June 6, 2012
Rafia Zakaria

ON June 2, 2012, Karen Freeman, the deputy director for the United States Agency for International Development, spoke at a pre-departure orientation event held for some members of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

The event marked the initiation of a programme through which 172 deans and university officials and provincial and national education secretaries from colleges and universities all over Pakistan would be travelling to Columbia University in New York. While there, the officials will receive training on strategic planning and policy development as it relates to education in Pakistan.

The trip is only one of the many initiatives related to education that have been funded by USAID. A perusal of the USAID Pakistan page reveals several more such programmes, schools funded in rural areas, plans to improve women’s education — all in all a heartening bouquet of good intentions in a land where a large percentage of the population lives in extreme educational poverty.

The timing of the US-funded trip for Pakistani educators is also fortunate. Last week, the budget was marked on the Pakistani calendar as the moment for a collective national lament over the lack of funding for learning and the overspending on bombs amid similar complaints.

How comforting then to hear of a benevolent project to educate our educators on improvements in this ignored sector.

The United States is not the only benefactor interested in popularising the love of learning in Pakistan. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s other faithful benefactor, has over the years been involved in similar philanthropic contributions. One of these ventures, the International Islamic Relief Organisation runs a large orphanage in Islamabad, which educates, houses and clothes thousands of young destitute Pakistani children.

This orphanage is but one public face of Saudi investment in Pakistan education; the private face is equally well known.

One Wikileaks cable from late 2008 by the American consulate in Lahore records in detail the activities of Saudi charities in funding hundreds of Deobandi-oriented religious schools in those areas. Like the Americans, the Saudis also fund teacher training and invite hundreds of madressah educators to Saudi Arabia on fully funded trips for just this purpose.

The Saudi and American efforts to educate Pakistanis are substantively different. The Americans are pushing a curriculum that ostensibly promotes democracy and pluralism, imagines the child as a budding scholar and not a soldier, the world as holding opportunity and not only temptation.

The Saudi curriculum banks on other truths — of salvation gained in another life, of a world of ascetic self-sacrifice, of the necessity of domination and the inevitability of destruction. The American promises are of here and now — open to being evaluated on the scales of reality — the Saudi ones for the hereafter, untouchable and perfect in their utopic potential.

The distinctions between the two kinds of education can occupy several tomes but their substantive differences and the superiority or relevance of one over the other often camouflages the common threads.

For both, the provision of learning, the construction of schools and the task of opening the poverty-stricken Pakistani mind is aligned directly and inextricably to warfare.

For the Americans, the construction of schools, training of teachers and provision of textbooks are meant to stanch the moral depravity of other killings — some targeted, others accidental — the grisly and sometimes meaningless horror of hovering drones, of war.

If there can be a school or training for every wedding party mistakenly targeted by a Hellfire missile and vaccination programmes used to catch a terrorist, war can be made to look like a campaign to uplift and empower.

The Saudi education recipe enables not some surreptitious camouflage of bombings but the creation of bombs themselves and cheaply produced foot soldiers.

There are ironies in the mix: the Saudis and the Americans are friends who chat frequently but never seem to see the opposing directions of their projects in Pakistan. Such are the friendships of the wealthy — the sportsmanlike tolerance of dear friends at the hunt, where one allows another to corner the deer and fire the rifle with the gentlemanly benevolence of those enormously endowed. The delivery, regardless of the one who fires the shot, is death.

Pakistan’s educational woes are of long standing and well-known. In our current time of hardship as we beg and borrow to fill our tanks with petrol and light our stoves with gas, few have tears left to shed over the inaccessibility of the ABCs to the children weaving in and out of traffic at intersections, knotting up rugs in poorly lit mud huts.

Those costs of education Pakistan shares with scores of other developing nations that bend under the weight of demographics stuck in the darkness of illiteracy. What is unique to Pakistan, what amounts to a war on education in this country is the subjugation of education to warfare both from within and without, and the transformation of learning from a weapon against war to a weapon of war.

The agendas of Saudi Arabia and the US may be markedly different, but their strategies and their sly co-option of the good, the eye-opening, the liberating into mere packaging for warfare, make education the empty morsel that fills the stomach but provides no sustenance.

The war on education in Pakistan then is a consequence of the tying together of war and education. The consequences are not just the threat of continuing illiteracy resulting from the performance of a government that cannot deliver or refuses to do so, or a military that takes for the barracks what was meant for books and blackboards.

They also entail a population sceptical of school because it is linked to soldiers and teachers who teach first about fighting and only sometimes about the future.

The writer is an attorney teaching political philosophy and constitutional law.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
-Dawn

Education breathing its last

By: Dr Irfan Zafar | March 09, 2013


The pathetic state of universities in Pakistan is something to be ashamed of as a nation. The churning out of knowledge and creativity deficient students with highest GPA’s (grade point average) is a strong reflection of our declining standards of education.

There seems to be no end in sight to stop the unchecked flow and production of an illiterate crop of students year after year with unmatched synchronisation.

While we are doling away worthless degrees, the world is striving for excellence by converting data into knowledge and then translating that knowledge into action.

Education comes from reading, which then eventually translates into writing. Ever wondered how much quality content of any value is produced by our country? Next to none!

If we look at the other side of the world, over 1,000,000 books are published each year.

According to available figures, the United States of America produces the maximum number of titles, numbering 288,355 (self-published equals 764,448), followed by the UK at 206,000 and around 136,226 published in China. Neighbouring India produces some 11,903 books per year with many promising writers debuting on the scene every year.

Another criterion of assessing the countries educational strength is the number of patents produced by its institutions. In terms of statistics released by the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), American universities are the most prolific international patent filers among higher education institutions worldwide, accounting for 30 of the top 50 institutions.

The US is followed by Japan and South Korea with seven institutions each. We produce none.

The copy-paste culture is somehow destroying whatever capabilities our students are left with.

Unchecked plagiarism is the order of the day in a state where majority of the parliamentarians are hiding behind fake degrees.

With falling educational standards, there is a dearth of good authors/writers; the root cause being the shameful literacy rate of 49.9 percent and the budget allocation for education being only 2.5 percent of the GDP.

What we are witnessing today is the total collapse of quality education.

While the Western world is picking up our bright minds, we, on the other hand, are processing these bright fellows in a manner as to churn out illiterates at an alarming rate.

Iran spends 17.7 percent of its budget on education as compared to that of Americans, who spend 17.1 percent on education. Ever wondered why are the Americans afraid of Iran, a non-nuclear state with minimum allocation for defence? Or, more importantly, what is bothering the Americans most about Iran?

It is Iran's 17.7 percent allocation for education, which is pinching the Americans for they know that it is the spending on education that will eventually bring the Iranian nation in competition with USA. When must learn from the Iranian model; or else, we are destined to be doomed.

Do we manufacture any equipment? Can we even dream of making a small microprocessor chip? Where does the fault lie? The answer is obvious; lack of knowledge.

The list of our misfortunes is long and painful for we have adopted a policy of simply buying equipment from the foreign countries that have put so much effort into education, research and development.

What we are doing here is parasitically deploying the equipment without realising our drowning into the sea of darkness with every passing minute.

It is the failure on our part as a nation to develop our industry, which, in turn, is dependent on human capital that has a sound educational base. We continue to fail on all counts.

What differentiates us from the developed nations comes down to only one factor; it is our educational mindset that desperately needs a change.

The likeliness of nations doing what they believe they can do depends on how much faith they have in their abilities and sound knowledge base.

Humans with fixed mindset believe that their basic qualities (intelligence or talent) are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent, instead of developing them through quality learning. They also believe that talent alone can create success without putting in any educational effort.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through education, dedication and hard work.

The dilemma being faced by our country is the mushrooming growth pathetic educational institutions producing students with fixed mindsets. They somehow lack faith, motivation, hard work and above all education.

Quality comes from education, the attribute being given least importance by our rulers. This scenario will ultimately result in total inhalation and will be a contributing factor in pushing the masses towards the darkness of ignorance.

It is about time we learn from our follies without passing the blame from one institution to the other and start working together towards addressing the root causes of our backwardness.

The present messy educational deficient scenario is bound to spell doom and will ultimately lead us to anarchy, and the death of reason and nationhood.

The writer is a PhD in Information Technology, alumni of King’s College London and a social activist. He is life member of the Pakistan Engineering Council and senior international editor for IT Insight Magazine. He has authored two books titled Understanding Telecommunications and Living In The Grave and several research papers.

Email: drirfanzafar@gmail.com

Twitter: @drirfanzafar
http://www.nation.com.pk

Dr. Zaheer Ahmad Babar


Lately, there's some good news for schoolchildren of Pakistan, at least on paper. Various national dailies have started giving more space to content on education, private TV channels are allocating more time to programmes, live shows, discussions and documentaries about students, literacy and related issues.

A main private television network of the country, Geo News, has especially focused on corporal punishment in the public and private educational institutions, in the past weeks. In the show, Shehzad Roy, a famous singer and social worker, travels across Pakistan from Attabad Jheel, Gulmit, Gojal to Thar and covers more than 200 government schools. The campaign has evoked public sympathy and realisation among the authorities concerned to look into the matter seriously.

The Sindh Assembly recently adopted a resolution against corporal punishment in local educational institutions. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act recently adopted by the SA states in Article 13 (iii): "No child shall be subjected to corporal punishment or mental harassment." The law adopted by the National Assembly for the Islamabad Capital Territory also has a similar provision. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti also took notice of the issue of corporal punishment in schools while Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, ordered that education must be imparted through love and not torture. He promised that he would introduce legislation in the provincial assembly of the Punjab against corporal punishment in public and private schools.

According official sources, at least 35,000 children leave school every year due to corporal punishment. The practice goes on unabated as the Pakistani law permits punishing the students "in their own benefit". Article 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code states that "Nothing which is done in good faith for the benefit of a person under twelve years of age, or of unsound mind by or by consent, either express or implied, of the guardian or other person having lawful charge of that person, is an offence by reason of any harm which it may cause, or be intended by the doer to cause or be known by the doer to be likely to cause to that person.…"

There are similar provisions in the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act (Article 35), the Sindh Children Act (Article 48), the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Ordinance (articles 33 and 44) and possibly other provincial laws.

Pakistan has also backed all conventions signed at various world forums for providing protection to children. The country was among the first 20 countries that ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC underlines the fundamental principle for maintaining discipline in schools. Article 28 from it says: "State Parties shall take all appropriate measure to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention." Article 37 of the Convention requires states to ensure that "no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". This is supplemented by Article 19, which requires the state to "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measure to protect the child from all kind of physical or mental violence, injury, or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of the child".

It is a matter of concern that in the homeland, steps taken so far by the state with regard to addressing corporal punishment have been limited to notifications to schools banning corporal punishment. These notifications have not had the desired results due to number of reasons. Not all teachers are aware of these notifications and enforcement is difficult.

The famous "Maar Naheen Pyar" slogan of the Punjab Education Department was introduced by the former Pakistan Muslim League-Q government, during the Musharraf era. However, it badly failed to check corporal punishment in educational institutions. In most cases, the parents and guardians approve of beating of students by their teachers, especially in rural areas. They believe good education cannot be imparted without brutalising students, and that torture by teachers is in the benefit of the students. In almost all public sector schools, and in more than 50 per cent of private sector schools, teachers give physical punishment to their students. However, either students do not tell their parents about it, or the parents condone it even after coming to know about it. Those cases reported to the families or the locality notables are hushed up with the help of the school managements.

Educationists and child rights activists believe there is great need to create awareness among parents as well as teachers about the implications of corporal punishment on the physical and emotional growth of children. Dr.
Ghulam Shabir, chairman, Department of Media Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, told Cutting Edge that the practice was causing dropouts among the school students. He said that a resolution in Sindh Assembly and an assurance by the Punjab chief minister about scrapping a law, Section 89 of Pakistan Penal Code, which is used to justify corporal punishment, is definitely a positive development. He says the protection of children against all forms of abuse must be the primary concern of not only the government but also of all members of society.

However, he adds, it will be naive to believe that the Sindh Assembly passing a law, or the Punjab CM giving an assurance would have much impact on ingrained permissive attitudes towards corporal punishment. He says that physical abuse is seen as a necessary part of learning by many parents and as a result children are frequently beaten, caned or hurt by other more creative means both at home and at school. The people with such mindset claim that corporal punishment is very good at keeping wayward children in line and improving classroom discipline.

Psychologists say that physical punishment is only a stopgap that makes children compliant only in the short-term. But it is detrimental to learning since it makes the classroom an unfriendly environment. It only encourages children to do what it takes to please their teacher, rather than thinking about and understanding the concepts they are being taught. In fact, teachers are not equipped with the tools necessary to keep children in check and when faced with a classroom full of restless youngsters, the untrained educators turn to the only means of instilling discipline they know - corporal punishment.

In today's life, we see a lot of violence in our society. Psychologists also trace its roots to violence at homes and educational institutions. A child growing up in a home prone to domestic violence and going to school to experience more brutality would hardly be expected to be peace-loving.
Educationists say there might be some sadistic individuals out there who actually enjoy beating children. But it is much more likely that if trained to use other techniques, most teachers would prefer not to have to resort to violence in classrooms. Therefore, besides passing a bill against physical abuse of students, the education budget should also be increased to launch teacher training programmes and develop a legal framework that would make it mandatory for schools to send their teachers to such programmes.

Returning to our basic premise, psychologists and educationists the world over believe corporal punishment deprives a child of the right to life, the right to physical and mental integration, the right to education, the right to development and is clearly not in the best interest of the child. Therefore, keeping in view that Pakistan is a signatory to the UNCRC, corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment or violence should be outlawed once and for all. The state must take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to eliminate them.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/education01.htm

Dr. Zaheer Ahmad Babar


Education has never been a priority for the past governments since the creation of Pakistan. The sector during the past six and a half decades has remained "an arena of experimentation and implementation of divergent, often contradictory, policies".

The Human Development in South Asia 1998 report said that "while South Asia is the most illiterate region in the world, Pakistan is the most illiterate country within South Asia". And no major change has taken place even 15 years after the release of the report.

Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, had spelled out the basic principle of the education policy of Pakistan. But, unfortunately, it was never followed in letter and spirit. In his message to the All Pakistan Educational Conference at Karachi from 27 November 1947, the Quaid-e-Azam had said: "…the importance of education and the right type of education cannot be over-emphasised.

"Under foreign rule for over a century, in the very nature of things, I regret, sufficient attention has not been paid to the education of our people, and if we are to make any real, speedy and substantial progress, we must earnestly tackle this question and bring our educational policy and program on the lines suited to the genius of our people, consonant with our history and culture, and having regard to the modern conditions and vast developments that have taken place all over the world.

"There is no doubt that the future of our State will and must greatly depend upon the type of education and the way in which we bring up our children as the future servants of Pakistan.

"Education does not merely mean academic education, and even that appears to be of a very poor type. What we have to do is to mobilise our people and build up the character of our future generations.

"There is immediate and urgent need for training our people in the scientific and technical education in order to build up future economic life, and we should see that our people undertake scientific commerce, trade and particularly, well-planned industries."

This short statement of the Quaid-e-Azam is very loud and clear, and that is we are always in need of introducing an education policy that is exactly in accordance with the natural talent of our people as well as vast developments taking place all over the world. In fact, the statement encompasses almost all aspects of education that are needed in a country like Pakistan. A uniform system of education, syllabi meeting the world standards, well-educated, well-trained and committed teachers at all levels, from Montessori to PhD are some of the basic elements of a good education policy, besides various other factors.

Experts believe that lack of a uniform education system and syllabus has always been one of the biggest problems of the education sector in Pakistan. On the one hand, there are educational institutions modelled after a Western educational system; their medium of instruction is English, which is believed to be the language of the ruling class, and the courses/syllabuses taught there are also set and overseen by the Western educational systems.

These institutions, run in the private sector mostly, charge fees the people from middle, lower middle and poor classes cannot afford. Only the elite class children benefit from these institutions, and grow up to become members of the ruling class at the end of the day.

On the other hand, the children coming from modest backgrounds are provided education in the public sector educational institutions. These institutions lack infrastructure, even buildings and basic facilities, trained and committed teaching staffs and the equipment, needed to impart science and technology education to the students. Thus, from the beginning, these children are put on a path leading only to lower-level and clerical jobs.

There has been a misconception among the masses that the offspring of only well-to-do and educated families have the talent to form the leading group. Plato, a philosopher in Classical Greece, believed that "talent was distributed non-genetically and thus must be found in children born in any social class." He insisted that all mentally and physically healthy children could qualify to assume the role of a ruling class if imparted education in a proper way.

What the state needs the most in the field of education is to provide an equal opportunity and an enabling environment to each and every son and daughter of the nation, without any prejudices, so that they could utilise all their natural talents to get education and make progress in their lives without any hindrances.

The real problem lies in the government priorities and allocations for the sector. The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012 says the government in Pakistan spends seven times more on its military than on primary education and has the second highest number of out-of-school children (5.1 million) in the world. In the 2011-12 budget, Pakistan earmarked only 2.3% of the budget for education, which is 0.3% less than in 1999.

Another major problem facing the education sector in Pakistan is committed and well trained teachers. William Heard Kilpatrick, an American philosopher of education, believed that the role of a teacher should be that of a "guide" as opposed to an authoritarian figure. He believed that children should direct their own learning according to their interests and should be allowed to explore their environment, experiencing their learning through the natural senses. Proponents of progressive education and the project method reject traditional schooling that focuses on memorisation, rote learning, strictly organised classrooms, and typical forms of assessment.

However, in our country, over 97% schoolteachers believe in so-called conventional teaching methods. They encourage only memorisation and rote learning and follow the traditional methods of punishment to impart education to their students. They are mostly untrained, no matter they are working in public or private sector. The situation in primary schools is especially pathetic, where, in fact, a strong base of a student is formed. They lack a strong commitment direly needed on their part.

This lack of commitment and interest results in a teacher's absenteeism, indifferent classroom practices and his, or her, leaving the profession, especially in private schools. This high turnover in private schools is especially damaging for the whole system because the students have to suffer and government's investment in public sector teacher training is lost.

According to educationists, there are five main reasons for primary schoolteachers' lack of motivation in Pakistan.

The first is an inadequate salary. A primary teacher, mostly a woman, in private schools of Pakistan earns roughly between Rs. 1,400 and Rs. 2,860. This is less than what a cook, gardener or chauffeur often earns. Good pay is one incentive to encourage employees in any profession to work harder and in a more dedicated and enthusiastic manner. Financial security helps them concentrate on their jobs without worrying about how to make ends meet every month.

The second reason is about the respect in society. Unlike medicine and engineering, teaching as a profession does not garner the status and respect the former two vocations do. In fact, the status of teachers, particularly male teachers, has suffered so severely that men who are part of "educated unemployed" (individuals with high qualifications but who remain unemployed) become teachers only as a last resort. Even in this case though, teaching is seen as a temporary job that will be left once a better opportunity comes along.

The third reason is hard working conditions at the private educational institutions. With a meagre salary, they have to take almost all periods in with no free time at all. They discourage possible candidates from becoming teachers and often lead to incumbent teachers leaving the profession.
According to the Human Development in South Asia's 1998 report, 70% of the schools in Pakistan have no toilets, 68% no drinking water, 92% no playgrounds, 60% no boundary walls and 16% are without a building.

Fourthly, teachers have little opportunities for career advancement, especially for primary schoolteachers in the private sector. The only one available to most teachers is to move into secondary school teaching. This, however, has negative effects on the primary school system, since it is often the most motivated teachers who leave teaching primary school for secondary school.
And the last one is virtually no system of accountability for teachers in the public sector. Teachers are often accountable to the education department which is far from their teaching milieu. This means they can get away with absenteeism. There is no local authority to ensure that teachers attend classes and teach their students. Head teachers have little authority to censure teachers who do not turn up for work. In a nutshell, without improving the lot of teachers, the education sector on the whole cannot be improved.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/education01.htm

Dr. Zaheer Ahmad Babar


It appears as if the administrative machinery of almost all departments in Pakistan has lost its ability to act and rectify its faults on its own and now they need a higher judiciary push on every step to move forward.

Besides various other institutions, the education department lately came under examination of the apex court on the issue of occupation of buildings of schools and colleges by the land mafia and various other influential quarters.
In the second week of February 2013, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered action against the illegal occupants of school buildings. The learned judges on the bench observed that animals were kept in schools and their buildings had been turned into stables. "This is what we are doing to our children when education is a constitutional right," the chief justice noted.

It is a reality that the educational institutions prove to be the easiest prey for the qabza mafias and influential people of society. As teachers and students are mostly weak and law-abiding citizens, they can neither resist nor challenge; unscrupulous people find it very easy to take over buildings of schools and colleges for their personal use.

These are the reasons among various others why the country lagged far behind the other nations in the field of education. Pakistan has the world's second highest rate of out-of-school children, with Sindh having the worst infrastructure for schools, according to a report titled The State of Pakistan's Children Report 2011, prepared by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child.

Various research reports say almost 25 million children are currently out of school in Pakistan, while seven million of them have yet to receive some form of primary schooling. The reports are a grim reminder of how children's hopes for a better future are fading in the face of persistent government failure to improve the education sector.

According to the National Education Census 2006 data, the overall net enrolment ratio in pre-primary education is 43% - 45% for males and 40% for females. Provincially, the net enrolment ratio is the highest in Punjab with 61%, followed by Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan with 53%, 51% and 47%, respectively.

The report further says that 65% schools in the country have drinking water facilities, 62% have a latrine, 61% have a boundary wall and only 39% have electricity.

The worst conditions are found in Sindh, where 35% of schools are without a building and in many cases without a boundary wall. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Punjab follow with 23%, 18% and 10%, respectively.

And it is really depressing to note that a number of those buildings constructed for schools and colleges have been occupied by anti-education elements and criminals.

Initial survey reports, presented to the court by the four provinces, revealed that 227 schools were occupied in Sindh. However, the administration claimed reclaiming all buildings and handing them over to the school administrations. 226 schools were possessed in the Punjab, of which 157 schools were still dysfunctional; in Balochistan 36 schools and 108 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were dysfunctional due to various reasons.

The court was told that three schools in the federal capital were occupied by a private housing scheme, Bahria Town, and the Supreme Court directed the Islamabad commissioner and deputy commissioner to take action against the occupants, without any discrimination.

The chief justice regretted that less than one percent of budget was allocated for the education sector and school departments were neglected. He expressed concern over the political interference in the education sector and pointed out that one school was occupied by Pakistan Rangers. The court said that it was the duty of the government to provide free education to its citizens under Article 25 A of the constitution but nothing had been done in this regard.

Rehmat Ullah, coordinator of Sindh Rural Development Society, told the court that around 60,000 children were not going to school in rural Sindh district of Matiari alone. He also showed the court photos and newspaper reports about a school being used as a police station in the village of Jati.

The problem has ever persisted in one form or the other. Pir Mazharul Haq, Sindh Minister for Education, informed the Sindh Assembly in 2009, that 27 buildings of schools, colleges and hostels in Sindh were occupied by law-enforcement agencies.

A brief detail of what he told the house is as under:-
* A building of Government Girls Middle School, Chhor Old, occupied by the army in Umarkot.
* A combined building of a hostel for Government Noor Muhammad High School and Muslim College, Hyderabad, occupied by Rangers.
* Hostel of Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Latifabad No. 10, and part of the building of the Government Seth Hafiz High School, Hyderabad, in the use of Rangers.
* Two boys secondary schools occupied by Rangers and police in Karachi.
* The Government Girls Primary School Mushtaq Hajano, union council Shah Alam Shah, Taluka Matiari, occupied by Rangers.
* The Government Girls Middle School, Karan, and Government Girls/Boys Primary School, Naparkot, occupied by police in Shikarpur district.
* The Government College of Education, Ghotki, occupied by Rangers.
* The Government Degree Boys College, Jungle Shah, Keamari occupied by Rangers.
* The hostel of DJ Sindh Government Science College under the use of Rangers.
* The hostel of Jamia Millia Government College, Malir occupied by Rangers.
* The hostel and principal's bungalow at Government College of Physical Education occupied by Rangers.
* The Government College for Women 11-F, New Karachi, occupied by Rangers.
* Two hostels of Government Degree College Kali Mori, Hyderabad, and the hostel of the Muslim Government College under the occupation of Rangers.
* The Government Degree College of Benazirabad under the occupation of Rangers.
* The hostel of the Government Degree Boys College, Larkana, and the building of the physics department of the Government Degree College, Ghotki, occupied by Rangers.
* A school building in Jacobabad under the occupation of law-enforcement agencies.

The Sindh Assembly was informed that 1,000 schools in Sindh's small towns and rural areas were being used as Autaqs (guest houses) by Waderas (feudal lords).

Another report published in the national press in 2012, disclosed that educational institutions, even in the federal capital, had not been spared by the qabza mafia. The report said that the two girls' schools at G-6/1-3 and G-6/1-4 and two boys schools at G-6/4 had been vacated for the police officials.

What the Sindh Assembly was told and other related information is only the tip of the iceberg. In far off regions of the country, tens of hundreds of school and college buildings are under the occupation of waderas, chaudhrys, pirs, and even criminals and drug and land mafias. They use the government buildings for their own purposes; sometimes as stables, sometimes as autaqs and sometimes for criminal activities, and the education departments fail to take any action against the occupants due to several reasons.

In the start of the current year, 2013, a section of the national press reported that a primary school in village Muhammad Ali Shah of Sukkur district (Sindh) was being used by an influential person as a residence. His buffaloes were being kept there. The then chief minister of Sindh ordered the administration and police authorities to get vacated the building by the illegal occupants. But the question remains: is it necessary that the media should first publish a report on such situations and only then the authorities would get vacated such buildings? Can't they act on their own, so that the educational institutions could be used for the purpose they had been set up for?.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/front%20story01.htm

By Zahrah Nasir

Kursheed herds the family buffalo along the rough mountain track leading towards a treeless area, where the animal will attempt to graze on rough, nutrient-deficient, tough grasses mixed with small shrubs. Kursheed, her shalwar kameez filthy from repeated wear, is nine years old and should, by law, be in school along with her two brothers — one older and one younger than her. Instead, her mother sees absolutely no point in educating a girl who will be married off to a cousin as soon as possible.

Kursheed’s mother, herself illiterate, says that she needs her eldest daughter at home. There are four younger girls amongst other children in the family, too, to help with chores because until her eldest son — only 11 years old at present — marries and brings home a wife, there is too much work for her to tackle alone. She doesn’t see much point in sending her son to school. The teacher is rarely there and school resources are almost non-existent. However, she sends him to school anyway because her husband, also illiterate, insists that all things considered, their son is highly unlikely to matriculate — as is the case with countless other boys in the mountain areas, who are regularly allowed to skip school.

In a country with the second lowest literacy rate in the world (only Nigeria outranks Pakistan in this), no one really cares whether or not children actually go to school. According to a variety of sources, there are somewhere between 5.1 and 9.5 million Pakistani children between the ages of five and 16 who have never seen the inside of a classroom in their short lives and, the odds are — increasingly so — that they never will. The government doesn’t give a single damn about these numbers as its meagre budgetary allocation — a mere 2.3 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP) and just 9.9 per cent of the total budget — goes to prove.

“Ghost” schools, “ghost” teachers and teachers in many government schools, who have no education to speak of themselves, hardly give students a chance of gaining the kind of basic education needed in order to take a single, upwardly mobile step in the increasingly high-tech, highly competitive world of today. Even if teachers have some education, they do not have access to the most rudimentary teaching tools with which to teach a largely outmoded curriculum. This is especially true in rural areas where adult literacy rates are even lower. To these issues, we add the targeting of schools by the Taliban — with an emphasis on girls’ or co-educational schools — and now the targeted killing of schoolteachers. Realistically, the government’s claim of achieving a literacy rate of 60 per cent — only a four per cent increase from the supposedly current 56 per cent — by 2015 is a non-starter.

As it stands, only those children put through the exorbitantly expensive private education mill will achieve an acceptable scholastic level. Government refusal to prioritise education is — when the chips are down — responsible for the majority of ills faced by the country today. Unless things change, Pakistan will continue its slide into oblivion. Change must ensure that all children, irrespective of parental wishes, receive the education they are entitled to.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2013.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is, perhaps, the first political party of the country that has targeted the youth and placed special emphasis on their needs including education and employment during the past decade.

It did not contest the general elections in 2008, in protest against certain policies of the former military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, and played the role of an out-of-parliament opposition party during this period. However, the party formed various think tanks to deliberate for months and years and present its policies on different sectors.

Education is among the fields given top most priority by the party. Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, announced at a meeting in Islamabad on February 20, 2013, that his party would declare an 'education emergency' in the country if elected to power in the 2013 general elections. He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the PTI Education Policy Vision and unveiling of the six-point education emergency policy of his party.

According to the conclusion of the PTI think tank studies, the quality of public sector education at all levels has degenerated. Children from households in the top 20% in urban areas showed gross enrolment two and a half times greater than children from the poorest 20% of rural households. Overall the gross enrolment rates for middle level (classes 6-8) have decreased. It is, indeed, shameful that only 16% of children aged 10-12 attend middle level schooling.

There are approximately 175,000 government schools in Pakistan that offer substandard education, inadequate teachers, facilities and materials.
Unregulated growth of private sector primary education has led to a system of educational apartheid. Quality education has become an exclusive preserve of the elite, thus forcing the majority to perpetual ignorance and poverty. While the rich send their children to expensive English medium schools, the majority poor are forced to send their children to antiquated Urdu medium public schools or madrassas. As a result, despite the huge increase in population, the proportion of students attending government primary schools declined, particularly in the urban areas where the private sector now accounts for almost half of primary enrolments.

Quality of higher education has also deteriorated with exodus of qualified professionals and continues to decline in the professional capacity of faculty members. Applied research is almost non-existent. For a country of 180 million, there are only 85 universities with approved charters, of which only 8 in the public sector and 18 in the private sector, are degree awarding institutions.

Right now various education systems are functioning in the country. The education system is based on unequal lines. Medium of education is different in both public and private sectors. This creates a sort of disparity among people, dividing them into two main classes.

According to its policy, the PTI would introduce one education system for all segments of society and every province would be able to teach its children in its mother tongue and Urdu as the medium of instruction in all government and private schools up to class 8. Class 9 to 12 would have transitional years during which schools shall have the option to shift to English as the medium of instructions in preparation for professional/higher studies.

This is a fact that we can neither ignore English, being an international language, nor underestimate the need for imparting education in mother languages and the national language, Urdu. The PTI policy says English would be taught in schools and colleges as a subject and not as cultural imperialism, as it triggered wide cultural and social divisions in the country.

It is a good sign that at least one political party in Pakistan realises the gravity of the situation and wants to rectify the faults in the education system as far as the medium of instruction is concerned.

Another major hurdle in promotion of education in Pakistan is lack of funds. The allocation of funds for education is only 1.5 to 2.0% of the GDP. Educationists believe the allocation should be around 7% of the GDP. The other main promise Imran Khan made at the function was to increase the education budget from the current 2.1% to 5% of the GDP over its five-year term. According to the pledge, Rs. 2.5 trillion would be spent on education. Imran claimed that his party, after coming to power, would recover looted money from the corrupt politicians and divert that money to the education sector.

In the past decade or so, seminaries locally called madrassas have come under severe attack from the local government as well as Western nations. They were termed breeding grounds for terrorism, and their positive contribution to spreading education was totally ignored. There might be some such cases where madrassas or madrassa students would have been used in terror incidents, but rejecting outright the role of madrassas in increasing the literacy rate would be a sheer injustice.

Poverty plays a role in barring parents from sending their children to schools. They prefer to send their children to madrassas where education is totally free. The PTI education policy promises making efforts to bring madrassa students into the mainstream.

This is, no doubt, a good approach. According to BBC News, there are about 17,000 madrassas in Pakistan providing free religious education to children and a total of around two million students are enrolled in these madrassas. According to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) report in January 2011, there were 736 unregistered madrassas operating in Karachi alone.
Instead of casting away such a large number of educational institutions and millions of students studying there, making a policy to bring them into mainstream would definitely be an appreciable and wise act.

The PTI chairman also promised that after coming to power, all educational institutions would be de-politicised. Student wings of political parties have always been a tradition in different countries of the world, including Pakistan. Generally, the purpose of a student union is to represent and defend the rights and interests of students. The objectives are to promote the representational, educational, social and general interests of the students in accordance with the policies of the institute. Where these unions protest the rights of the students, they also groom students to lead the world in their future practical life.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, the then prime minister of Pakistan, announced restoring the student unions in 2008, which had been banned by Gen. Ziaul Haq in 1984. Human rights activist and senior journalist Prof. Mehdi Hassan believes that student unions are important for developing leadership qualities among the youth.

However, mostly these student wings are misused by political parties for their vested interests. Professor of Political Science at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Rasool Bukhsh Raees says that students are being used by political and sectarian elements for their undesired, uncalled for and sometimes nefarious activities.

The PTI education policy shows this emerging political force of Pakistan does not believe in involving students in politics. That's why the policy statement says all educational institutions would be depoliticised if the PTI is elected to power in the forthcoming general election.

Another plan made part of the PTI education policy is de-centralising education under which the education service delivery and management will be devolved to district and sub-district levels and the provincial government would only provide oversight and regulation.

Access to primary education for all children would be ensured by adding schools managed by local councils. A national literacy campaign will be launched by mobilising all segments of society including fresh graduates, unemployed youth and retired educationists to achieve 80% functional literacy.

The drop-out rate would be reduced at elementary level by offering incentives in the shape of free textbooks, nutrition support through mid-day meals, and stipends. A uniform and world standard curriculum would be introduced for all the government and private schools, according to the policy statement.
The PTI education policy says that emphasis will be laid on teacher training by setting up standard facilities in all districts to ensure the availability of sufficient number of local teachers in each district. An elite education service will be set up by offering market salaries to government teachers at all levels to attract the best and make teaching the most-sought-after profession.
Due to insurgency and terrorist attacks, many educational institutions have been shut in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan for the past 10 years. Almost a generation could not educate their children, which is a matter for immediate attention. The PTI promises to pay special attention to these areas of Pakistan and bring children of these regions on a par with other parts of the country.

The party also promises giving a special focus to adult literacy from the age of 15-to-30 (55.8 million) and invest resources to provide functional literacy to them.

Other important steps promised in the policy include: making universities fully autonomous, to be managed by boards comprising educationists, philanthropists, and eminent citizens, and ensuring academic freedom to the faculty members. A public university would be set up in each district in collaboration with the private sector. A scholarship scheme will be designed and implemented for top students from each board examination. A policy would be formulated to encourage greater public-private partnership in expanding the network of educational institutions and in improving their standards. An autonomous monitoring authority will be created to check and provide feedback on the quality of education at all levels. Special tax incentives will be offered to industry in general and agri-based industry in particular for investment in vocational and technical education in rural areas.
This appears to be a comprehensive education policy and if implemented in letter and spirit, it may bring about a revolution in the field of education in Pakistan.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/front%20story01.htm

Good news?

Dr Fahad Rafique Dogar

Sir Michael Barber, a British educationist, has good news for all of us, or at least he claims so in his recently published report ‘Good News from Pakistan’. The report purports that education reforms in Punjab are bringing positive results: more students and teachers are attending schools, educational institutes have better facilities, and students think that the quality of education is improving.

The PML-N believes this report is yet another feather in Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s cap. Their members have flooded social media sites with references to this report. The ex-CM himself has tweeted about this good news multiple times in the last few days. On the other hand, the PML-N’s opponents completely dismiss this report as an election gimmick – a response that is typical of opposition parties in our country.

As usual, these contrasting reactions leave the common man confused. Most people don’t know how to interpret this report – is it really good news or an election gimmick?

A detailed analysis of Sir Barber’s report reveals that things are perhaps not as rosy as they are being made to look. Specifically, there are three glaring problems that are either related to the report or the reforms themselves.

The first problem relates to the evidence (or the lack of it) that forms the basis of the good news. To understand this, let’s first look at the good news itself. The report provides several statistics on different education indicators that have improved since 2010 – the year in which the reforms were introduced. For example, it shows an improvement in student enrolment, as well as student and teacher attendance. Although the improvement numbers are modest (less than 10 percent on average), they are still encouraging, especially considering the gloomy situation of our country. So what is the problem?

The problem lies in claiming that these improvements are indeed because of Sir Barber’s reforms and not because of some other factors. To properly address this concern, the report should have analysed the trends before the reforms were introduced. Only then can we identify the difference created by the reforms. Unfortunately, the report completely ignores the trends before the reforms were introduced.

Hypothetically, it is possible that the education indicators were improving, even before the reforms were introduced, for example due to various socio-political reasons.

A look at the past statistics supports this hypothesis, further weakening Sir Barber’s case. For example, according to the data available on the World Bank website, the primary school enrolment in Pakistan was already on the rise before 2010. Specifically, the numbers show that during 2003-2007, enrolment in Pakistan’s primary schools increased from 58 percent to 68 percent and during 2008-2010 it further increased from 69 percent to 74 percent.

Based on these trends, one may argue that even without the reforms, we would have observed a positive change. Clearly, Sir Barber needs to convince us on why he thinks otherwise.

To claim credit for the post-2010 improvement, Sir Barber has to not only show a dramatic improvement in education indicators but also convince us that no other parallel effort played a part in this improvement.

For example, what if any NGO or other organisation working on education reforms claims credit for improvement in this field? The onus is on Sir Barber to prove that it is indeed his reforms that are doing the trick.

The second issue relates to the apparent focus of these reforms on quantity rather than quality. More teachers, more students and more buildings are all positive developments, but they are not indicators of the quality of education. In fact, more students may result in the deterioration of quality if adequate measures are not taken to handle the additional students. The report provides little evidence that quality of education in Punjab has improved because of these reforms.

The final issue relates to institutionalisation of these reforms. Sir Barber gives much credit to Mian Shahbaz Sharif for implementing these reforms, citing multiple instances where the ex-CM adopted a carrot-and-stick approach with the district education officers (EDOs) to get things done.

Sure the ex-CM deserves credit since he showed the willingness to introduce these reforms and the tenacity to implement them. However, it seems that he did little to institutionalise these reforms, casting a big question mark on the status of these changes when he won’t be around. One may argue that if a chief minister has to personally follow-up the performance of EDOs then the system is perhaps broken. Will this system still work if we have a different CM? Not surprisingly, Sir Barber himself is unsure whether the reforms would remain effective in the backdrop of elections and the change in government.

The above discussion raises several important questions that need to be answered. All of us should realise that good news must be backed by solid reasoning and evidence. Only then can we really rejoice.

The writer is a computer science researcher with a doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He tweets @fahadrdogar


http://www.thenews.com.pk

__________________
If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.(Che Guevara)

The education sector has always made great progress in Pakistan, but only on paper. During the past 65 years, the successive governments presented eight national education policies, eight five-year plans, one Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, half a dozen other schemes and over a dozen conferences, seminars and workshops, but education in the country is still in shambles.

The reasons are quite obvious: no individual at the helm of affairs, no government, and no authority ever pondered what should be the philosophy of education of this nation, what are its needs, what should be the medium of education and what curricula would best suit this country in the years and decades to come.

Educationists relate various elements that are needed to make education a success in any nation. They say the leadership should have sincerity, vision and political will to implement the education policies; there should be a medium of education that best suits the nation comprising dozens of racial and ethnic communities; there must be syllabi that meet world standards; the country should have adequate number of educational institutions, and these institutions must have well-educated, well-trained and committed teachers at all levels, from Montessori to Ph.D, as wells as state-of-the-art equipment and apparatus to impart scientific and technical/vocational education to the youth.

In the following lines some of the above mentioned elements of a successful education plan will be discussed briefly.

One of the most important prerequisites for making a nation literate is political will and sincerity on the part of the leaders of the country. However, what kind of will, visions and sincerity our past leaders possessed could be ascertained from an incident reported by the late Qudrat Ullah Shahab, a civil servant and an eminent Urdu author. He writes in his autobiography, Shahab Nama, that Malik Amir Mohammad Khan, commonly known as Nawab of Kalabagh, the Governor of West Pakistan from 1960 to 1966, once got angry at the students over some issue.

He closed down all colleges of Lahore for an indefinite period of time. When many days passed and the colleges were not reopened, Field Marshal President Ayub Khan sent him (Shahab) to Lahore to request the Governor to reopen the colleges. Here's the dialogue that took place between the two.

Shahab: Nawab Sahib, the President is worried as many days have passed since colleges were closed.
Nawab: I wonder why the President is worried about the closing of colleges in Lahore.
Shahab: I think he's worried as it is resulting in the loss of studies.
Nawab: What will happen if there is a loss of studies?
Shahab: It may result in the loss of students' one year.
Nawab: What will happen if students' one year is lost?
Shahab writes that he had no answer to such a silly question, so he kept quite.

The Nawab, twirling his handlebar moustaches in his fingers, said: "I say it makes no difference at all even if a whole generation remains illiterate.
"By the way, my forefathers, or your forefathers, or for that matter the forefathers of the respected President were not BA, MA degree-holders. Their illiteracy could not create any hurdle in our reaching these big posts…
"Tell the President, he should not be worried about the students, I will reopen the colleges whenever I'll deem it necessary."

Such was the importance of education in the eyes of the rulers and such was their vision about 50 years ago.

But it is a pity that situation has not changed much even today. Last year, on July 16, the Punjab Assembly was informed by the Opposition leader Raja Riaz that an under-matriculate had been appointed a special assistant on education to the Punjab chief minister. The only 'qualification' of Khizer Hyat Hiraj from Khanewal was that he was the father-in-law of an ex-PML-Q MPA, who had joined the 'turncoat group' when Shahbaz Sharif wanted him to.

One of the ruling party PML-N MPA, 'Dr.' Ghazala Rana objected to the objection of Raja Riaz saying that the opposition leader was "insulting the vast majority of illiterates in the Punjab". The 'Dr.' perhaps, wanted to tell the House that appointing an under-matriculate was essential to educate 74.93% illiterates of the Punjab. [According to official data, only 25.07% complete 10 years of education in the Punjab]

According to an English-language daily report, the father of former speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Rana Muhammad Iqbal, used to be proud of his illiteracy. Rana Phool Muhammad Khan, during his speeches, claimed to be a 'true' representative of the illiterate masses.

With this sincerity, vision and political will on the part of the politicians, how can we achieve the educational and literacy targets, set by the governments from time to time during the past decades, is anybody's guess.

Philosopher Mortimer Adler and others in the late twentieth century sometimes used the aphorism "the best education for the best is the best education for all". But, it is a pity, that despite passage of over 65 years, the policymakers in Pakistan have failed to evolve a uniform syllabus that could help provide the best education to all, to our new generations in accordance with the changing realities of the globe and the country's needs, in a competitive environment.
Another problem that must be discussed here is lack of schools in far-off parts of the country. One Allah Ditta, a small farmer in Chak No. 341/HR of Tehsil Fort Abbas (Punjab), told this writer recently that his daughter could not continue her education after passing her eighth class examination in 2010, for non-availability of a school in his village. The high school is situated in another village, over seven kilometres away from his village and he cannot afford providing his daughter with a pick-and-drop facility daily. Allah Ditta says he's the single bread-earner of his family and he cannot afford dropping his daughter at school in the morning and bringing her back in the evening daily, and there is no public or private transport facility for girl students in these villages.

In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of such girl students in the country who have to abandon their education for non-availability of schools in their villages and towns. The country will have to set up a lot more educational institutions if it wants to achieve the promised 100% literacy rate.
But the realities are the other way around in the country. The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012 says the government in Pakistan spends seven times more on its military than on primary education and has the second highest number of out-of-school children (5.1 million) in the world. In the 2011-12 budget, Pakistan earmarked only 2.3% of the budget for education, which is 0.3% less than in 1999.

As far as state-of-the-art equipment and apparatus to impart scientific and technical/vocational education is concerned, the government efforts seem failing by and large. The Pakistan Muslim League-N government initiated the Punjab IT Labs Project in 4,286 Government High/ Higher Secondary Schools across all 36 districts of the province to overcome the digital divide between the public and private sector schools.

However, a member of the chief minister's monitoring team told Cutting Edge on condition of anonymity that 90% of these labs have not been made functional. Students of these schools are seldom provided the facility to spend some time in these labs and benefit from the equipment. Even the IT teachers don't open these labs and the computers and other related equipment, purchased for a huge sum of Rs. 4,787.59 million, are rusting without any use. The education authorities should pay attention to the issue so that the facility provided to the students could be brought into use.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/front%20story01.htm

Since last almost three years, the role and status of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad has been made controversial and insignificant by the politicians and the real job of the said commission has highly been adversely affected since then. The tog of war between the HEC and the parliamentarians/politicians is continued and the real job of the HEC has been jeopardized. The authorities of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad with the support of the majority of the Vice Chancellors of the public sectors universities, are trying their level best to keep the autonomy and financial status of the HEC intact. The issue of the autonomy and status of the HEC became more serious after the 18 amendments made in the constitution of the country. After this amendment, the Higher Education became a provincial matter and the Federal Finance Ministry almost cut down the budget of the HEC, which again not only suffered the HEC but the public sectors universities are also suffering, affecting adversely the quality of education and research in the country. Therefore, Supreme Court of Pakistan was also approached to keep the HEC as an autonomous body as per its status before this amendments.

The visionary role of the HEC is no doubt very vital and significant, particularly in bringing harmony and sustainability among the provincial education standards and also in motivating the research activities in the universities.
However, the role and importance of the 18 amendments is also very vital in the sense that provinces were of the view to get hold over Higher Education for different purposes including the appointment of the politically affiliated Vice Chancellors. But, observations of the parliamentarians/ politicians particularly regarding misuse of the finances, and powers by the HEC is reasonably worth consideration and also cannot be ignored, because they have also every justification to ask about the public money spent by any such organization. The main objection generally raised by the politicians is the misuse of the finances and sponsoring of the private sectors universities at the cost of the public sectors universities. In addition, it is also blamed that the HEC has been oversaturated providing employment only to the dear’s ones. It is further criticized that the HEC is overlooking the affairs of the private sector universities, which very miserably loosing quality and standard in their educational and research activities. The implementation of the Tenure Track System (TTS) is another objection, which is generally raised even by the bureaucrats too.

In support of the misuse of finances, the parliamentarian’s very commonly quote that in the name of leadership training in abroad, the HEC is very lavishly spending the scarce resources of this poor country and they are regularly sending 15 to 20 Vice Chancellors and now even the Registrars of the universities to different foreign countries of the world for 20 to 27 days for leadership trainings, which has overburden the country’s exchequer and now the country does not have funding for their other academic and research activities, which is the primary objective of the HEC. Million of rupees are spent every year in the names of such trainings, which are of no use for this country, because there is a great difference of the academic and research culture and standards and working environment of the universities of the developed countries and Pakistanis universities. Therefore, it is beyond their understanding that how these foreign trainings facilities will assist the local V.C’s in molding the fortune and status of their universities and how many so far have achieved the desired objectives of bringing such revolutionary change in their universities.

In addition, if it is so important and the purpose is not only just the V.C’s foreign tours, then scholars, experts from these developed countries can also be invited to Pakistan to extend the same kind of training facilities even to a larger group of V.C’s within the country on comparatively much lower cost.
Furthermore, the video conferencing facilities which are now commonly available in the HEC and most of the universities could also be utilized in this respect to further economies the training facilities in the larger interest of the universities. Rationally speaking, the objection is justified and valid, specifically in the circumstances prevailing in the country on account of economic stagnation and financial constraints. It would have been more genuine if maximum funds would have been available for the universities academic and research quality improvement and standardization.

The parliamentarian’s are further criticizing the HEC by providing huge funding to the private sector universities, which are usually charging very high fee and are not even having the required qualified faculties and research facilities for imparting the quality education and research. They have generally been established on the basis of profit maximization principles by the private investors and are run for achieving the same objective. The name of COMSAT is generally quoted as one such example in this regard which is very regularly getting maximum share in the allocation of funds by the HEC, while most of the public sector universities are even not getting their due shares. Looking into the past 07 years fund allocating data, COMSAT’s share is really much greater as compared to the public sector universities. In addition, they also argue that the distribution of fund is not fairly done in the HEC and those who are well connected are getting more funds as compared to the one’s, whose demands for funds are quite genuine but on account of their poor connections with the higher ups, they are generally deprived from getting their genuine shares too.

According to the politicians, the negligence of the HEC over the standards of the private sector universities is another such issue which is not bringing good name for the HEC. There are many private sector universities, which are not fulfilling even the very basic criteria of the HEC regarding their quality insurance and imparting standard education and research promotions but they have been given chartered by the HEC and they are awarding the degrees with out maintaining the standards and qualities in every respect. This negligence of the HEC has also been taken very seriously by some parliamentarians and is not satisfied from the role and performance of the present day HEC.

It is further questioned that how many private and Public Sector Universities in Pakistan have patents at their credits and how many universities have so far been listed in the top 100 positions at world level as compared to India. The dilemma of fake degrees issued to the politicians is other blame on the shoulders of the public sectors universities, which is a great negligence at the part of HEC as well. Again looking into some of the weaknesses and negligence’s made in the past by the HEC genuinely needs more care towards such lapses.

The Tenure Track System (TTS) is another controversial pay package before
the parliamentarians and also among the teaching community within the universities, introduced in the universities by the HEC. Besides politicians, even most of the university teachers and bureaucrats are criticizing this pay package on different grounds and usually ask that within the university, different pay packages for the employees of the same qualifications have created discrimination among the teaching communities. TTS is awarded with out any substantial creativity and distinctive productivity and output to certain employees of the universities and the said package has not brought any specific change in the universities since its inception. The TTS has also further overburdened financially the HEC and universities without any justifiable and substantial valid reason and have created discomfort and destabilization in the academic environment of the universities and also among such other organizations and institutions of the country.

It is also mostly heard from the parliamentarians that the HEC has become a white elephant in the sense that growing expenditures of the HEC in terms of employment, foreign tours, extra facilities and pay packages have been increased many folds and the HEC has become just a source of employment for the near and dears one’s only. Comparing the cost of the HEC in 2002 with the one in 2013, the over all expenditure of HEC has been increased teen times, which is another complicated issue, which created various financial problems for the country as well as for the rest of the public sector universities as well, because most of their share is consumed on the luxuries of the HEC.

Criticism for the sake of opposition by whom it may be, is really not good and leads towards disintegration but it will not be bad to look into the affairs of the HEC more realistically in the larger interest of the society and community to take steps to curtail the luxurious spending of the HEC in the larger interest of the country and to streamline the budgetary affairs of this institution to uphold the position of the HEC in the eyes of the general masses as well as the parliamentarians. Therefore, all such measures be adopted by the authorities of the HEC, which could lead the HEC genuinely towards its real mission and goal, which is the quality insurance and developing the culture of research and innovation in the country. Merit based employment of the visionary, highly qualified people be encouraged and all such relevant training facilities be developed within the country. Foreign such trainings be economized and minimized even by curtailing the duration of all such trainings as well. The HEC quality enhancement cell needs to be more vigilant in the affairs of imparting quality education, specifically in terms of the private sectors universities and all those Vice Chancellors/ institutions be black listed who ever helped or support in issuing the fake degrees to any one.

The author is a retired Vice Chancellor of a University and is a leading Economist.

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/category/40/