However, the government’s policies to provide education for all became a mandate to be serviced through a national curriculum, textbook boards, examining boards and schools set up by the government. This national educational system grew with the expanding population but with successive governments, education constantly remained low on the list of government priorities.

As a result, the quality of education went down drastically in the government sector schools where four out of five school going Pakistani children receive an education.
A few decades ago these very same public schools imparted a fairly high standard of education and the intake included a wide range of students from every strata of society. A smattering of private schools mostly at the kindergarten level and the missionary schools gave competition to government schools. Today, the low income group and the population at large who cannot afford an education in elite schools opt for educating their children in government schools. However, the reputation of government schools has gone down so much that even illiterate parents in both rural and urban areas, consider the option of sending their child to a low income private school.

Over the years, Pakistan government’s attempts at system-wide reform of its public sector schools has lacked the basic ingredients of building external infrastructure for teacher training; books published in advance; incorporation of detailed teaching plans and external inspection to assess results of interventions taken. At meetings held to access civil society participation in upgrading government schools, statistics again and again focus on the ‘missing facilities’ such as bathrooms, clean drinking water, boundary walls, even enough classrooms to service the number of students.

If over so many years, basic facilities and maintenance of school buildings has not been undertaken, who can we blame but the governments that have governed Pakistan? It was the government’s foremost duty to tackle this task on a daily basis to ensure that its population remained literate. Without doubt, the vital factor underpinning human resource development today in Pakistan is the issue of education and its quality of teaching and learning.

This crisis in quality education in government schools has been a continuing phenomena so much so that as far back as 1998 in his book Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, Pervez Hoodbhoy had termed the government system a ‘failure’. This failure to provide quality education in the public sector coupled with other factors that plague developing countries (eg. corruption and mismanagement, lack of accountability, low priority given to education in government expenditure and political instability) has led to a mushrooming of unmonitored private schools that cater to the general public at large whose quality of learning is anybody’s guess.
Consequently, any attempt at school improvement and school effectiveness is a vast challenge at every level of schooling (curriculum, textbooks, examinations and teacher education) as well as at the highest level of policy making.

Reforms in Pakistan’s education system have lacked one vital ingredient — capacity building. Michael Fullan, the Canadian expert on educational change, clearly says, “There is no chance that large scale reform will happen, let alone stick, unless capacity building is a central component of the strategy for improvement.” Capacity building is not about setting up, for instance, Daanish Schools (and neglecting the 60,000 public schools in Punjab province that cater to the vast majority) or giving charters to colleges to become degree-awarding universities when new state of the art universities could add to the dearth of higher education quality.

According to Fullan, “capacity building involves developing the collective ability — dispositions, skills, knowledge, motivation and resources — to act together to bring about positive change.” The whole system and what is on ground — the one lakh, forty-five thousand government schools all over Pakistan, and the officials who are in charge of running them have to collective change by building capacity in facilities, teaching standards and quality in human resource rather than the laissez faire attitude that has been witnessed so far and has been at the bottom of the system slowly dying.

Furthermore, Fullan advises that “significant educational change consists of changes in beliefs, teaching styles, and materials, which can come about only through a process of personal development in a social context.” Students, parents, teachers, administrators, and each member of the local community must know the context of change and encourage its understanding in the wider community. Knowledge dissemination of reform measures must be shared among everyone involved in the educational process. Radio, television and print media are good ways to create awareness of issues concerning education in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s problem has been for “quick solutions to urgent problems”. Each successive government took measures for change within the context of a social, political or cultural need instead of a sound “informed” research base for educational reform. As Fullan advises “centrally-driven reforms can be a necessary first start (when performance is seriously unacceptable) but can never carry the day of sustainability.” As of now, each variable in Pakistan’s educational system needs to develop as a collective whole (a standardised curriculum; a clear language policy; international level transparent examination system; teaching methodology for critical thinking skills; and poverty alleviation) its process monitored and time given for the changes to take root. It urgently calls for a shared vision, collective work ethic, ownership of change and self help.

Yes, Prime Minister, the first task of the state is to overhaul the public school system which is the foundation stone for economic growth in our country.

The writer is an educational consultant based in Lahore.

ismatriaz70@gmail.com

Cheating in examinations, course work and assignments, what is called academic dishonesty, is common in many countries around the globe. Reasons for such behaviour may vary from one culture and context to another depending on educational system, nature of examinations and the purpose for which the examinations are taken.

In Pakistani educational culture, cheating is unfortunately rampant, especially in high stake examinations at SSC/HSSC levels. Just like the previous year, various instances of cheating during examination of different boards have been reported this year as well both in print and the electronic media including actual footage from different cities. There have been reported incidences that a whole mafia is working behind the cheating business. This year some persons with arms barged into an examination centre and threatened the administration and examiners and forcefully demanded that certain students be allowed to cheat to finish their papers. Answers to whole question paper, commonly known as pharras are imported into the examination halls under the very nose of the exam centre supervisors and invigilators who sometimes have been found to be party to this business.

The society in general and parents in particular seem to be the ones who contribute towards the erosion of values of honesty, integrity and sincerity, proudly valued in our society of the yesteryears.

Why do students resort to cheating is a question educationists, teachers, parents and policy makers need to ponder over. There could be several root causes social, cultural, psychological and educational. One of the main root causes is certainly related to approaches to teaching, learning and assessment adopted by educational institutions and boards of secondary education. What goes on in classrooms in most public and some so called private English medium schools in the country is well documented. More emphasis is placed on the completion of the course which the school administrations would like teachers to follow rigorously. Again, this is mostly based on covering the textbooks from cover to cover and dictation of notes with rote learning and regurgitation of facts. Teaching and learning thus get reduced to preparing students for examinations rather than what they actually can learn and do.

Educational research in Pakistan shows that most classes adopt frontal teaching with passive approaches to learning in which students are hardly engaged actively.
Teachers teach to test and students do the “busy work” of memorising everything that is taught. There is little emphasis on the students’ ability to think, understand and reflect upon their learning. When students are not able to make sense and meaning of what they learn, it is likely that they would adopt surface approaches to learning rather than deep ones that require higher order thinking and reflection. Students become rather victim of diploma disease, that is, to get the certificate by using any means rather than being educated and becoming learned persons.

The board examinations in our country generally demand bookish knowledge and hardly any understanding and application of it. Learning thus becomes isolated rather than integrated. Students have little option but to memorise. Those whose memories are sharp enough may do well in examinations and others who are either weak at memorisation or are not serious to do the preparation may resort to cheating as their careers depend on passing the examinations. This is not to deny a category of students, who really work hard and try to understand what they have learnt rather than rote learn and reproduce.

Educational research on learning suggests that if students are encouraged to learn with understanding and are able to apply their knowledge, it is likely that they would be able to retain their learning for a longer period. Emphasis on conceptual understanding and logical reasoning is important for developing critical thinking in students. But this would happen when an examination system values such learning. Unless the examination system becomes prudent and imaginative enough, it is unlikely that teaching and learning in the classrooms will change and the students will be able to articulate their understanding of content knowledge and to construct their responses rather than reproduce.

Two reports published in a leading local newspaper late last year about the results of candidates taking entry tests at NED and Dawood College of Engineering, Karachi showed that a large percentage of ‘A’ and A-1 graders of public examination boards in Sindh failed these basic admission tests which demanded logical reasoning and critical thinking. The two reports also evidently suggested that students from the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) and A-Levels performed at a rate much higher than their counterparts.

These two examination systems with their imaginative assessment patterns ask challenging questions that demand understanding and application of knowledge instead of rote learned chapters. Students appearing through these exam boards know well that they have to demonstrate their conceptual knowledge and understanding in the examinations. Although, no examination board in our socio-cultural context can claim 100 per cent cheating-free environment but it is worth mentioning that these two systems through their zero tolerance for cheating and malpractice have been able to minimise these instances to a great extent.

It is unfortunate that many other local boards around the country have taken little or no steps to control the ever increasing levels of cheating and malpractice at different tiers of an examination system resulting in apparently high grades. On the contrary, relatively less percentage as a result of much challenging and brain stimulating examinations is the true reflection of the actual ability of a student and holds far more weight than the rote learned chapters of bookish knowledge.

The writer is training and quality assurance manager at Aga Khan University Examination Board.

amin.rehmani@aku.edu

The majority chunk of the global populace treasure democracy, yet for many, it still remains an elusive dream. Democracy as representation of the collective will of people cannot simply be functional by merely pushing a button, rather it is a process which the people initiate by conscious decisions and sustain it by subscribing to its principles in theory and practice.

In its modern form, representing the alterations necessitated by the onset of technology and human wisdom, democracy has evolved in accordance with the exigencies of the day. Yet, it just bears striking resemblance to 300BC, when it was first conceived, in ancient Greece. While democracy is sustained through constitutional and bureaucratic means, it requires an auxiliary socio-cultural climate to flourish.

The society must be constitutive of participatory governance, political pluralism, gender equality and an inclusive education system. There exists a reinforcing relationship between democracy and education, as only a learned mind possesses the magnanimity and intellect needed to grasp concepts such as liberty, equality, justice, law, the rights and responsibilities of the state and its people.

Ahmed Salim, a Punjabi poet, writer and researcher explains that while it is true that there is a nexus between parliamentary government and learning, the democratic system in order to flourish needs a political and critical mass as the public sphere remains to be its social constituency. “In order to survive and thrive social equality needs politically-motivated and committed citizens who have their stake in its survival and efficient functioning are the ones who sustain the system. Democracy, by and large, is more successful in those societies where the masses are politically conscious and aware of their rights as well as of their duties,” adds Salim Sahib.

Education and literacy both have a pivotal and transcendental potential to solidify democracy. The relationship between knowledge and power is explicitly addressed by Michel Foucault who posits that knowledge produces a certain type of society. And through his rationale, an education system based on principles of reason and logical thinking is likely to be recurred within the society as well.

On the contrary, if an educational system promotes mediocrity, bigotry, rote learning, siege mentality and intolerance towards other religions and minorities, the results would be disastrous for the country and democratic institutions as the citizenry would be narrow-minded and fanatical, seeing the world through the cynical lens.

“Our educational system” as Arshed Bhatti, a development practitioner argues, “is actually anti-democratic and does not promote the democratic system. In my view, instead of impacting any class harmony, it reinforces class divisions and biases, because of the conflicting streams of education, i.e., private, public and madressah education.

“Democracy is all about the space and encouragement to ask questions and our education system curbs even the tendency to question. Pluralism, co-existence of divergent views and tolerance of the ‘other’ are hallmark of democracies and these don’t find much breathing space here.”

This view is concurred by Mrs Zubeida Mustafa, a seasoned journalist, when she affirms, “Education is the basic requirement for democratic transition but not the kind of education which we have in our country which perpetuates the already entrenched class system. Secondly, the other very important role of education is to develop the capacity to think on a collective level which, unfortunately is also lacking.”

If one now is to critically evaluate the recent elections, which have been hailed as a watershed in the country’s political history, as for the very first time a democratic government has been allowed to finish its full term. Additionally, the participation of urban middle classes wholeheartedly participated in the elections was also an unprecedented event.

These developments have indeed been greeted cordially by many among the country’s intellectuals. The rise of youth in politics and Pakistan becoming more globalised have been cited as two important causes for this change in Pakistani politics. The youth saw elections as a means to institute changes in their lives for the better, and this confidence in democracy testifies Pakistan’s yearning for representation within a democratic framework of the country.

Another notable development within the Pakistani politics is that they rejected sectarianism and militancy and none of such political parties were able to rise to prominence. This again is a testament to the fact that despite lacking the educational capacities, Pakistanis still wish to expel alien values of violence and intolerance.

As Dr Abid Suleri, executive director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute, explicates, “I think magnitude of energy and the economic crisis facing the people of Pakistan is so severe that it affected everyone across the board. Unprecedented CNG, natural gas and electricity loadshedding during the last five years made the urban upper middle-class realise, perhaps for the first time, that their capacity to pay [economic access] would not ensure uninterrupted supply of energy. For them it was easy to establish linkage of energy crisis to governance issues and that is one of the reasons they decided to poll their vote.”

There are, however, a few who still believe that education is irrelevant to the development of a civilisation. As a seasoned journalist cynically proclaims, it was emergence of a one charismatic leader who stirred the country’s polity, and our youth who are, by and large, apolitical. They naively hoped that a former cricket captain will resolve all national problems and lead them to victory.

Democracy and education are two virtues congruent with each other, and if our democratic system reserves strong value for reason and rationality, we can help in establishing a more humane and literate society, which can stand against feudalism, religious fanaticism, social inequality and poverty, terrorism and discrimination.

The writer is a member of staff.

monizainam@gmail.com

However, there is a thin line between guidance and ignorance, which is why there is a catch in every “FREE” service that you avail in any business today. The truth is that business is business and a cup of tea is a cup of tea. The laid-back and spoon-fed clients are usually the ones who find themselves cheated and robbed because they put their trust and fortune in the hands of certified, but not qualified professionals.

Studying overseas can be a blessing in disguise for anyone and everyone who is unaware about the challenges of living away from home. Foreign degrees, internationally acclaimed and accredited colleges and universities with work experience and exposure are some of the many reasons why students choose to go abroad. However, with the current state of our country where corruption and felony are spreading like the plague, students and parents often fall victim to the mass gimmick promoted by some educational consultancies.

Sadly, apart from a few, the wide majority operate for their own vested interest of minting money by any means necessary as they do not have any code of ethics. This gives them the opportunity to benefit from the free market and exploit gimmicks to make money off students and parents who could otherwise deal directly with the higher education institution abroad.

Consultants are self-employed professionals who provide solutions to problems in a particular area or specialised field. School counsellors, on the other hand, are employed by schools and are qualified and experienced advisors in education planning. In the case of Pakistan, educational consultants have actually redefined the role of academic counsellors and immigration consultants by performing similar job functions and more without legitimate qualification and experience. As a result, we have a growing number of educational consultancy firms with little to no quality of service and commitment to the noble field. Contrary to academic counsellors, who are practitioners bound by school policies and code of conduct, educational consultants are not bound by any particular statutory rules for practitioners or businesses because they are not directly governed by the Ministry of Education. Following are a few hard facts:

1. There are beyond 5,000 education consultancy firms currently operating in Pakistan with partner offices in UK, Australia, Canada, Malaysia and the United States that are registered under the same company banner.

2. From the large hoardings near Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi alone has over 2,500 education consultants (and still growing).

3. One-fifth of the graduating students are bound to get influenced due to peer pressure or foreign benefits and test the educational consultancy option at least once.

4. Ninety per cent of the people will prepare fake bank statements to show affordability for education at foreign universities (collateral/security/sponsor).

5. Ten pc of the people will end up being cheated or lose money either because of the cheque being made out to the individual or business and not to the academic institution, or because they fail to understand the gimmick behind on-spot admissions.

6. Under the new student visa rules implemented after April 21, 2011, qualifying IELTS is compulsory for any student to apply overseas for study and work permits. Yet, students will opt for the sub-standard language teaching provided at most consultancies to achieve a lower band score instead of studying from content experts or professionals.

7. Eighty-five pc of parents and students will try and avail the “free lunch” offered by marketing schemes such as IELTS free scholarship, 50pc consultation fees discount, free IELTS, laptops and tablets and more.

It is no surprise that with so much of deception in our society, people can easily lose their hard-earned fortune instantly. Ever wondered why there is a high number of such businesses including franchises? What makes them more reliable or qualified than bona fide and non-commercial school practitioners? How is it that when a student applies directly to foreign universities, the scholarships available are limited and different than what an education consultancy offers? What is the difference between a bank statement and loan letter for student visa? What are the forms of hidden charges and how are candidates hoaxed via free IELTS training, no consultation and processing fees, and so-called non-merit-based scholarships?

In a study conducted in 2010, about 85pc were unregistered consultants, of whom the majority was found engaging in ethically-dubious practices. Just like the saying, “There are no free lunches in the world”, one can be sure to pay a heavy cut. One such instance was of a lady who lost $25,000 because she was trying to study for IELTS and apply for a business visa to the UK to launch a tourism business with her husband but the consultant ran off with her money. Here are some guidelines to play smart and avoid scams:

l Always conduct a thorough background check on the educational consultant and the organisation including their affiliated institution. Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) letters that universities issue cannot be given to students directly by any consultant unless they or their firm are authorised and declared by the university as “Regional Representative” for that university. You may call or email the academic institution abroad to find out.

l Do not be fooled by large billboards with success rates because they typically range from Rs35,000 to 500,000 per month, which may or may not be sponsored by foreign agencies, but this amount is and can be recovered from only a couple of students who spend $500,000 or more.

l Remember, education consultants cannot deal with immigration because not only is a law degree required for this but they must also be legal practitioners and work with the bar association of the country. Legal practitioners and/or their consultancy and business name can easily be found on the country’s tourism website.

l No consultancy can guarantee visas and this is a common lie found in some firms. Be sure to make bank drafts/money orders in the name of the academic institution you are applying to or in the name of the consultant general who is issuing you a study or business visa.

l Large sums of money are charged in the form of offer letters alone. An “on-spot admission” only guarantees offer letters issued by agents and not the university. Some consultants may ask you to submit the letter to the embassy so that they can disappear, which is why their address and telephone numbers keep changing.

l Just like the saying, “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” involving too many agents is almost a guarantee that one would lose one’s fortune and so it is advisable to avoid middlemen.

With Sharea Faisal and especially the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area being flooded with consultancies, there is no denying the fact that the field of educational consulting has grown considerably in the past decade. Perhaps, it is the second most lucrative profession after politics, which is a beast all in itself. However, one needs to understand that there are no shortcuts in life.

Education is the life blood of any country and as such, students, parents, teachers and academic institutions need to be vigilant of malpractices and follow a proper channel to apply abroad for education or business.

The writer works as career counsellor and visiting faculty lecturer.

After the successful completion of an internship, the concerned authority of the organisation; where the internship was done, issues a certification as proof of your having assisted in the work there. The certification also tells what the student learnt throughout the internship by stating his or her major duties and responsibilities. This is the first stage which is easily completed by most students, but the second stage which is submission of a detailed report over the experience of internship really troubles most students.

Collecting the internship certification and producing it before your university board is not enough to achieve the desired marks. The documentation of your internship should comprise at least nine main segments including a brief description of the field, introduction of the organisation, structure of the organisation, goals of internship, internship plan, training programme, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the organisation, conclusion and recommendations.

The very first section of the report should carry a detailed and current overview of the sector (eg. agriculture, banking industry, engineering, medicine, media, or social/development sector, etc.) where the candidate intended to work. Subsequently, a description of the chosen organisation must also be added stating its brief history, nature and competitors in the market in the second section of the report. At the third stage, the structure of the picked organisation is shared, giving details of its head office, branches, departments, organisational hierarchy and the total number of employees. After mentioning the main objectives of the internship in the fourth section of the report, a plan of internship consisting of brief introduction of the branch and departments (where internship was done), working hours, starting date, nature of internship, must be described in the fifth part of the report.

Next to the internship plan, the training programme under which a detailed description of the operations or activities of the department an intern contributed to must be given. The major tasks or projects assigned to an intern must be added, too. Moreover, a SWOT analysis of the chosen organisation must be conducted by the intern. An intern should clearly describe whatever he or she observed as its strengths — the qualities which distinguish or provide an edge to it over another organisation. There should also be a mention of its weaknesses, opportunities provided and the threats that could damage the organisation’s overall performance. It is pertinent to mention here that strengths and weaknesses are connected to the internal issues of an organisation whereas opportunities and threats are linked to the external environment of an organisation.

A conclusion should be drawn after conducting the critical analysis on the current state and position of the organisation. This is where you should discuss the learning outcomes in terms of identifying whether the targeted objectives have been achieved or not. If the expected objectives were not achieved, the reasons behind it should also be highlighted in this section. Furthermore, the segment should also point out how your practical experience gained during the internship would benefit you when you enter your professional life.

Also recommendations should be made in terms of providing the solutions to all the problems or discrepancies that you observed during the internship. In this regard, however, suggestions can be proposed in any area which needs improvement, but specifically with respect to improving the treatment with interns and the pattern of internship followed by the organisation.

In addition, the report must include references and annexes. In references all the sources from where relevant information was accessed and utilised must be provided under the standardised format of reference styles; APA, MLA or Harvard, etc., whereas the annexes must have all the supportive material such as brochure, charts, questionnaires, reports, articles and other leaflets that helped you in the preparation of your internship report.

The writer is an academic research consultant and career counsellor.

Twenty million children are currently not enrolled in school, of which 58 per cent are female. — File Photo

A proper education that cultivates critical and independent thought is vital for the progress and development of all societies.

Escaping the tragic spire of abject poverty that afflicts the vast majority of the population in this country, raising standards of living, and enhancing the general quality of life first will require a drastic transformation in educational practices.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of children in Pakistan are not even attending school, and therefore do not have the opportunity to access any form of education in terms of literacy and numeracy. Though the government has constitutionally mandated free education, as stated by Article 25-A of the 18th Amendment in the Constitution, which reads, “The state shall provide free and compulsory educational to all children aged of five to 16 years..,” such promulgations are useless rhetorical charades until the state enacts a series of policies that directly target the specific reasons that prevent a child from attaining his or her constitutionally-mandated, non-negotiable right to a free education.

Twenty million children are currently not enrolled in school, of which 58 per cent are female. Government officials and policy-makers must first strive to understand how the particular dynamics of local contexts of students, especially in rural areas, prevent children from attending school. Poverty is undoubtedly one of the major obstacles in a child’s education. The inter linkages between poverty reduction and education development are innumerable, and therefore policy-making must address both issues simultaneously for improvement in either sector.

Firstly, one must bear in mind that poverty is not a singular concept, but a multi-faceted phenomenon that extends beyond having the financial resources to purchase goods and services. It is rather a general state of vulnerability to external pressures and shocks. Therefore, a reduction or loss of family income pressurises parents to employ their children in seasonal farming activities or other similar activities to supplement the depleted financial resources.

Furthermore, as many parents themselves lack a steady source of income, they are compelled to relocate accordingly to where work opportunities lead them. In the process, children are removed from their schools for extended periods of time, and abruptly re-enrolled without consideration of how such staggered school attendance drastically disturbs their child’s education.

Across the public education sector, student enrolment rates decrease rapidly with each successive year of schooling. For example, as observed in many rural areas of Sindh, though 100 students may enroll in nursery, only a handful will proceed onwards to class five within the same school. This absurdly high dropout rate over the span of only a few years is not strictly due to the absence of financial resources, given that public education is free, but is a result of how poverty makes families highly susceptible to external shocks. For example, a sudden spike in food or energy prices drastically reduces the level of disposable income, forcing young children into early employment in menial jobs rather than pursuing further education. Or an illness of one family member may require the children of a related family to take up new responsibilities and provide assistance, thus pressuring the child to abandon his or her education.

This occurrence is particularly common in the rural areas, where extended families are tightly-knitted and kinship ties are very strong; consequently the impact of an incident within one family extends beyond the immediate members. Furthermore, financial instability prevents families from strategically planning for the future, and thus understanding how depriving a child of education earlier on will further entrench the family in deeper poverty decades later.

The state of Pakistan’s economy and the dire levels of poverty, however, should not be considered insurmountable barriers to education. Small initiatives, adapted to each local context, can significantly ameliorate these conditions. For example, in some cases a simple soap bar each month has made miracles to increase the enrolment in schools while in another case a pouch of cooking oil a month attracted hundreds of girls to school. This indicates that a little economic assistance of the basic necessities of life relieves these families of their economic dependencies to some extent, and consequently enables parents to send the children to school.

To understand which particular small initiative would work optimally requires examining and understanding local contexts. Poverty is not uniform across Pakistan; its causes and effects vary from locality to locality. Therefore the obstacles to education faced by impoverished families in rural Sindh are different than in rural Balochistan.
Therefore stipends for girls’ education may be highly effective in increasing enrolment in certain areas, whereas elsewhere, providing assistance in transportation to and from school may alleviate the hardships of travel.

Lastly, eliminating school fees does not remove the financial barriers in education. Buying textbooks, copies, pens, pencils, uniforms and providing transportation are other costs that accrue in the process of a child’s education. Unable to make such payments for their children, either many parents remove their children from school or many children themselves choose to drop out to maintain their self-esteem around fellow students.

It is the state’s responsibility to cushion families against such vulnerability and to provide an economically and socially secure means for children to pursue an education. Without examining the local contexts and understanding the difficulties that families and children face in attending and completing school, such proclamations of “free and compulsory” education will remain an empty, flamboyant rhetoric without any potential for implementation.

The writer is a researcher at Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development.

anya.rumi@aku.edu

More recently, investment in teacher education institutions in the private sector has also increased as the demand for trained teachers has increased in both the public and private sectors. But there is very little knowledge about these institutions. This article hopes to shed some light on degree awarding institutions in the private sector based on a large inter-province study.

The teacher education institutions in the public sector are listed on the Government of Pakistan websites, however, such institutions in the private sector are very poorly documented. For this study from the more than 100 teacher education institutions identified in Karachi and Lahore in available directories a majority were in the public sector and offered Professional Teachers Course, Certificate of Teaching and short courses. Very few offered degree programmes in education. In the private sector, eight degree-awarding institutions in Karachi and Lahore out of a total of approximately 14 such institutions were identified and 65 teacher educators surveyed. The survey paints a complex multilayered picture of private institutions of teacher education and the teacher educators that teach in them.

There is the myth that teacher educators are not well-educated but the present study showed that this picture is in fact not correct. More than 78 per cent in Karachi and 96pc in Lahore possessed Master’s, MPhil or PhD degrees at the time of their appointment. An interesting difference between teacher educators in Karachi and in Lahore is that in the former 71pc possess BEd and MEd degrees at the time of their appointment; whereas in Lahore only 26pc of teacher educators in the private sector had some professional qualification. For both the cities, the bulk of teacher educators had experience of teaching in schools ranging from primary to secondary and higher secondary and in a large majority of the cases this experience was for 10 years or more. Also teacher educators in both the cities are almost evenly divided among males and females.

However, the factor that greatly influences the practice of teacher education is their age. More than 34 per cent of teacher educators are above 50 years of age. This is most likely due to the fact that teacher educators come to institutions of teacher education after they have spent a substantial number of years teaching in schools.

Teacher education institutions in the private sector can be easily further sub-divided into non-profit institutions and those institutions that are market-driven or in other words for-profit. The non-profit institutions in the study were supported by philanthropic organisations and funds from donor agencies. They generally have a vision of teacher education and were committed to offering quality education. Their programmes were seen to generally admit a smaller number of students and charged fees which were not exorbitant but more than those charged by government institutions. Whereas the institutions that are called “market-driven” not only because they are for-profit institutions but because they are nimble and agile and respond to market demands much faster than the not-for-profit institutions are generally small, corporate-like businesses where the purpose is to enroll a large number of students at a reasonable cost. The students to a large extent are present in the class because they want a degree that provides them a license to practice their craft as a teacher and not necessarily to learn how to become better teachers.

These private schools are exploitative and commercial in their approach to education. At the same time they are almost postmodern in their business ethos and fill a very real need of a burgeoning middle class in the urban areas of Pakistan.

Some for-profit and not-for-profit institutions offer their coursework during the weekend to accommodate teachers who are already teaching in private schools. They start teaching on Friday afternoon, continue with classes on Saturday afternoon and the whole of Sunday is utilised to offer several courses. Hence, most of the teachers who cannot afford to take time off from their jobs for full-time study prefer to enroll in these institutions rather than government institutions which generally do not offer part-time study programmes.

It was observed that in for-profit institutions even if the programme was a full-time regular programme, attendance of student teachers was very poor during the weekdays. From the conversations and observations it was clear that despite requirements of full-time enrolment, teachers continued to work in schools and attended the institution only on weekends. When we started looking at the quality of instruction in these institutions based on generally used standards such as (a) qualification of faculty, (b) infrastructure for teaching learning such as library facilities, (c) computer laboratories, classroom facilities etc., (d) the building and (e) the environment, (f) the teacher student interaction in the class etc. — in every criteria except the first one that is qualification of teacher educators the market-driven institutions did very poorly. Yet the faculty had higher and better academic qualifications.

Private institutions for teacher education are greatly needed to fulfill the insatiable demand for professional development. It is also hoped that as these institutions become more established they might, like private schools at the K-12 level, start to plough some of their profits into better programmes and better facilities for their student teachers.

The writer is a professor at the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development.

Fourteen school children and a teacher perished after their van caught fire last week in the peri-urban area of Gujrat while on the way to school. News reports inform us that a fire in the electric wires in the van, presence of petrol in a bottle inside the vehicle and inappropriate change over from Compressed Natural Gas to petrol by the driver could have been the causes of the tragedy.

The trauma of the bereaved families notwithstanding, the episode demands a thorough probe from every related angle while engaging all the concerned stakeholders to fix the responsibility and extending punishment to all found guilty of this criminal misconduct. There are many important issues that emanate from this tragedy and are valid for other cities in Pakistan also.

There is a mismatch between the rising urban population and available options of quality education in various cities across the country. In most parts of the country, the government or municipality-run schools are suffering from acute problems of management crises of one sort or the other. It compels the parents to opt for private schools which have organically sprung up in every nook and corner of our cities. Since these schools have to function on a self-finance basis without any direct or indirect support from the state, they become deficient on many counts.

Operation from under-spaced residential or non-purpose built accommodation is the foremost problem. Many houses in the low, middle and upper income neighbourhoods in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Peshawar, Quetta and other large and small cities have been transformed through the self-initiatives of school entrepreneurs. The key driving criteria is the possibility to attract enough school children that could keep the school financially viable. The managements of such schools spend less and wish to earn more.

Many safety procedures are conveniently compromised. The location of the underground tank and its opening lid is often found accessible to children who out of common mischief can open it and run into the hazard of drowning. Installation of the electricity distribution board, motors for pumping and sucking water and other power installations are normally exposed without safety barriers. Schools in semi-urban areas are also run in very shabby accommodation — incidences of walls or roofs caving in are tragic frequent mentions in interior Sindh, rural Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Outside the schools, in busy locations, the menace of rowdy traffic poses an alarming threat to school children. Even in the schools located on Sharea Faisal in Karachi — rated by some as a VIP corridor — the problem of pedestrian movement and crossing is intense especially during the morning and afternoon.

School transport is a sad reminder of the neglect the governments have extended towards the education sector. It is disappointing to note that scores of donor-funded programmes have been executed in different regions that focused on different dimensions of education, but none paid any heed to issues pertinent to the commuting of students.

It is a common observation that parents make the rational choice of enrolling their offspring in a quality school which is within their means. Often such schools are located far away from their residences. The normal methods of transport are a school van, shared taxi, auto rickshaw or other forms of para transit. In the absence of state intervention, the informal private sector has taken over this service almost on a nationwide basis. The informal operators extend this service at a price affordable to their clientele — the quality and safety is conveniently compromised.

There are several ways to deal with this situation. The objective reality is that in the absence of purpose-built and conveniently-located school campuses, the dependence on school transport remains intact. The informal sector shall provide this service, given the undesirable cost of more expensive formal transport options or state subsidies — which are impossible to consider given the grave financial situation of the country. The government agencies such as regional transport authorities, provincial government departments and nationalised commercial banks will have to take lead.

Assistance to informal operators can be undertaken through multiple formats. A seven-step strategy is hereby proposed for the consideration and review of all the stakeholders. The core approach in this proposal is inclusive in nature. It builds on the fact that the existing coterie of service providers — school transport operators — are willing to be assisted and reformed, provided the profitability of their enterprises is kept intact. Issues of financing replacement or upgradation of the bus or van fleets, training and capacity building of drivers and other staff interface with the government to eventually become registered formal enterprises and the access to expanded opportunities of operation are some incentives that can help materialise this or any similar strategy.

As Gujrat has been the immediate victim of this avoidable inferno, the incoming Punjab Government will do well to consider reforming the school transport sub-sector. It can become an  example worth emulating by other provincial governments.

The writer is professor and chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University, Karachi.

Due to this it has failed to capitalise on its nearly universal education ratio while Japan is the third largest economy and the most prosperous and developed country in the world. A student who gets 15 years of education in Japan is more productive than one in a developing country.

Pakistan stresses achieving universal primary education literacy by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) set by the United Nations but that also seems to be impossible because of the government’s apathy towards the education sector. According to the State of Pakistan’s Children report of 2011, 25 million children in the country are still out of schools and the total literacy ratio is about 57pc (69.3pc male and 45pc female).

Mr Asghar Soomro of Social Policy and Development Centre says, “To get better results there should be a provision of quality education combined with skills training for all children. Schools and teachers at present lack the capacity to improve student learning. The goal should be to enhance teacher training and improve educational institutions. It will result in the empowerment of people and economic growth.”

Unesco calls for changing the traditional way of imparting education and linking it with social justice values like basic human needs, inter-generational equity, human rights and democracy.

“All persons and communities should be empowered to exercise responsibility for their own lives and for life on Earth. Thus, they must have full access to education, political enfranchisement and sustaining livelihoods; and they should be able to participate effectively in the decisions that most affects them,” says the world body.

The plan is to explore ways of providing a favourable environment to all children and the education they get should help them earn incomes and make contributions towards the betterment of their families, society and the country.

“With improved educational institutions, the society at large will witness a social cohesion, the first step towards achieving an economically-productive population,” says Mr Soomro.

Unesco’s Early Childhood Care and Education programmes could be a comprehensive guide for member countries. Children need special care about their “health, nutrition, security and learning from birth to eight years of age but poverty denies 25pc children these facilities and their parents are compelled to send them to work.

Pakistan, under the MDGs, pledges to enroll 100 per cent children by 2015. The main problem is to get children enrolled into schools. There are different figures. The government claims it enrolled 40pc children till 2012, “But ground realities such as child labour, militancy, number of children in juvenile prisons show a lack of qualitative education,” says Mr Abdullah Langah, provincial manager of the Child Rights and Civil Society Strengthening Programme of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child.

Reading and writing alone is not enough. Education combined with skills training is critical to reducing poverty and inequality because it improves incomes and increases economic growth. More than that education promotes gender equity, empowers women, reduces child mortality, improves maternal health and combats threatening diseases.

Unesco believes, “Each additional year of schooling raises the average annual gross domestic product growth by 0.37pc.”

Mr Langah says the main cause of this country’s underdevelopment is a lack of sufficiently effective education system. “Merely achieving 100pc education literacy is not the big thing but providing substantive education is necessary to achieve the goal of development,” he says.

Pakistan’s education system is marred by multi-pronged complications with abject poverty as the main reason for its failure. There is a need for supporting the children’s parents living in poverty. Parents should be made aware of the benefits of education by their children. “This means the government will have to look into the reasons why children are involved in laborious jobs at an age when they should be at school,” says Mr Langah.

There could be various action plans by Unesco and the Unicef to improve children’s welfare and health but what’s gaining importance across the world is about linking education to values like interdependence and biodiversity.

“People are a part of the natural systems. They depend utterly on them. Thus, natural systems should be respected at all times. This means to approach nature with humility, care and compassion; to be frugal and efficient in resource use; to be guided by the best available knowledge, both traditional and scientific; and to help shape and support public policies that promote sustainability,” says Unesco.

Often there is talk about the lack of budget and corruption in allocated funds. But much more can be done without funds. There are certain steps which require zero budget like setting up of debating, literary and art societies in schools.

The government only attaches importance to education but no country can make progress without a knowledge stream. Education is the knowledge of putting one’s potential to maximum use.

Schools, especially those in the public sector, stress pedagogic principles while ignoring the didactic approach for the optimum use of the prodigy students’ potential.

The capacity enhancing of teachers needs a lot of budget but setting up of debating clubs and science societies requires no budget.

Encouraging the young generation towards co curricular and sport activities will keep them away from all types of evils.
Promoting such activities will provide a healthy atmosphere while maintaining a clean society. Such activities will help reduce crime and maintain children’s focus on learning. Developing a system of education combined with values and training could address the needs of the country.

In any case, the education model of developed nations like that of Japan is not recommended because of a lack of sustainability. The USA, China and Japan, the world’s largest economies, respectively, have achieved industrial growth but at the cost of ailing the entire world. Their prosperity has proved hazardous for other nations. Therefore, the underlying need is for linking education with a sustainable future.

The writer is a member of staff.

Each class has a mix of students. While some are sharp, others take time to understand. Therefore, students in the same class can be on different levels of the course.

There is no person alive who cannot make a new beginning — L. Ron Hubbard

This statement could not be more applicable to a class of prison inmates attending Criminon rehabilitation programme at the Karachi Central Jail. Prisoners young and old, some hardened by tough years of the jail others still in hope to live a life of freedom, all have one thing in common — they do not want to return to the prison and to the life of crimes they never knew why they got into.

Running successfully in the Karachi Central Jail since 2007, the Criminon programme is organised under the Society for the Advancement of Health, Education and Environment (SAHEE) an NGO run by Saleem Aziz Khan and Azhar Jamil, that has benefited more than 500 prison inmates in the past six years.

Assembled in neat rows of six desks, with four students each, SAHEE runs two classes in Karachi Central Jail and enrolls 100 students every year. Each ‘student’ goes through an extensive four-step course under supervision of his instructor. One instructor is assigned for a group of seven to eight students in each class. Currently, eight trained instructors guide their students and help them understand. Serving their term in prison, these instructors are from senior batches of Criminon and undergo a rigorous multi-level training course by SAHEE.

What inspired Saleem Aziz Khan, a retired military officer, to start the Criminon programme?

“I came to know about an Asia-Pacific Corrections Conference being held in Australia a few years back. I was unclear about the word “corrections”, and was told that it had to do with prisons.”

Saleem Aziz was intrigued. Having moved from Islamabad quite recently, and seeing the deteriorating security situation in Karachi, he wanted to work for jail reforms and the Criminon programme was an opportunity that he availed.

“I met Prison Department officials, who were quite open to the concept of starting this programme — there being no real correctional activity going on at that time. I applied for a permission from Criminon to initiate it in Karachi Central Jail. The then Superintendent of KCJ, Mr Nusrat Mangan, arranged a meeting with 50 literate prisoners who were our first willing batch of students.”

Interestingly, prison records tell only one prisoner returned out of 500 prisoners who participated in the Criminon programme in the past five years. And this is what keeps SAHEE motivated.

“Just sending a person to prison without correcting him is not a logical action.

The only need assessment done by us was that there was no real correctional activity in jails across Pakistan. Prisons in Pakistan lack proper corrections system which can help a prisoner get back into mainstream society; instead they get influenced by hardened criminals. This, and harsh prison conditions, makes many prisoners commit themselves fully to a life of crime. Ours was a small step in that direction and it has paid off well.”

AG* has been associated with Criminon since 2008. One of the successful pass outs from the first batches of the programme, he became an instructor after his death penalty turned into life sentence. He explains, “Each class has a mix of students. While some are sharp, others take time to understand. Therefore, students in the same class can be on different levels of the course. Our task is to guide them and ensure they understand what they are reading.” What has motivated this science graduate all these years to continue instructing his fellow prisoners and see them move on, he tells, “All these years, I have seen a lot of prisoners who were imprisoned for crimes that were avoidable. Every person had his reasons to committing wrong, but in reality those were petty issues which could have been avoided if they knew how to channel their energies towards positive things in life. Not all prisoners are criminals; most times it is a slight slip that brings them to jail. Watching my fellow prisoners breaking free from the shackles of anger and confusion is a liberating feeling.”

In its attempt to promote Criminon programme in other prisons of the country, SAHEE is currently training a few inmates from Hyderabad, Larkana and Sukkur jails. Once trained, these instructors will go back to their city jails and train their fellow prisoners.

Saleem hopes this pilot can expand and be replicated throughout prisons of Pakistan. “Karachi jail authorities have been very helpful in initiating this step. I hope we can get more funds to expand this programme in other prisons to address the critical need of rehabilitation of thousands of prisoners languishing for years.”

SAHEE is also in the process of training prison staff and plans to broaden these trainings for police officials as well.

The Criminon programme also runs a literacy class for prisoners who do not know to read or write. These classes are conducted in Urdu and Sindhi and have been of great advantage to Criminon. Enthusiastic and eager to learn, a majority of students from literacy class enroll themselves for the Criminon programme thereafter. “After passing my Urdu literacy class a few months back, I was happy to read and write basic Urdu. When I entered Criminon, it was an enriching experience to be able to read and understand what the course books said. It was a life changing experience. Had it not been for my training to understand what I was reading, I would have not been the person I am today,” beamed MR, who is currently training to become an instructor.

During a casual conversation during the visit, this scribe asked inmates if Criminon had affected them in anyways and how was the experience so far. Many of them were candid about their experience. SA from Hyderabad jail is currently undergoing the final step of the programme. He believes Criminon has taught him to be patient with himself and with people around him. “First thing that I am doing after completing my imprisonment is to teach my wife what I have learned at Criminon and then educate my daughter so that she can raise a better generation,” SA confided.

For 25-year old TM, Criminon has brought a change in the way he used to see the world. “Criminon has taught me how I was unable to face a problem and always sought easy ways to get out of it. During step II of the programme, I learned how to sift through my problems and learn to solve them instead of shying away from them. I find pleasure in reading now and it is the most interesting and long-lasting habit that I want to take home.”

“What Criminon teaches us is not rocket science. It is basic common sense and moral values that unfortunately our education system does not address. In schools, all we focus on is rote learning. Our education system fails to teach ethics and basic principles of life like honesty, kindness and tolerance for each other. Seldom does it help us differentiate between good and bad,” explained 35-year-old LH.

Senior instructor AR believes educating a mother is equivalent to educating a nation. “Had our mothers been educated, they would have been able to raise us in a more stable and nurturing environment. Governments in Pakistan have not done much to promote female education. We have thousands of ghost schools all over the country.
The situation is bleak in rural areas. There is a need for greater reforms to make Pakistan a country where every child has access to quality and free education.”

Prison authorities have been a great support for the smooth running of the Criminon programme all these years. Present Senior Superintendant Kazi Nazir Ahmed endorses the efforts of SAHEE and stresses for implementing such rehabilitation programmes all over Pakistan. “Besides the Criminon programme, Karachi Central Jail is running a few recreational classes like the arts and painting class, music and computer classes. However, with a prison population in Karachi Central Jail at 4460 it becomes imperative that we address the mental well being of the inmates. What is needed is an expansion of rehabilitation programmes like Criminon. Such programmes can expand only with proper funding and material resources. We are happy to provide space and logistics, but there is a larger need to fill in the funding gaps.”In the past six years, expenses of the Criminon programme have mostly been incurred by friends and family with the exception of a 15-month funding by UNODC in 2009. In contrast to an average 8-10K for each student in Karachi Central Jail, the cost of the programme goes to a considerable high for training prisoners outside Karachi. SAHEE envisions implementing the same programme for women and juveniles. “The greatest challenge that we face is lack of funding sources. With constant monetary support, we would be able to expand and replicate Criminon to many jails outside Karachi,” Saleem added.

In a society where our value system is fast eroding, it is high time we work towards inculcating peace, tolerance and civic responsibilities. If our large population in jails remains neglected, prisons will become nothing but criminal colleges. We must all work towards making prisons correctional facilities.

*Using initials for names to protect identity.

Huma Iqbal writes on socio-economic issues and is currently working in the social development sector.

h.iqbal09@gmail.com