doors to corruption, he believes. At present, the powers to allocate funds are vested with a 17-member commission that included four provincial secretaries, two federal secretaries, vice chancellors and eminent citizens. But after a secretary becomes a custodian of the huge funds, it would be very easy for the corrupt government authorities to manipulate things, he expressed his fears.

Dr. Atta believes that India is far ahead of Pakistan in the higher education sector. Appreciating the neighbouring country's efforts in the sector, Dr. Atta said that over the next five years India would establish 200 new universities and 40 new high-level institutes. Nine additional IITs would also be established, bringing the total number of IITs to 16. A sum of Rs. 800 billion, the biggest-ever allocation, is being set aside in the 12th five-year-plan of India (2012-2017) to propel it into a strong knowledge-based economy, Dr. Atta said referring to a speech made by a minister in the Indian parliament.

He said that India has presently 17 per cent of its youth between the ages of 17 of 23 enrolled in the higher education sector (as opposed to Pakistan's 7.6 per cent). According to a report published in The Hindustan Times on April 25, India plans to increase this enrolment to 30 per cent of the same age group by the year 2030. India has decided to replace its University Grants Commission with a stronger federally funded organisation, National Commission of Higher Education and Research. This was approved by the Indian Cabinet in December 2011. But in Pakistan, it is regretable to see the dissolution of the HEC and devolving it to the provinces, as a weaker entity.

Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the recent steps taken by India are the result of a detailed presentation made to the Indian prime minister in July 2006, by Prof. CNR Rao about the threat posed by the remarkable transformation underway in higher education in Pakistan. In an article entitled "Pak threat to Indian science," Neha Mehta wrote in The Hindustan Times on July 23, 2006: "Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science."
This presentation to the Indian prime minister set in motion a whole set of reforms in the higher education sector in India with a sharp increase in the salary structures of academics and a manifold increase in the budget for higher education.

India had been giving the highest priority to higher education, science and
technology for decades.

Dr. Atta said that while India was progressing in leaps and bounds to strengthen its higher education, science and technology sectors, Pakistan was fast sinking deeper into a quagmire, created by incompetent and crooked parliamentarians.

-Cuttingedge

An opportunity lost

The single most important discipline that impacts the growth of national self-reliance is engineering. Expertise in engineering leads to a country to develop key products and processes that include special alloys, engineering goods, industrial machinery, automobiles, electronics, household appliances, computers, polymers, and even novel textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It is for this reason that while developing basic and applied sciences as well as social sciences in a well-rounded fashion, I decided to give special emphasis to the engineering sector when I was the federal minister of science & technology and later the chairman of the Higher Education Commission.

India decided to strengthen its engineering sector back in the 1950s under the visionary policies of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and as a result seven world class Indian institutes of technology were established over the last several decades. This emphasis on strengthening education in general, and engineering universities in particular has resulted in the emergence of a strong middle class in India that accounts for about 32 percent of its population and is growing at a pace of about 1 percent per year. It has also impacted the rapid development of the mega industries (steel, automobiles, software etc.) in India as it has the critical mass of highly qualified manpower that is able to serve as the engine of growth.

Recently India has decided to make massive investments in higher education. Indian HRD Minister Kapil Sibal recently announced that India will invest Rs80,000 crores in the next five year plan (till 2017) in higher education. These funds will be used for increasing the number of IITs from the present seven to sixteen, and setting up 200 new universities and 40 centres of excellence. This will allow India to increase its access to higher education from 17 percent of youth aged between 17-23 to over 30 percent. In Pakistan we increased this access from 2.6 percent to 7.6 percent during 2003-2010 but we are now sliding backwards.

India will also replace its University Grants Commission by a much more powerful body to be called the National Commission for Higher Education and Research. This was decided recently by the Indian cabinet. Realising the importance of engineering education and research in the year 2000 we decided to strengthen the existing engineering universities by creating significant endowments of Rs100-200 million for every engineering university in order to promote research. Later when I became chairman HEC about 5,000 PhD level scholarships were awarded to the brightest students of Pakistan after a competitive national test, over 2,000 of which were in the fields of engineering and computer sciences. The efforts to strengthen engineering led to dramatic progress in Pakistan with several of our universities being ranked in the top 300, 400 and 500 of the world.

However, the most important step to strengthen engineering education and research in Pakistan was to establish a network of several world class foreign engineering universities. The model chosen was a very visionary one by all accounts. The students in Pakistan would have been enrolled into courses offered by the top engineering universities in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, China and other countries. Students would have studied exactly the same curriculum as offered by the foreign universities, they would have been taught by highly qualified foreign faculty and they would have received degrees from reputable foreign universities without ever going abroad. This would have brought world class engineering education at a very affordable cost to Pakistani students and created the needed momentum for our engineering industry to start massive investments in engineering industries.

At present Pakistani parents spend about Rs100 billion annually in sending their children abroad for studies. Much of this money would have been saved. The model involved partnership with consortia of top universities (rather than with any single foreign university) so that quality faculty could become available in sufficient numbers. Thus nine top German engineering universities formed a strong consortium to establish a world class engineering university in Lahore. Similar consortia were formed by Italy, Austria and China. Lands for all the universities were generously provided by the provincial governments and the PM of Pakistan laid the foundation stone of the Pakistan-French University. Classes of the German, Austrian, Italian and Chinese were planned to commence in October 2008.

The new technical universities were based on the novel concept that education and employment are strongly and permanently linked and that it was important to ensure this. Each university would therefore have had a technology park within its premises. The university/technology park complex was envisaged to produce qualified and trained engineers who would have serviced local industry, carried out R&D work, become entrepreneurs and, most importantly, brought inward investment into Pakistan because highly trained manpower would have been available to foreign investors.

The high tech R & D centres in technology parks would have focused on developing commercially viable products or services, developing prototypes and undertaking small scale production in order to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the products of services realised in the R & D centres. In cases where further development into a large-scale business was justified, a separate business enterprise would have been established on an industrial or commercial site outside the tech park. The tech park was to encourage start-ups operating in specially designed incubator units. Entrepreneurs within the university in all categories, students, faculty and technicians were to be encouraged to develop worthwhile ideas, inventions and know-how into commercial products and services. Start-up companies would have been encouraged to apply for venture funds from a central fund operated by the owners of the tech parks and given help with the preparation of business plans and company operation and management methods.

The projects for four of these university in collaboration with Germany, Italy, Austria and China were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 at a cost of about Rs160 billion over a 10 year period. The projects were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 and were again presented to the present prime minister on May 12, 2008. The prime minister had approved the implementation of this programme. Then disaster struck. On May 19, 2008, just three months after ECNEC had granted approval for the projects, the cabinet froze the programme and decided to form a four member committee. The programme was strongly supported by the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi at various cabinet meetings and later by the new Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the cabinet meeting held in Lahore. However all this was to no avail. The foreign countries with whom the negotiations had been carried out over several years for the establishment of these universities just could not believe what had happened. Pakistan had lost all credibility as a nation in their eyes.

In Pakistan we have strangled education to serve the interests of the ruling feudal classes and we are today in the shameful position of being ranked among the bottom seven countries of the world in terms of expenditure on education, that is a lowly 1.8 percent of the GDP. This is a national tragedy for a nuclear power.

A wonderful opportunity to bring world class engineering education to Pakistan has been lost.

The writer is former federal minister for science & technology and former chairman of the Higher Education Commission. Email: ibne_sina@hotmail.com

Source: An opportunity lost

__________________
Success is never achieved by the size of our brain but it is always achieved by the quality of our thoughts.

Ehsan-ur-Rehman


Samina Bibi (name changed to protect identity) does not want her children to go to a government school any longer. The two, studying in class 4 and 6, performed very poorly in their annual exams, recently. Both were promoted to the next grade by giving them 'grace marks' by their class in-charge.
However, her youngest son, a grade-2 student at a private school in the same locality, not only passed his examination on his own, but also secured third position in his class. And that's why Samina decided to withdraw her elder children from the government school and put them into the private school.

Reaching a decision in this regard was very tough for Samina for financial reasons. Her husband earns a meagre amount of Rs. 7,500 a month, as a security guard at a private firm. She also helps her husband supplement his income by stitching ladies clothes at her single-room rented house in a Bund Road slum. Her monthly earnings from sewing range from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 2,500. She had to face stiff resistance from her husband, who does not want to pull his kids from the government school. He argued that it would be almost impossible for him to pay the tuition fee for all three at the private school, though he is convinced they should get education at a better school.

Coming from a far-off village in southern Punjab, both husband and wife are semi-literate. Samina left school after passing her grade five exam, as there was no school in her village for further education. Her husband, however, attempted twice to pass his matriculation examination, but couldn't, and left education for good. Both are convinced their children should be educated to the highest level. But the high cost and their low incomes are proving to be a big hurdle in the realisation of their dream of making their children highly educated members of society.

To a question as to why she wants to shift her children from a government school to a private school, Samina offers a very valid reason. "Private schools give a better education to students," she tells Cutting Edge. "The administration of a private school, its owner, its principal, know very well how to get getter results from their teachers," she explains.

"There is an accountability system in private schools. If students do not perform well, if they fail their exams, the principal takes the class in-charge to task. "Even I go to the school of my eldest son and ask his class teacher why he failed to get good marks in his monthly test when he is regularly coming to school," adds Samina Bibi. "And they are bound to answer my queries, because I pay a Rs. 350 fee for him."

And then Samina compares the private school of her youngest child with the government school of the other two. "And in the government school, where my elder son and daughter are provided free-of-cost education, along with free books, nobody is ready to listen to me," complains Samina. "When I went to their school after they failed their annual exams, their class in-charges threatened me with striking off their names," alleged Samina. "They were not ready to even listen to me and they put all the blame on me."

“But, according to your own account, you also received your education from a government school up to grade five in your village and never failed any exam. Then why could not your children get a good education in a government school now and pass their exams,” Samina was asked.

"Those were good days; teachers, though less in number - only one in the primary school, were selfless in that village school. They would take great pains to impart education to their students," recalls Samina. "Now government teachers do not come to schools to teach students, but only to pass their time there. I have myself seen them knitting sweaters, or chit-chatting among themselves," claims Samina.

Amir Basra, the owner-cum-principal of a private school, endorses a major part of Samina Bibi's assertions. He says that most of the government schools have a better infrastructure, better buildings, more qualified and more trained teachers, but still their performance is poor. A primary teacher for a government school, according to the new criterion, must be a science graduate, along with a professional teacher training diploma or degree. But why do they fail to deliver? The major difference between a government and a private school is lack of responsibility and lack of an accountability system in public sector schools, he believes.

On the other hand, private schools hire teachers for less than one-fourth of the salaries being paid to the public sector schoolteachers. These teachers are usually untrained; their qualifications mostly range from simple Matriculation to BA and, in rare cases, Masters. But their results are far better, compared with the government school teachers, adds Mr. Basra. It is only because of better management and a better accountability system in private schools that parents rely on them and like to send their children to such private schools, even if they are in small buildings, he added. In fact, it's a school's management, teacher commitment, teaching aids and quest for improvement that make a difference.

There is no denying the fact that schools that pay teachers higher salaries usually employ better teachers. Professional development opportunities for teachers and their working conditions, other than salaries, result in increased retention of good teachers, he added. Due to the undeniable fact that private schools are performing well, more than 56,000-odd schools are already functioning in the country and more are opening with each passing month and year, he added.

Amir Basra said that the government also recognises the services being rendered by the private sector in the field of education. That is why various projects have been launched in public-private partnership. And recently, the government announced its plans to launch "Own a School" program involving private parties to own public sector schools of Islamabad to uplift the education level in the federal capital.

Amir Basra said that the Prime Minister's Task Force on Islamabad has initiated extensive work on transformation of the education system beginning with three primary schools of the rural areas of Islamabad in collaboration with the private sector. It is recognition of the standard of education in the private sector at the highest level, he said.

An official attached to the Punjab Education Department admitted that there were some major problems with the school education in the public sector. Seeking anonymity, he said that the government-run schools, which educate the vast majority of children, need significant reforms and an increase in resources. He pointed out that a few initiatives that could be taken to improve the plight of the education system in Pakistan are: implementation of a comprehensive literacy programme, expansion of primary elementary education, improving the quality of education through teacher training, higher education sector reforms, and fostering the public-private partnership. These initiatives if undertaken efficiently and in good faith, could revamp our education system.

The official admitted that lack of funds was not only the major hurdle in increasing the literacy rate in the country but there were various other factors also. He stated that in some good private educational institutions, teachers’ salaries are linked to the good results of their students. Teachers' minimum wages are fixed, but if any teacher showed good results in the form of better grades of his/her students, he/she is given additional benefits and increment in salary on a monthly basis. In some schools, deductions are even made from salaries of teachers on poor performance, and those amounts are added to the salaries of those teachers whose students produce better results in the form of good grades. He said if such a system was introduced in public sector schools, it may help impart better education to the new generation.

-Cuttingedge

May 24, 2012
Kamila Hyat

Here is a question. Should we close down all our schools – or almost all of them, at least those in the public sector?

At first this may seem like a totally insane suggestion. There can be no doubt that we need more education and a higher literacy rate, with the right to learning available to each and every child in our country.

But are we doing more harm than good through the education we are providing? Are we closing or opening minds? Are we in some ways inflicting the worst kind of torture on children?

We need to think hard about these matters. Merely tinkering with systems will not work. We need a radical haul of our entire education structure and the foundation it stands on if we are to get anywhere at all.

Just think of the examples we have before us. In the city of Lahore there are hundreds of eighth-graders barely able to write a paragraph on their own because they are so enmeshed in a state of affairs which promotes only learning by rote.

Then there are others who are taught intolerance as a part of even mainstream curricula, with changes suggested recently in textbooks put aside apparently because of objections from the religious right which has come to decide so much of what we do and how we think.

There are worse scenarios. A few days ago a sixth-grader at a Faisalabad government school doused himself with petrol, set it alight and committed suicide after being beaten up by a teacher. Muhammad Umar was only 11 years old.

No effort has so far been made to look into the reasons for his truancy which led to the incident with the teacher. The investigation into the matter is focusing on actions rather than the deep-lying causes which stand behind them.

There are hundreds of cases of children running away from schools; many fall victim to criminal gangs as they land up on streets. And for those who stay in schools, we should ask what meaning their lessons have to their lives. The clichéd books taught in the classroom add little value to the world in which most children dwell.

In most cases the pattern is a predictable one; with the books offering little that is exciting or creative. The aim essentially appears to be to kill the human capacity to think creatively and critically and to reason.

Perhaps this is what our educators and government want in the first place anyway. People who think can after all be dangerous, and may as they grow up begin to raise issues about the kind of social order we have created and where it is leading us today.

It must be said this holds true not only of government schools but many private ones as well. The environment in which children study might be slightly improved. But the principles of learning are in many cases hardly better.

Teachers do not know how to build a natural ability and believe the child is a kind of object into which things must be drilled through endless repetition and at least occasional rebuke. This is insane Schools should be building people who can lead our country into the future and not take it backwards hundreds of years; and this is not happening.

Even parents who pay high fees for elite schools are often disappointed at what is happening in the classroom. They of course have no power at all to change matters. The lack of teacher-training and the failure to promote teaching as a desirable profession has added to the problems we face.

Schools such as the ‘Danish’ schools set up by the Punjab government, or schemes such as the giving away of laptop computers are simply not going to help. We need much more than this. Merely cosmetic change, achieved by setting up a few good schools or handing out ‘gifts’ to a selected few will lead nowhere at all.

What we need is something far more dramatic given that we need to find the time to pull ourselves out of the mess we have landed in and wash away the debris. The entire system of education needs to be overhauled at all levels and in all sectors.

This is a Herculean task. First of all it needs an acceptance that we have failed completely as far as education is concerned. In today’s world degrees issued to most Pakistani students are simply not recognised. The standards, beginning at the primary level and moving through to higher education are appalling.

PhD students produce thesis based on cutting and pasting passages from the Internet. So too do their teachers in their research work. This is surely not what we aspire towards. The fact that students earnestly believe this is the only way to produce a piece of work that is meant to be ‘original’ simply demonstrates the extent to which we have failed them.

To amend this situation perhaps we need to consider closing down all schools for a period of time and consider how to restructure them. This has happened even in the USA where a re-organisation of schools is taking place, mainly for monitory reasons but also to improve standards.

It may be more worthwhile for children to be removed from the mind-crippling environment of most classrooms, and for time to be found to re-write curricula and re-design exams so that they demand originality and thinking rather than rote.

An entire panel of educationists is required to work on an emergency plan. They must be assigned to begin this task immediately. Unless this happens, all talk of setting up an ‘equal’ system of education or enhancing a literacy rate that is among the lowest in the world is meaningless.

We must accept that we have fallen into a very deep pit. Getting out of it and saving our children will require an extremely long ladder which must be built rung by rung so that it can be lowered down the pit and the pupils encouraged to climb up it and out into the open light of day.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com
-The News

Ehsan-ur-Rehman


Ahmad Saeed Khan (not his real name), the principal of a private school, is sitting in his office with a number of books on his table. Rate lists and details of commissions offered by different publishing houses are spread out in front of him.

He is carefully comparing the rates and commissions, so that publishers could be awarded contracts for providing books for early childhood education in all branches of his school system. He has already given a cursory glance at all books provided by the publishers. Of course, his main consideration is not the content of the books, but the commission offered on each book by the publishers. Finally, he reaches a decision and selects some publishers, who have offered the highest commission.

Textbooks for all early childhood education at all six branches of Ahmad Saeed's school system have been selected. He will now release an office order for the administrators of his school branches to cooperate with the selected publishers and send details of the books sold on daily basis, so that the commission could be deducted from the total amount.

This is a typical way adopted by the majority of private schools, or school systems, to select textbooks for early childhood education all over the country. But is it so simple? Is it the right way to select textbooks for the new generation? Who sets the syllabus for the children of 4-8 years age group? Who writes these books? What impact will these books have on the kids? Nobody knows. No study has ever been conducted in the country to analyse the content of these books. No research has ever been launched to check suitability of the textbooks for the children of this age group.
Setting the syllabus for early childhood and writing textbooks for children of the age group of 4-8 years are considered to be the most important and crucial tasks universally. The first eight years in the life of an individual is referred to as early childhood. This phase determines the future of a child, not just in terms of his education, but also his abilities, personality, individuality and success.

An Indian educationist says that if a child lacks education in its first eight years, it can spell doom for his future. It is very important to provide a child proper early childhood education so that he can develop properly. During this phase, a child's mind rapidly develops and as they say, "the wiring of the brain is laid down". The mental, emotional, social and educational growth of a child is determined by his educational experiences and relationships received and built during his first eight years. Quality early childhood education programmes can help his brain develop in healthy ways, and if he is deprived of good education then his growth is also hampered.

What these children are taught in schools is also most important. In this phase, a child is not capable enough to absorb heavy theoretical subjects. But if fun activities, educational games etc., have been incorporated in his basic education, a child develops better learning power.

Experts believe that early childhood curriculum builds the foundation of a child's future. A well developed and designed kindergarten curriculum proves instrumental in the growth of a child's mental abilities. There is dire a need that a syllabus is set for this age group by educationists, with the help of psychologists, keeping in view a country's religious, moral and social norms.

A report recently published in the national print media shows that there is a realisation among the authorities concerned for setting a special syllabus for early childhood education. The early childhood education syllabus was launched in May 2012, which would be piloted in 101 of the total 390 government schools, reconstructed in flood-hit areas of southern Punjab, by Plan International Pakistan. The Punjab education minister, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, told the function that the provincial government with 59,053 schools, 377,481 teachers and 10,679,244 students in government schools was leading the next generation to a prosperous and literate Punjab. Not only was the budget being increased for the sector, but also important issues, including the syllabus for early childhood education were being given special attention, he added.

School Education Department, Punjab, Secretary Muhammad Aslam Kamboh told the function that a budget of Rs. 200 million would be spent on expanding early childhood education in 2,000 schools. He said that since early childhood education was material-based learning and needed educational toys and space, appropriate budgetary allocations were necessary. He promised to issue a notification, which would make early childhood education classrooms and playgroup areas a valid charge under the 'Farogh-i-Taleem' budget ensuring that it becomes an integral part of schooling activity.

After the function, Plan International Pakistan country director, Rashid Javed, told Cutting Edge that the early childhood education syllabus emphasised provision of quality education in order to produce knowledgeable and confident leaders for tomorrow. He said that the syllabus had been developed after a year's research, and it focused on six 'learning areas'. In reply to a question, Mr. Javed said that lessons about personal and social development, language, creative arts, health and hygiene, basic mathematical concepts and general knowledge regarding the world around the child have been included in the textbooks for the kids in the age group of 4 to 8 years.

The syllabus called "Barhtay Huay Qadam" has been prepared by Nasira Habib, the founder and director of Khoj, an NGO that focuses on education. Lessons include "Aao Kuch Banain" (Let's Make Something), "Khel Ka Waqt" (Play Time), "Ghar Ghar Khailain" (Playing House) and "Kahani Ka Waqt (Story Time).
Nasira Habib told Cutting Edge that each learning area had a list of expected outcomes, which could be measured with the help of a list of competencies. She said that after the final draft was submitted in October 2011, pilot projects were run at seven community centres in Chakwal, Vehari and Islamabad. She described the teaching method prevalent in most schools across the province as "regimented". The educationist said that deep down, our society is still under the impression that you can't teach without being strict or without corporal punishment. The early childhood education syllabus has been incorporated elements of our heritage - local stories and games, she added.

Providing details of the new syllabus, Nasira Habib said that ideally 15 children should make up a 'learning group'. If there are more than 20 students, she added, it would be best to divide them into two groups. The syllabus can be covered in 32 weeks of active teaching, with each week following a particular theme. The last week prepares the child for school, with teachers focusing on making the child ready for organised schooling, said the educationist.
Nasira regretted the lack of designated early childhood education centres in the Punjab. "There are only 32 centres in 36 districts." She said that implementation of early education would be difficult because "70 per cent of rural primary schools in the Punjab are single classroom schools." She said that while developing the syllabus, budgetary constraints were kept in mind.

Talking to Cutting Edge, Sofia Aziz, the learning adviser for Plan International, said that such initiatives would help standardise pre-primary schooling. She also hoped that the NGO would launch the syllabus in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh later this year. She said that the organisation was going to send out the syllabus developed to all government schools in the province, and hoped that the programme of early childhood education would also be initiated in private schools.

-Cuttingedge

Ehsan-ur-Rehman


It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of enquiry.
— Albert Einstein, “Ideas and Opinions”

In the last week of May, a teacher training workshop was organised in the federal capital to highlight the importance of Inquiry-Based Science Education.

Chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation, Prof. Dr. Manzoor H. Soomro, told the participants that the method was imperative to boost the students' learning process and help develop a strong relationship between students and teachers as learning was a two-way traffic. Inquiry-Based Learning is an instructional method developed during the discovery learning movement of the 1960s. It was developed in response to a perceived failure of more traditional forms of instruction, where students were required simply to memorise fact-laden instructional materials. Inquiry learning is a form of active learning, where progress is assessed by how well students develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they possess.

It is a good omen for the education system of Pakistan that the authorities concerned have started paying attention to the methods believed to be beneficial for students. As many as 70 science teachers from public and private sector educational institutions of Rawalpindi and Islamabad participated in the workshop.

Dr. Soomro told Cutting Edge after the workshop, that the Pakistan Science Foundation had actively been engaged in promotion and popularisation of science and technology in the country through a number of programs, including funding for scientific research, Natural Science Linkage, Industry Research and Development, Science Caravans programs and the Inquiry-Based Science Education Program, launched in Pakistan with the collaboration of the French embassy.

Experts say that an important aspect of inquiry-based science is the use of open learning. Open learning has no prescribed target or result which students have to achieve. There is an emphasis on the individual manipulating information and creating meaning from a set of given materials or circumstances. In many conventional science experiments, students are told what the outcome of an experiment will be, or is expected to be, and the student is simply expected to 'confirm' this.

On the other hand, in open teaching, the students are either left to discover for themselves what the result of the experiment is, or the teacher guides them to the desired learning goal but without making it explicit what this is. Open teaching is considered to be an important but difficult skill for teachers to acquire.

Manzoor H. Soomro said that under the Inquiry-Based Science Education program, the Pakistan Science Foundation was organising training workshops for teachers to train them as master trainers on how to arouse students' interest in science subjects through easy to understand and interesting experiments.

The educationist said that the program was continuing in 30 schools in Pakistan and advised teachers to co-relate the workshop with an inquiry-based science education system.

He said that the foundation was constantly in touch with various world bodies and recently it has been invited to share its experiences at an international conference, being held in Helsinki, Finland, in the last week of May.
Prof. Dr. Burhanuddin Ahmad, attached to a private university in Lahore, shedding light on the issue said that open learning has many benefits. It means students do not simply perform experiments in a routine fashion, but actually think about the results they collect and what they mean. With traditional non-open lessons there is a tendency for students to say that the experiment 'went wrong' when they collect results contrary to what they are told to expect. In open lessons there are no wrong results, and students have to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the results they collect themselves and decide their value. Because the path taken to a desired learning target is uncertain, open lessons are more dynamic and less predictable than traditional lessons.

Talking to this writer, he said that the open learning has been developed by a number of science educators including the American John Dewey and the German Martin Wagenschein. Wagenschein's ideas particularly complement both open learning and inquiry teaching. He emphasised that students should not be taught bald facts, but should be made to understand and explain what they are learning. His most famous example of this was when he asked physics students to tell him what the speed of a falling object was. Nearly all students would produce an equation. But no students could explain what this equation meant. Wagenschien used this example to show the importance of understanding over knowledge.

The educationist, who retired from public sector educational institutions two years back, said that inquiry-based learning has been of great influence in science education, where it is known as Inquiry-Based Science, especially since the publication of the US National Science Educational Standards in 1996. Since that publication, some educators have advocated a return to more traditional methods of teaching and assessment.

Providing further details, Prof. Burhanuddin said that the National Science Education Standards call for students to inquire and to know about inquiry. When students use inquiry, they use the same ideas as scientists do when they are conducting research. Students become 'mini-scientists.' When students are learning about inquiry, they should become familiar with the processes used by scientists, and the new knowledge that results. Inquiry is a natural introduction to the branch of epistemology known as the Nature of Science, which deals with the characteristics of scientific knowledge.
Prof. Burhanuddin said that science testing has become increasingly important with the No Child Left Behind program, and the rewriting of the National Assessment of Educational Progress to emphasise facts. This has led to a decrease in emphasis on inquiry as a method of teaching science and a fall back to traditional direct instruction methods, which are still employed at the university level.

Quoting the findings of world famous researchers and scientists Heather Banchi and Randy Bell, the educationist said there are four levels of inquiry-based learning in science education: confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry. With confirmation inquiry, students are provided with the question and procedure (method), and the results are known in advance. Confirmation inquiry is useful when a teacher's goal is to reinforce a previously introduced idea; to introduce students to the experience of conducting investigations; or to have students practice a specific inquiry skill, such as collecting and recording data.

In structured inquiry, the question and procedure are still provided by the teacher; however, students generate an explanation supported by the evidence they have collected. In guided inquiry, the teacher provides students with only the research question, and students design the procedure (method) to test their question and the resulting explanations. Because this kind of inquiry is more involved than structured inquiry, it is most successful when students have had numerous opportunities to learn and practise different ways to plan experiments and record data.

At the fourth and highest level of inquiry, open inquiry, students have the purest opportunities to act as scientists, raising questions, designing and carrying out investigations, and communicating their results. This level requires the most scientific reasoning and greatest cognitive demand from students.

On the other hand, there are other educationists who find fault with this learning method. Based on research in 2005, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute concluded that while inquiry-based learning is fine to some degree, it has been carried to excess. It should be cautioned that inquiry-based learning takes a lot of planning before implementation. It is not something that can be put into place in the classroom quickly. Measurements must be put in place for how students knowledge and performance will be measured and how standards will be incorporated.

According to the experts who endorse the second viewpoint, the teacher's responsibility during inquiry exercises is to support and facilitate student learning. A common mistake teachers make is lacking the vision to see where students' weaknesses lie. Teachers cannot assume that students will hold the same assumptions and thinking processes as a professional within that discipline. These experts believe Pakistan has to go a long way to implement this method of learning in its educational institutions.

-Cuttingedge