Education Policy - Your Input Requested
Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister of Education has requested everyone to provide feedback and suggestions on Draft Education Policy. He would appreciate if you can come with your suggestions and ideas on how this policy can be improved.
Download Draft Education Policy Here
PDF Version Here
Please leave your suggestions in the comments below.
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@admin
How will the suggestions reach the Federal minister..? I dont see any contact info in the attached document?
Secondly, can someone summarise the suggestions of members, given in a thread initiated on this topic few weeks back..
Wassalam
He will read your comments here.
Admin
Super…that’s what we needed.
I just glimpsed at this report. Will definitely read later..and comment
However the start was disappointing..
It says on pg.3
” Taking stock of the current situation is an indispensable part of any policy
development exercise as a mean of identifying areas of policy intervention. ”
and then ironically
” Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for early childhood education (ECE) rose quite
remarkably from 36% of all children aged 3-4 years in 2001-02 to 91% in 2005-06.”
Every 9 out of 10 3-4 yr olds get ECE…. NO!
These are absolute bogus numbers. We can’t expect good policy if we start with the fudge ’stock’. Garbage IN ..Garbage OUT
My 2 cents on the issue:
The Policy must also improve standard of Islamic Education departed in all public as well as private schools (Primary and Secondary). As we know that Islam is a Complete and the Most Correct CODE OF LIFE - By introducing extensive Islamic Teaching in schools - we can create a Nation of people who are Ethically / Morally / Socially / and in all fields of life better then us. Most importantly they will become better HUMAN BEINGS. A very fantastic sample school has been setup in India as International Islamic School (ref: http://www.irf.net/irf/dtp/allindia.htm). They have proved the claim that introducing Extensive Islamic Education along with latest Education of Science / Technology / English and Cocurricular Activities can work and produce Best results. This will also lead our people to link our Islamic knowledge with the latest discoveries in Science in Technology like creation of world with Big Bang is mentioned in the Holy Quran. Finally I believe that Extension in Islamic Education along with Science/English/Maths/Technology can lead the muslims back to the times of Al-Beruni when World used to look for Science and Technology towards Muslims.
This suggestion has a second counterpart also - which is widely debated and mentioned by many - that Madrassa System should be expanded to include Science/Tech education. Offcourse that should be done - But as many talk about it I am not going into details of that.
Finally:
“History proves that The WEST is advancing in Science because they are going away from Religion, and Muslims are lacking in Science because we are also going away from our Religion”
Suleiman Ali Khan
University of Edinburgh (UK)
1. As Imran Khan has said that there should be a uniform curriculum throughout Pakistan and distinctionb between Urdu medium and English medicum should be finished.
2. English should be compulsory from Class 1.
3. Science subjects should be in english while other subjects can be studied either in urdu or english
4. The subject of Islamiat and Urdu should be combined and urdu textbooks can have two portions - Islamiat and Urdu. Islamiat should also contain Islamic history topics.
5. Pakistan studies should written afresh with an independent commission of intellectuals and journalists who are of impeccalbe character and it should date from 14 Aug 1947 to 2008. This is teh most important subject and should be taught very seriously. One should try best not to let any prejudice come in and should be based on facts which can be substantiated by the references.
6. From class 8 rather than 9 the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Computer Science should be taught and in English.
7. Matric, FSC BA and MA and also professional examinations should be conducted by independent bodies who should conduct examination twice a year and should have nothing to do with the what is going in colleges or schools so that postponement of examination is done away forever. For example medical examinations is conducted in USA by independent body called United States Medical Liciencing Examinations body and it has preset dates of examination for upto three years. Now its upto the indivicual when he chooses to sit in that examination whenever he or she is ready.
8. The distinction between annual and supplementary examination should be abolished and it should just be mentioned as Spring and Autumn Examination.
9. The total scores of the examination should not be mentioned on final degree but only on result card.
10 Education should be totally free uptil FSC
11. The matric and FSC science subject papers should be set similar to level of O levels. In fact an agreement can be made by O level boards in UK to facilitate examination of O levels for every student in Pakistan and goverment should fund the fees.
Science cannot happen without scientific attitudes in society.. You can’t do science unless you think scientifically. And it’s not like the scientific method is rocket science, it is a collection of simple rules of acquisition of knowledge.. but that is usurped by a worldview which is already closed to any new thinking and which looks backwards instead of forwards and which negates the spirit of the scientific method by claims like “All knowledge is in the Quran”.. etc…
Our navel gazing and guilt-tripping post-mongols is the main problem (not to mention Mr. Ghazali and what’s the other dude? Taimiya?)
I see nothing mentioned about taxes on paper & no subsidy for printing education books. No subsidy for presses. Nothing says about the core medium of reading & writing i.e. paper? It comes to around 35% tax on paper how people can afford such an expensive study material.
Dear honourable education minister.
I believe that health and education are the most neglected issue of common Pakistani, they have been ignored previously and unfortunately people sitting in Islamabad never understood their importance.
My suggestions are as follows.
1. Please make a uniform education system for every Pakistani; there are tens of different education systems running simultaneously in Pakistan. There is a very clear class system in education system. The courses and the book even the format of education is different for different classes and in different province. It will never help us as a nation. We need to have similar education for every single Pakistani child regardless of his background.
2. Please actively discourage commercialization of the education. Providing education is always the responsibility of a state. There is no point in getting private sector in it. Private sector always works for money and they don’t really care about the standards. In Pakistan the person who doesn’t really know what do to in life suddenly opens a school in his house and starts making money. How can we expect from the schools in houses to produce great minds.
3. The educational standards at the higher education sector should be raised, the previous government had a very strong promise that they will raise the standards but if you compare the standards of Pakistani universities with international universities or even Indian universities, you will understand how far behind we are.
4. At higher education number of universities does not matter it’s the standards that really matter. Usually a government responds back and say we opened 20 more universities but they don’t realise that they have wasted the recourses by doing so. We don’t need thousands of ordinary graduate or PhDs; we just need few hundred excellent ones.
5. Please ensure merit and equal opportunity in education system. I am sure the pervious governments neither understood their meaning nor their importance.
6. One of the most important areas in our education system is the teaching and training of the teachers themselves. How can a young BSC or MSC be made a teacher without assessing his or her abilities as a teacher. Only properly trained teacher can produce good education to the pupils. In our country even the FSC pass are teaching in private schools.
7. Politics and political parties have no place in universities. Help stop the terrorism that has been going on in universities in the name of politics.
Pakistan’s most valuable asset is his young hard working sons and daughters. Their future is in your hand Mr. Minister. Please make good use of this asset and we can shine as a nation, if we wasted this asset we will be labelled as failed nation and wiped out of the globe.
thanks, May Allah help you
basic things need to be improved 1st.
1.well equiped labortaries
2.libraries in schools
3.better selaries for teachers
4.free education for everyone in everypart of pakistan
but a large number of poor students dont go to schools because they know that they havnt got enough money to bribe officers fot job. if jobs r given on merit,those students will automatically go to schools.
Yaar, this looks like a document from 2005… kisi kaam-chor secretary nay us doc par 2008 kaa Thappa lagaa kar vazeer sahab ko pakRaa di’yaa kiyaa?
I would suggest that the honorable minister should start by firing all these toady bureaucrats and hiring some competent afsaran. This document is full of generalities.. (unless it’s the wrong/older document????)
@admin
cant unzip document. havent got software.
@c hussain
Ad 3 and 6: Every subject should be in urdu. Where will you find qualified English teachers, who can teach science in English? They cannot even teach ordinary English:-(
Look at the quantity of qualified teachers needed for this task! I don’t think Pakistan has that many teachers with the required qualifications. In my opinion we should opt for transalation of science book into Urdu language. Maybe English could be an option on University level.
/Saqib
Londonistan: Good observation.
My tack has always been to “decentralize” primary education, and then work on translation houses (on revolutionary/War footing) which should translate Islamic Classics and other Wrold classics in Urdu.
Then these classics should be published on News paper stock in the Newspaper “Special Edition” formats. So you should have a whole book printed on Newspaper stock…
They would be cheap and feed the reading appetite of the people armed with the basic literacy skills (reading writing learned from the barebones primary systems).. I think we will get well rounded and more logical thinking citizens out of this deal..
IMO, great literature is the best of teachers. (I don’t mean it to be the ONLY teacher.. but this should be the Least Common Denominator in our education system).
Few points that are really critical:
1) Two or three modes of education English, Urdu and O-Level should be modified into one unified mode so when students reach higher institues (Medical/Engineering colleges) they are all prepared equally to face the new courses and no one should be at a disadvantage. This should be put into place right from Class-1.
2) They syllabus of all areas should be uniform and should be approved by the federal government. The provincial governments should be allowed to modify the local language syllabus at their will and should conduct the actual publishing, distribution of the books. The nature of the syllabus should be uniform across the board through out the country
3) It is very important that the nature of Islamic educaion imparted is improved. More Arabic studies should be incorporated along with teaching the students the basic tenants according to Quran and Sunnah (Tauheed, Daily prayers, Wudu, zakat and Hajj) (Obviously for the sunni students, for the shia brothers a similar format should be worked out without discrimination of any kind). It is imperitive that we don’t produce Phd Doctors who are oblivious to basic Islamic teachings or go upon interpreting the laws of Sharia based on their own knowledge of Nuclear Physics or Microbiology. That should be left to the experts of the area. So a uniform indepth Islamic knowledge is a must
4)Coming back to Madrassahs. As Madrassah are also a way to provide food, shelter and education to the poorest of the poor in the country so the government should fully support them after registering them through a mutually agreed upon Ministry. In no way the foreign dictates should decide how we deed with this issue. Madrassah’s have been around since the advent of Islam so we need to improve them, encourage them to come to main stream and shun extremisim in a methodological and a true Islamic way. Point 3 above underscores why basic and true Islamic education is necessary across the board to have better understanding of the religion so no discrimination can be done against Madrassah students once they graduate and come to the job market.
Will add more points later on.
I appreciate Mr. Ahsan Iqbal’s effort on the issue. I would suggest that he makes a research team team of qualified people who are willing to travel to different parts of the world to look at proven and efficient education system. In this regard I would suggest the Scandinavian countries, who are known for spending a lot of effort in constant development in the education sector. Please also look at the PISA-TEST site for further information and inspiration on which countries to visit.
http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_32252351_32235907_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
/Saqib
@TK
if something positive going on then why to distract from the subject?
what do u say abt the claim ” Quran is for those who can think”
more than scientists our country needs engineers, technicians, medical doctors, para med staff, economists, entrepreneur etc.
We must concentrate on technical education and at the same time growth of industry, young entrepreneurs must be encouraged.
It is stupid to dream a nation of geniuses.
NATION BUILDING:
adequate steps must be taken towards the building of the nation.
if any thing that could make us a nation it is ISLAM, extensive islamic education must be taught, mu’amlat be emphasized rather than ibadat.
Culture:
we must teach our culture to our new generation, nowadays gali galooch(calling names) have become a part of our culture we should teach our children how bad it is . If we would had Islamic education such thing would never been the part of our culture
Visitors,
I’m lost here. I didn’t look at the draft but here is something I wanted to share.
Q. Why do we need EDUCATION?
A. To know Right & Wrong. Research how right can be implemented and Wrong can be eliminated for making the place/country best place to live.
Q. Who needs EDUCATION.
A. Every citizen regardless of any distinction. No discrimination of any kind. That means, every child to every adult.
Q. Where do we provide this EDUCATION?
A. Everywhere. Not limited to schools/colleges/universities. Use all means, paper and electronic.Use all forums like any public gatherings in fields, hujrahs. EDUCATE via FM Radio/TV so that everybody can learn wherever they are and whatever they are doing. Allama Iqbal Open university has this experience.
Q. What would be the syllabus.
A. The outcome of an Education system MUST be people who have good understanding of right/wrong and how to better earn living and live peacefully. Educate everyone about all the major religions too. We want EDUCATED people not hardliners. Put Democracy basics in the syllabus. English must be taught. Urdu is enough for Urdu itself. Arabic is fine for learning Quran but DON’T BURDEN. Use ways to bring the creativity and innovation in the audience. So I guess, the syllabus should not be limited to Text books. I would rather suggest to reduce the use of text books and use Video lessons for Geoghraphy, Literature, science, law. Famous saying like a picture is worth thousand words. Make EDUCATION a pleasant, cost effective and targetted pleasurable activity than a boring 6 hours a day job. Don’t waste the time like that. Teah practical things. Polish their personalities not just mathematics. Include the education of the basic Constituition/law. Rights and responsibilities. Respect of others no matter what they opinion. Teachings of tolerance and convincing with facts and reasons not by force.
Q. How to measure the Education?
A. Create a central body to conduct a single examination for certain levels based on somebody’s age.
Q. What if somebody is a real gem?
A. Consider some sort of specialized exams and open for everyone. If somebody thinks he has more to offer, come and prove it. Specially qualified people should be trained in their specifics through further Gov’t support.
People say, EDUCATION can bring REVOLUTION.
Yes, but for revolution, you don’t need school buildings. You can use all modern means. We are in 21st century and should think of using the latest technology for Education than referring to old conventional means. Don’t waste precious time of the nation. Make them socially responsible and mentally mature. Don’t just produce FA/BA/MA people. Produce good citizens. Polish leadership qualities across the board.
@Suleiman
Great suggestion BrozzR.
I second your suggestion and I will up you one further. We need to introduce Tajweed and Hifz as seperate sections. Have you ever noticed how the Molvis have completely unorthodox pronunciation of Arabic. If we have poor pronunciation of Arabic, how can we follow Islam in its pristine character? Also, Hifz must be compulsory as it will also aid students in memorizing their other subjects, for example Science and Maths. Don’t listen to those who dilly dally and say that we should UNDERSTAND things first. NO!! We must make our children LEARN these subjects first. They need to HIFZ biology and physics etc before they can understand it.
Bravo !! That’s the spirit. Everyone who has read Maurice Beacaille knows that. You should read his book “La Bible, le Koran et la Science”. Don’t listen to those evildoers who say the book proves nothing. It already gave proof of things Science is only now discovering. And many things WILL BE PROVEN soon if we follow Islamic Science and Technology.
Unfortunately our secular, godless, munafiq governments have been suppressing Good Muslims (TM) for quite some time. Have you heard about Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood? This great Muslim scientist invented the SBM probe in nuclear technology. He was on the brink of a great Islamic technical breakthrough when Abdus Salam through his Qadiani organization made a big SAAZISH and had him fired from his job. SBM was working on how to harness energy from Jinns as they are made from Fire (Naar Min Naar)…Imagine, WAPDA working with Jinns…(seems like they already do that)
Science and Mathematics should be taught in Arabic or Urdu. Preferably in Arabic because a lot of Pakistani engineers and scientists end up working in the Gulf anyway. Why not give them a leg up? Also, we should start these subjects with details of how the great Muslims in 7th and 8th century invented these subjects. No proof? No problem. Invent the inventers.
English should be eliminated as we have seen how that has ruined our country with a confused sense of purpose and lack of direction. We need to teach our children in Urdu and Arabic.
Pushto, Sindhi, Balochi and other subversive languages like Punjabi and Seraiki should be suppressed. If the Bengalis spoke Urdu, they would have still been with us. If the Baloch spoke Urdu, they won’t by dying now, would they?
You say Madrassas should be expanded? I say NO WAY !!!….All existing schools should be made to conform with Madrassas. We have all seen those dirty, dirty (gandi gandi) Youtube videos shot by besharam students from elite schools. We need new uniforms legislated by the Majlis Shoora. Black Abaya or Sky Blue shuttle Cork burqa should be the uniform for girls to help them with their modesty.
Boys should be clad in shalwar qameez or Arabic thobe. I like Arabic thobe as it is Sunna. A Beard Protection Bill needs to be passed where the relative length of Beard needs to be legislated. If we compare the height of the Beardholder (let’s say ‘Alif’ feet) with the length of the beard (let’s say ‘bay’ feet), the ideal ratio should be:
alif/bay = 12 (eg. alif=6 ft, bay = 0.5 ft)
Also, why have foreign and UNISLAMIC units? Let’s work with Dinaars, Dirhams, Gaz, Kaus, Farlang etc…I say do away with filthy Western concepts like feet, meters and the especially hatefull, internet. Let’s call it DarmianJaal…Or even better yet, Bain -ul-Networkiya….I would pray 37 Nafl the day I will send my al-Bureed-ul-alaktroni (email) on the DarmianJaal and send you 5 Hadiths daily, if you want that or not.
Namaaz ki topi should be compulsory at all times to remind the students that they are Muslims and should not look at or think of girls. OK to think about boys, and love your Molvi Ustaad….
@TK
“All Knowledge is not in the Quran…” TK
But the BEST Knowledge about How to lead this life is indeed in the Quran and Hadis of the Prophet(SAW). This is a central part of muslim belief. And undoubtedly School age for All children in Pakistan must include a healthy portion of the aforesaid - inorder to make them follow the perfect route in leading this life - irrespective of the field of study they choose in their later part.
Quran is not a Book of Science - Rather it is a Book of Signs. Which is needed to make out the best HUMAN BEING. Every created thing has a manual. A Space Shuttle has a manual. Which says:
1) If you press this lever ‘A’- the engine starts.
2) Dont switch on the engine untill the fuel cap is locked - Else the Shuttle might explode.
3) and so on..
Similarly Quran is a manual for Human Beings - which tells the Do’s and Dont’s a muslim has to follow. So that he gets the best output in THIS World as well as HereAfter.
Assume that If AQ Khan had developed a bomb for India or Israel. Which if God Forbid came to use against Pakistan or any other Muslim Country. Then we would have been better off without AQ Khan. Quran is must for guiding the Human being… Which is not being taught to our students!
Dr. Abdus Salam (Nobel Laureate) once wrote: “The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah’s created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart.”
@mbokhari
Great illustration!
By expanding Madrassas - I meant two things
1) Introduction of subjects like English/Maths/Science. And that too Optionally.
2) Financial support by Government
But as you said - there is a need for Huge change in the existing School system on the pattern guided by our Religion, including uniform and other things. This is the ill we need to deal with.
Oh..boy..this discussion has again been hijacked.
@admin
Could we please have more stricter moderation on this forum. If Ahsan Iqbal actually planned on reading these comments then he probably will stop reading after seeing the first few. I suggest that someone from Edu Ministry go over these comments and formulate this into a simpler policy. Or you can form a group who pluck some meaningful content from this then publish that document.
Getting back to the subject.
1. Most important think is Education Budget. We shouldn’t expect wonders by spending as little as we do on Education. There needs to more Education Budget (which means less Defence Budget)
2. Next would be to make sure this budget is properly used. Bring down corruption and mismanagement. Whatever the policy might be, if the implementation is not done correctly, it will be just a waste.
3. Main Foucs of Education Policy should be Primary Education. It should be simple, build communication skills/languages , promote critical thinking. We dont need to think in terms of Eng, Urdu, Islamiat, Social Studies, General Science etc.
4. We definitely need to get rid of multiple class Education.
@Saqib
” I would suggest that he makes a research team team of qualified people who are willing to travel to different parts of the world to look at proven and efficient education system. ”
I strongly oppose this idea. These are called pleasure trips. There is no need to travel ( First Class Airfare, 5 Star Hotels , TA/DA).. There are plenty other ways to get information . Web/ Live Meeting etc.
More later..
Guys can i say something?
I promised myself that I am going to read all the 65 pages of the draft.
I am still doing it as its a complicated document , written in typical complicated style of pakistani DAFTRI LANGUAGE.
then i realized that people are posting their own drafts on this site.
have you all already read and UNDERSTOOD what the draft says?
can u all do that first please?
plus can u keep ur suggestions simple and short please?
I lost interest after one or two paragraphs of ur own drafts
keep it simple and short
its only a suggestion!!!!!
@all
if you must islamasize education…go to the madrassa that produced your scientists..not your mullahs.
although…personally i feel that religion should be a personal matter between man and god…and this was what differentiated islam from christianity…islam did not have a clergy as a mediator. which it now does.
i may be wrong..
Here are my suggestions from a near completion PhD student from Germany
——————————————————————————————————
======= Please AVOID to do following =========
1)Stop construction of European Universities in Pakistan. Please do not end program of HEC that is to establish new European Universities in Pakistan. This include KTH (Sweden) campus in Sialkot, Technical University (TU with German collaboration) in Lahore and multiple European universities in Karachi. They will be great resource/universities for Pakistan progress.
2). PhD students mostly for textile etc You said that you wish to have PhD funding according to Industry needs. I think that might not be a good idea totally. I agree we need PhD in those field where we have industry but also need PhD to create new Industry. We have lots of potential in many fields like electronics, mechanical, computer engineering but no industry and PhDs. Remember all PhD do not go to find jobs. Some even start industry too. So please reconsider your idea of mostly PhDs in textile etc.
3). Stopping funding of already funded students Do not cut the funding of people who are already in the middle of their PhDs abroad, even if their field of study is not important for you like Physics. Firstly, we need PhD in those fields too and secondly, it will waste the funding already spended on them.
4). Atta-Ur-Rehman Some people here will give examples/columns written by Pervez Hoodbhoy to prove Dr. Atta is corrupt. However, I know both of them personally and I am sure many people here do not know them. I think Pervez Hoodbhoy is a person I will NOT listen if he is the last person in the whole world. He might be a great scientist but not a kind of resource you could use to prosecute or use against Dr. Atta. On the other hand Dr. Atta is also a great scientist and looks sincere in his effort. (Note: I HATE Musharraf but not every thing he had done was wrong e.g. HEC). Keep Dr. Atta if possible….
======= Please do following =========
1) Make education cheap One thing HEC has done wrong was to make University education expensive in Pakistan. Please try to make University education (as well as schools) cheaper if not free.
2) End of multiple education systems We do not need multiple education systems / boards / A-Level, Matric etc. in our country. Please unite us.
3) Religious Education Please introduce religion education in our schools if possible. It will be great if we could learn Arabic and Quran in our schools. Right now religious education (Islamiat) book is thinness book we had in our schools.
Thats it from my side at the moment.
we should have single education system in whole country,
Please focus on commenting the draft of proposed Education Policy rather than the open debate.
Thanks.
I am a researcher in engineering in Europe. I think that this recent push by the HEC towards producing a large number of researchers is more of a shortsighted approach. The problem is that we in Pakistan have always lacked a strategic vision towards all issues, education included. What has been done has been done. Now, we need to dismantle the white elephant that is the HEC, and we need to concentrate our efforts on basic education. It is a crying shame that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to send people like me to Europe for higher education when our little brothers and sisters in Pakistan aren’t even guaranteed access to primary education. If this isn’t a case of warped priorities then I don’t know what is!
By saying this I am in effect swinging an axe at my own self. But it is necessary that people like me come out and say it. We need to drastically increase funding on basic education. 5% of GDP is considered the bare minimum, we are investing even less. We need to provide incentives to the poorest of the poor to send their children to school rather than making them work. Towards this end some concrete steps can be taken:
(1) All children in public schools that are under the age of 13 should be provided a simple yet nutritious afternoon meal. This would be a strong incentive to make people send their children to school;
(2) An aggressive campaign should be launched against “ghost schools”, and punishment for absconding teachers should be codified in the Pakistan Criminal Code and a few should be made examples;
(3) In case an underage child is found to be employed and is not attending school, then the employer should be prosecuted, not the parents of the children. Child domestic labor is so rampant in our country that it will take years to root it out, but we have to start somewhere. It should be socially unacceptable to have a child of school-going age as a maid or servant;
One last thing that needs to be done is identification of gifted students at different levels of schooling probably starting in the 8th class and then bringing their education under the sponsorship of the state. They should be facilitated for the rest of their educational career. These people should form the bureaucratic, scientific and intellectual elite. This would provide a double benefit of providing our country a corps of elite thinkers, and it would provide even the poorest of people to aspire to a bright future.
Regards.
I suggest we do not need to learn english litratures and complex grammers (cud be optional ), just need to learn speaking practical english rather than 50 year old style….
@Suleiman: Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against our eastern and dynamically evolving progressive Islamic values.. (sorry.. no stoning .. thx!) but this over-emphasis on “Islam”, rather a romantic and unrealistic notion of it is what I have a problem with.
Our Islamiyat books are full of junk, mantars and incantations… Islam is not about chanting mantar’s and incantations.. it is a living thing.. it is about action..
yaqeeN muHkam, amal paiham, muHabbat fateh-e Aalam
doo-a deee dee di di dum dee deee deeee!
Fiqh needs to be balanced with Mantiq. Quran needs to be read and understood.. not memorized etc.
Quran for me is a mystic and mysterious document.. it is not a technical manual.. that would be the most vulgar interpretation of it’s significance.. It would be like saying Mozart is a scrathings of horses hair on some wires in tension.. or to say Rembrandt’s paintings are a collection of various colors on a canvas.. (which they are.. but they are much much more than that..)
So, for me, Quran is an ephemeral light for the inner journey and meditation rather than some phone dictionary type book which when you punch in “marriage” comes up with the “laws of marriage”…
If it is really the word of god, then let us think about that God (if it/s/he exists).. think about the existence itself.. think about the ENORMITY of it all and the insignificance of a mere human or a dog or a worm .. and we should know that we are complete jackasses in front of a power so immense it cannot be comprehended by a brain…
Then we shall know how vulgar these comparisons are when we say Quran is validate by the transient discoveries of some farmboy in iowa (the big bang)..
If God exists and Quran is the word of that God, then it is an insult to both if we use some provincial and (probably incorrect) notion of contemporary science to barter validation for the word of God…
Now, we cannot truly explore these depths by mere regimented recitation of the book. That is the first step.. actually not even the first step…. If I had my druthers I would have Mansoor Hallaj’s works made part of the primary reading list. too bad I lost them somewhere along the way.
A very simple suggestion:
Use a single model for the whole country. Don’t use ‘O’ Levels and ‘A’ Levels in some areas, the America system with 12 4 years to get a bachelors in others, and some hodgepodge of systems in yet other areas.
Schooling should be uniform and upto the international standards, that is as follows:
12 years of schooling to complete high school
2 years to get a diploma at a college
or
4 years to get a bachelors degree from a college
As far as what courses should be offered to the students is cooncerned. Students should be given options to take a variety of courses allowing them to see what field they want to go into to take the more advanced courses. This could be accomplished by offering a broad variety of courses both during the senior years of high school and the junior years of their 4-year degree program.
This is how they do it in the US. Since the US is the world leader whether you like it or not, thier system is perhaps the best and has been the best for a century.
It is time we copied from the best student in the class, instead of cheating from the second or the third best student, whoever that may be.
Thanks
@everyone,
I would appreciate if everyone give their own suggestions stop replying to other’s comments. If you must comment on someone else’s comment, then please open a new thread in Discuss and paste link here.
Thanks,
Admin
@admin: plz feel free to move my offtopic response to Suleiman to the news/views.. sorry got carried away.
Hi @dmin,
Is there any timeframe for this? I am actually preparting some recommendations however they will be ready by Sunday or Monday.
thanks
We must find a sober way of introducing religion in our schools. Otherwise this subject will keep on being hijacked by the Mullahs. We must learn our children about Qur’an and not all the other fairy tale stuff they encounter in Mullah schools.
/Saqib
Idealistic Islamic and Modern Education School. It answers almost all doubts regarding the issues raised here by several of us.
http://www.irf.net/irf/dtp/allindia.htm
I halt my part of comments with the above given link. Every one can make up his own mind by seeing it.
All- This is a wonderful opportunity to engage the Minister of Education in a unique way. Lets make our comments professional and relevant to the policy paper- even if its a retread of something gone before- its still an opportunity. Perhaps as a way to follow up- the good folks at Pkpolitics might do an interview with Mr. Ahsan Iqbal and get his thoughts on the way forward and on recommendations he receives from us. It could be interative via email etc…the techies will have to tell us what makes sense.
Mr Ahsan Iqbal
This is just to say that you should weigh all the long term and short term effects of abolition of O and A Level Studies. I am for single curriculum but a drastic upheavel or banning of O and A Level would have a huge effect on the skilled labor who is going to enter the labor market. I would also suggest you to do a survey of students who have done or who are enrolled in CIE studies. As I believe that it now a significant proportion of population and lets be honest they do impart quality education.
So my advice is that first develop and drastically refrom the Text book style syllabus and then when it becomes equal or close to O and A Level curriculum should you abolish this system or take neccessary steps.
1. All teachers should be paid handsomely.
2. Grades of teachers should be different from other services and should be set at higher level
3. Tution should be banned but teachers should be paid for extra coaching by teh goverment rather than the students themselves
4. VOCATIONAL TRAINING SHOULD BE DEVELOPED more effectively rather than producing students with BA degrees there should be more students who can have vocational training so that they dont have to rely on jobs rather they create jobs for themselves.
5. At Intermediate level apart from medical engineering and arts there should three more cateogries namely - computer sciences, vocational or technical sciences and and business sciences.
6. Similarly at BA level there should be medical (MBBS), engineering, computer sciences, technical sciences and business sciences and arts should be renamed as social sciences.
7. Personally i can forsee a boy trained as a car mechanic has more bright future than a boy who has just got BA degree and is looking for a job as a clerk. Therefore apart from colleges like medical colleges, engineering colleges and business colleges there should also be technical colleges.
8.
@peja,
The policy needs to be announced in cabinet in a few days. He needs the core input by Monday.
Admin
Okay thanks admin, I would make sure to get something by tomorrow, anyways my input may not be of any significance in presence so many good people out there in Pakistan. I am sure he would have the support of several good people. Ahsan Iqbal himself is very intelligent , I remember his vision 2010
I keep hearing that they need a centralized education policy. But I think that these centralized boards are a thing of the past. They inhibit growth and ingenuity.
1. Need local boards to oversea an education “Halaqa”
2. Local boards will create competition among other boards for funds and performance.
3. Local boards will create involvement from the parents who will not have to travel to Islamabad to know how education policy is being developed.
4. Local boards should be transparent and independent but funded by the federal or provincial government. They should meet in the open and transparently.
5. The charter of the local boards should be initially to set curriculum and money should not be part of their function to avoid problems.
5. There should be a percentage of the board reserved for parents. Not any parents but those who have their children in the govt education system somewhere and not necessarily in the same halaqa.
6. No Naukar Chakar for the board members, minimal amounts to cover their expenses while they meet . They should have regular jobs somewhere else.
7. All board work should be voluntary.
I think that you will find a lot of people trying to do their patriotic duty for free. I guarantee you that you will even get Pakistani’s overseas volunteering their own time and money to help out in these boards.
I live in the US since 1981 with quite a bit of experience in education.
May Allah help you and make your intentions pure.
I may agree but I think that they need more local control over policy. Specially the local primary to metric education should be run by boards that are locally empowered to approve syllabus and set standards. This is how most western countries work.
The local boards should have parents involvement. This will do the following:
1. Create competition among the local boards
2. The parents are the ones who will be the most involved and have the most at stake in the schools.
3. Need to avoid all these fancy shmancy people being in boards who have their own children studying somewhere else. Therefore it should be a requirement that the parents on the boards should have their children in the govt education system, not necessarily the ones that they are superving.
I am a victim of flawed pakistani education system. here are some thing you can do to improve it.
1. make the exams 80% objective type(multiple choice questions, true false etc) which are checked by machines not people. only 20% of the exam should be essay type questions. the information students are made to memorise is mostly volatile which they lose after a month of the exams. but objective type exams are based on true understanding .
2. pakistani education system right now is like a clerk making machine. you throw in perfectly capable students and get clerks out. change the system so it doesnt kill the sutends creativity. exams and syllabus should be changed to award creativity and difference of opinion.
3.change the elitist system of grading which awards the top three scorers. everyone above 90 or 85% score should be awarded. the teachers should not be allowed to disclose a students score in class, this violates the students privacy. everyone should be taught as a unique individual and given equal attention not as part of a herd.
4. it sad even now many schools in pakistan use physical punishment. this must be banned with strict punishment for teachers who are found to be physically abusing students.
5. urdu should be taught only as a language. all other subjects should be taught in english. english is a big advantage in todays world india has set up a call center industry just because a lot of people speak english.
6. invite and give incentives to top professors from other countries to come and teach in our universities.
7. start research institutes. start student exchange programs with other countries.
8. change the history and social studies texts at high school level to include world history , current affairs and general knowledge.
9. give students incentives to go in fields other then medicine. so many of our good minds are wasted memorising that biology book in the end only to find that there werent enough seats in the medical college.
10. no uniforms in schools. the whole system is based on creating “uni ” “formed” submissive clerks. let the students develop their personalities and enjoy difference of opinion. I would prefer undisciplined scientists and leaders to disciplined submissive clerks
@admin
Dear admin
can you somehow put a restriction on number word one can submit?
everyone is happily writting long esays and not reading what others say
100 words each please?
otherwise we wont get anywhere
thanks
Please study the South Korea’s model their literacy rate was around 20% in 1945 today it is over 90%.
We need to invest more than the current 2% of GDP on education.
We should also look into OLPC (one laptop per child) specially for remote areas.
Start putting more emphasis on science,math and technology.Facts of evolution should be part of curriculum.
Encourage overseas Pakistanis to sponsor students from their home towns.
I’m currently a student in a university in Karachi and also one of the few who can afford to take advantage of the British Cambridge examination system. The following are some points that I have noticed all these years at school:
1) We need to have a uniform education system in Pakistan. And that includes the Madressahs. Although I’m aware this could take a lot of time to achieve, it is worth it and atleast an inititative should be made in this respect.
2) We need constant revisions and updates to our syllabus according to the needs of the day, changing standards, new literature etc etc.
3) One thing that really makes the difference in the approach taken by students and teachers while learning and teaching, is the examination system and pattern. I think a reform starting from there will create ripple effects on other areas. For instance, even if someone doesn’t teach O level students what they should be taught (e.g concepts about physics laws), they have to do it themselves anyway, because the examination pattern is such a good discriminator in terms of the relative ability and concepts of students.
4) Ironically, many teachers need to be taught some principles of good teaching and generation of interest among the students for the particular subject. The way of teaching plays a big role and the interactive way of the teacher in conducting a classroom helps a lot in making students want to learn more.
5) Lastly, there need to be more hands-on lessons to augment the theoretical lectures etc and references to real-world applications of the subject, so that the students realize the importance of the subject.
One good way to start is to raise the education budget straight away, as you can’t expect results unless you’re prepared to give it a top-priority.
1. find a way to make computers affordable for our school children in the rural areas. there is an international model somewhere for this.
2. education should have a balanced approach to market and knowledge; if the education policy is heavily biased in training for the market…then you throw knowledge to the trashbin that consumerism has created
3. all graduate students of govt. and prvt colleges/universities should be required to a) teach one year in primary/secondary schools rural areas across the country, (adequately compensated if their education was not funded by the govt.)
4. programs to establish ‘vocational training institutes’ in rural areas for overseas job placements
5. pay faculty in colleges/universities what you will your banker/lawyer.
5a. provided he is not bokhari (sorry mate )
Primary and secondary education:
There should not be distinction between English medium and urdu medium schools.
2-There is improvement in education boards and all private schools should be affiliated to Pakistani education boards not to Britian’s board.
3-In the primary schools, there should be only female teachers and priemary schools could be co for kidds (male and female)
4-Most of the primary schools in Paksitan have one or two teachers for the whole schools, that should be one teacher for one class and the facilities for pre-class one kids may be provided like learning with toys.
5-examination system for secondary education should be improved and more objective type exams may be conducted along with upgrading the syllabus every third year. There is no need to study W. Churchal and Mustafa Kamal as hero in F.A syllabus when at the same time students are taught Muhammad Ali Johar also a hero as front runner of Khalif movement in subcontinent.
6-Islamica and ethical education should also be increased in a way that any one have option to study islamic education in much detail so that the ditinction between people from madrasa and other school should be minized which will also decrease the polarity mostly increased in last 8 years.
Tertury education, the worse scenario
B.A and B.Sc. is the most damaged portion of our education system. English is taught not for making some one learned but to stop him moving forward. Simple thing is when we want to make some one learnt a thing, that thing should be made simple to him. Exams and syllabus of English prevail in our universities is not in accordance with this idea. The syllabus and exams of English should be simple and two areas should be considered to implement:1-Technical writing 2- English speaking, both are completely missing. Just tell me how much idiomatic phrases are used in speaking and technical writing, almost nothing. This type of things should be made very limited.
3- Combination of subjects should have relevance with each other, for science mathmatics should be compulsory at B.Sc. level. I myself wasted my 90 % potential on Botony and Zoology but I did Ph.D in chemistry, these two subjects did not help me in my higher study. At every stage of higher level I missed maths ability. Batchualr degree should be of 3 years, 2 years with three main subjects and final year just one of those subject as special subject with indroducation of more practical work in science subjec.
Higher Education
There is lot to improve HEC policy. Currently Things are avaluted on the basis of number of research papers regardless of their impact factor but not quality of research paper (paper in jouranal of higher impact factor). Also research grants renewal has only criteria of research papers but not the relevance of that research project to solve some problems in the country. Most of the research grants are finished just after publishing couple of research paper. For instance if some one get grant for discovering compounds from plants of cetain therapeutic importance, that scientis should have collboration with biologist who can evaluate the biological activity and they have collaboration with pharmacoligist, toxicologist and clinical research people so that discovery of chemical compound should go upto drug development level but not upto just research publication after initial biological activity.
Dear admin ,
I couldnt read the whole pdf since I was short on time but would like to contribute my opinions (if it helps)
Primary education:
1) Preschool education for 5-6 yrs old must include basic learning like identifying objects , colors , some alphabets and no.s both in english and urdu. Emphasis must be on playgroups , abstract activities like drawing.
2)Grade 1-6 education should include character building exercises.For this social studies should include telling truth , not cheating , working hard, promoting community services, not trusting strangers , not fighting ,etc. This should be reinforced in Islamic studies. Also besides Urdu and English they should be taught regional languages (like sindhi in sindh, pushtoo in nwfp etc) They should also be taught basic arabic so that they are able to read Quran and understand it without having anyone to brainwash them. This is not too much since medical science proves that this is the best age to learn all different sorts of languages. Emphasis must also be on extracurricular activities like sports , music and martial arts.
Secondary education:
I think we really need to stick to one curriculum in the entire country. Considering that federal education system has not been upgraded in last 20 yrs..O and A levels provide better alternatives. However, we must upgrade our books and system. There is no harm in including books written by foriegn authors in our present federal curriculum since they give us better learning.There are certain subjects that need to be really redesigned.
1)Islamic studies : should include contribution of muslims towards science. And should include teaching how to read quran in schools.It would be better if we have a phD professor for that since he can also explain to them the relevance of particular ayat .
2) Islamic History should be introduced as a separate subject and should include everything thing from the time of Prophet (PBUH) until creation of Pakistan.
3)Pakistan Studies should include era from East India Company to 1947 to present.
4) Debates and writing competition must be made compulsory and govt should give good money to top 10.
5) Maths and basic science at secondary level desperately needs to be upgrade. Science fairs or competitions should be held regularly as well.
Higher Education::
1) Our Universities need international recognition.
2)All applicants must be required to have done some extracurricular activity or community service.
2) Political parties should be banned from all educational institutions since they are mostly responsible for terrorizing students from attending classes (APMSO and IJT are notorious examples) and also they affect students motivation to attend universities and colleges due to their gang-like attitude. Instead political debates should be held at all levels and at regular intervals. This would promote tolerance of opinion in our coming generations.
3)Students must learn to live a disciplined life and there should be zero tolerance against armed grps , drug addicts , bullies. However, every class must have their own student representative who can talk to the authorities regarding issues faced by students. Every student must have access to legal authority incase he is undergoing injustice at the hands of staff or other students.
4) We should send our top students abroad on govt expense to study any subject of their choice for short intervals (elective period)However, it will be more reasonable if this is need-based.
5) Regularly invite foreign reknowned professors to give a lecture on a particular topic of interest.
6) There should be career guidance counsellors to guide students in the field they want to progress.
7) There should be some quota in Punjab and Sindh universities for balochies , tribal ppl , northern areas and kashmir.
Over all,
Schools fees , esp private , need to be decreased and limited to a certain amount. If they dont decrease the fee they charge than govt should overtax them.
Salary for teachers should be doubled.
thanks
I hope i have contributed something.
There are many spelling mistake in my above posting, which are basically typing mistake. I apologize for that
Salaam everyone
Chief Minister of Punjab has recently said, We are not able to get over electricity crises in next 3 years, now they are talking about new education policy (without electricity), you must be kidding,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,leave it for next Govt. just a joke
Anyway, I think our new Govt. should deal education sector with utmost priority and on emergency basis.
First I would just like talk about a report broadcasted by GEO news few days ago that more than 60% percent of Govt. primary schools in Punjab don’t have toilets, electricity, clean water and even furniture for students.
That report was really depressing, portraying a very bleak perspective specially for poor people’s children (80% of population) and I don’t really see any success of any education policy without digging into facts and considering some very important factors before hand. for example
*A proper infrastructure for every level of education
*Technical Competency in Human Resources (Teachers Management)
*A broad-based education policy with uniformed curriculum for primary and secondary education in both Govt. and Private education sector.
*Head of an educational insititute should be a competent Professional Administrator not necessarly a teacher.
*Fair implementation, evaluation and review and continuous improvement in the education policy based on experience.
I would really like all the people of pakistan specially young people to make a petition and put it up to new Govt. in parliment, that
NOBODY IS ELIGIBLE TO SIGN FOR POLITICS IN PAKISTAN IF HIS OR HER FAMILY IS NOT LIVING IN PAKISTAN, BECUASE THESE POLITICIANS DON’T LIKE TO BRING UP THEIR FAMILIES IN PAKISTAN AND WHEN THEIR CHILDREN HAVE LIVED AND STUDIED ALL THEIR LIFE ABROAD, THEY COME BACK TO TAKE OVER THEIR INHERETED POLITICS, SO THEY NEVER EVER REALIZE THE PROBLEMS OF POOR PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY NEVER FACE THESE PROBLEMS.
I THINK THE BEST SOLUTION FOR THIS IS, BEFORE ENTERING INTO POLICITS EVEN AT NAZIM & COUNCELLOR LEVEL, IT SHOULD BE MANDATORY THAT BESIDES STRONG ACADEMIC PROFILE, HE/SHE MUST HAS LIVED IN PAKISTAN AND PROVIDED A PROVEN HISTORY OF RECENTLY SERVED IN SOCIAL AND WELFARE SECTOR FOR ATLEAST 5-10 YEARS. I THINK THIS WOULD HELP TO GET RID OF FEUDALISM AND INCOMPETENT POLICTIANS”.
OTHERWISE I DON’T BELIEVE IN SUCH DEMOCRACY
“”"”JO JAHILON KO USTAADON KA IMAAM BANA DE”"”
thanx for taking ur time to read this
Nasir Mehmood
In my opinion education policy is the most crucial and sensitive decision to determine county’s future, and should be made based on this forums comment, as it is a task which should be done by qualified and able groups of people and I’m not sure how many of us here holds these credentials.
Having said that, there are obvious flaws in our current system or should I better say systems, no suggestion but I would like to raise following points.
1. Too many education systems; I think our society has been divided to dangerous point due to this.
o) Private (which always belongs to ruling class, these are the policy makers)
o) Public, servants or new age slaves.
o) Madrasas, living and studying in Medieval time and dreaming about khilafah.
2. Public school system is based on centuries old Gora’s sahib requirement, which only required clerks, centuries have passed but no one tried to change the requirement.
3. No accountability: my question is, why in private schools less qualified less paid teachers get better results than those of public schools?
4. Schools should teach tolerance, why can’t we teach our children’s that world has different kinds of peoples and cultures and we should respect all of those.
5. Also we should start teaching our kids democracy right from the beginning.
Dear education minister,
Its nice to see this initiatve. My suggestions are as follows.
1) Primary education:
It needs easy access/uniformity and most importantly financial aid to the parents per child.
The uniform/books/1 meal/snacks should be provided at school.
ALL kids should have a school bus
I think medium of education is an important question and linguists/educationists/child psyciatrists should form a panel to discuss it. My feeling is that primary education should be in mother tongue and english/arabic and one of four local languages can be added as 2nd languages.
2) Secondary/High Schhol Ed:
Vocational skills should be a very important component starting from 8th grade. These kids should get nominal pays for the training they do.
Again equal access and uniformity should be ensured for all.
3) Higher Education:
Research should be one of the most important requirements and funding should be diverted to the projects which are meaningful to our society as well ( e.g Solar energy in our country, vaccines for TB,Typhoid, Hepatitis etc, agricultural research )
Related Issues:
Teachers education and training. : This should be a continous process and regular short courses should be offered.
Teacher’s pay and status: If we do not give them respect what kind of geenration they will train. They should have housing schemes like Askari housing. Their family education/health/housing/transport should be highly subsidised.
Regular revision of the curriculum.
In the end, ” Implement all what you say”
Good Luck.
some suggestions for university management;
1. Separate academics from administration. Empower Deans for academic matters and increase the desirability of Deanship then VC so that high quality academicians are not wasted in administration.
2. Remove/stop appointing Army generals, bureaucrat and other irrelevant people as VCs: as you need to have right person on the right job.
3. Abandon the contract system of appointments as it has been used by administrators to bypass the strict qualifications of regular system –> as it leads to jokes like: in IUB a person who only wrote five articles in newspapers has been appointed as full professor on contract (you can check http://www.iub.edu.pk).
4. Encourage performance-based rewards system to encourage research and innovation. If possible, also introduce dis-rewards for non-contributions.
5. The policy of human capital formation by HEC will yield nothing significant if you do not put in place a good ‘transfer of learning’ plan i.e. how will you place these repatriates to take advantage of their development.
6. More than improving the buildings and laboratories, concentrate on improving the learning culture in the institutions.
7. It is extremely good idea to follow market-needs-orientation in human resource development.
8. It’s good to allow unionization in universities but notbunches of hooligons like JTI, PSF, ATI etc. Ensure proper control here.
9. Maintain proper reviews and checks and balances on degree-awarding institutions. If possible, have an audit and cancel the degree awarding status of those falling below standards. Encourage more qualified ones.
1. One system for all.
2. Medium of Education should be English.
3. Improve the performance of teacher, school, college and university. Start some extensive programs for improving school teachers.
4. Should more focus on School education. All the teachers, school, college or university should be inducted through a proper channel like HEC or FPSC.
5. Encourage University students to pass GRE within their degree period. lots of scholarships available but students are not up to the required quality (ex. 250 fulbright scholarships available but every year just few students got that scholarship). Include a course like GRE in under graduation.
We don’t need to send thousands of students on HEC scholarships. Guide the students properly. They will get scholarship by them self.
Education Policy must focus on following things:
1. One system of education only. No madrasahs, no O and A levels. A uniform curriculum. 2. Reduce the subjects till class five. It should English, Urdu, Mathematics and Science only. Islamic studies and Pakistan studies ingredients should be included in the languages. 3. Compulsory education till intermediate. 4. Either change the official language from english to urdue or medium of instruction should be english all over the country. 5. Four years graduation. The academic projects dissertations must solve real life problems of the country. 6. Original research should be promoted without expecting it to be at par with international standard in the initial phases. 7. Symester system with better and more creative system of examinations. It should not be objective test but something like the combination of objective, subjective and research papers. 8. State of the art computer facilities in academic instituions especially universities and colleges. Exam should be computer based and evaluation to be anonymous. 9. People from civil society, government, private sector having interest in teaching may also be integrated with academics to impart multi-dimenstional approach to the learning process. 10. Instead of party based unions, a non-partisan guild of student should be an integral part of the university. The activities for guild of students must be defined. The procedure of election may also be defined. 11. The class room environment must encourage questioning and free inquiry instead of indoctrination. 12. The power point presentation of all the lectures must be available on the university website. The lecturer must not be allowed to deviate from those lectures and indulge into political or religious arguments unless it is the specific requirment of a particular subject. 13. No general to be appointed to head an academic instituion. 14. Fee structure and quality of private instituion must be subject to some sort of audit. 15. Sports to be an essential component of student life. 16. Military and rangers fort in Balochistan to be converted in Universities. 17. The expenditure of PM, President, CMs, Governors house and GHQ may be reduced by 40% and saving may be spent on education. 18. Inter-Provincial student exchange programme may be initiated to promote harmony. 18. Parents who have less than three children must be given scholarships to control the population explosion and provide quality education facility for the children of poor if they plan their families.
The children of Members of Parliament both provincial and federal, of Government Officers especially Federal and provincial secretaries must compulsarily get education from state schools and universities. In this way, the standard of education can be improved to great extent.
Please make one ciriculam which is for every child who is Pakistani, as education is being utilized as a symbol of status quo in pakistan.
While policy making consult students from big institutes of Pakistan like lums, punjab university, GSK, karachi university and extract the bright students who can work side line in the formation of the policy.
Only allow those teachers and personalities for suggestions who are the essence of pakistan , who has got the solutions to problems not the trouble makers, like great imran khan.
Get rid of these private schools beacuse they are only producing mummy dady english children who cannot lead this nation.
ask talat hussain, hamid mir, kashif to conduct shows and programs and debate on this issue with good educationist not with PMLQ
If we actually wanted to improve our education system we should probably stop spoon feeding students ideas that ‘we’ want them to believe.
Let them know that the world doesn’t revolve around our religion or our own country. Make them more well rounded.
AoA everyone,
I hope Mr Minister had the stamina to read all the messages. A lot has been said and there were some really great suggestions. In my humble opinion:
1. We need only one system of education for every pakistani.
2. Student exchange programs from city to city bases, expanding to provinces. A lot of misconceptions will be cleared and along side with education we can produce better citizens and a better nation. This might seem out of context but earlier we do this better chance we have of making a nation out of this population.
3. The idea of exchange students with different countries is excellent one and we can start with china and korea if the europeens do not agree.
4. Let us try to find a balance for funds for higher education and elementary education.
5. It will be a good incentive if we have something like “hard area” allowance for the teahcers who are teaching in remote areas. To bring uniformity into education system this must not be limited to elementary education only.
6. It will not be difficult to find people who shall volunteer to teach the science sbujects to madrassa students, just to start with.
7. The current HEC programs should not be stopped out right. Like every system this system is by no means perfect but it can be imroved. For improvements the HEC students can be contacted and they can provide valuable information.
8. I would suggest some legislation to prevent the political parties parenting the student unions. Yes Mr Minister it can hurt your and many other parties’ interests but this would be really positive from this government.
9. In case you need a volunteer in the formation of course outline etc… you can start with me…
Muhammad ILYAS
PhD candidate,
Toulouse France
Education is a basic Human Right. It is our collective responsibility that this right should be afforded to all. ………When reforming the education system a GOLDEN RULE has to be acknowledged and followed ,that all Pakistanis ARE EQUAL OWNERS OF ALL RESOURCES of our country,those who’ve beeen denied use of national resources have the first right of use NOW. ……..The new planning has to start from spending in villages and katchi abadis in cities, ……I beleive majority of Pakistanis needing education the MOST live there………..Secondly we have to decide where the funding / expertise will come from ! Will it still be borrowed, or will we start SELF RELIANCE. ………….I beleive the only way is SELF RELIANCE……….funding should come from Taxing all Incomes / Properties / Landholdings…….with higher rate of tax on all wealh / ownership gains acheived through use of govt / polical assistance……An EDUCATION TAX to eliminate poverty through EDUCATION AND SKILLS TRANING (YR 10 2)thus making our WORKFORCE WORLD CLASS & COMPETETIVE. …….
simple logical answer
1. spend as much money on goverment school as possible, that will improve the standard on gov school and in return the private school monoply in pakistan will fall as result private school will impove its standard to catch up with gov school.
After few years of this plan the whole syetem will rise.GOT IT MINISTER.
2.try to develop a credible matriculation and FSC courses so that it can be compared with O LEVELS AND ALEVELS course.THIS WILL bring the standard of the student doing fsc and matric up.
thankyou
Dear Ahsan Iqbal sahib:
I would suggest:
1. Not to cancel the schlorship programme launched by Dr. Ata ur Rehman. However improvements can be done.
2. We need to put lot of effort in our school system. We need a uniform school system rather than , O Level, Matric and madrassa system.
3. Please Its already too late please donot delay it further. Now We must adopt whole heartedly english as medium of instruction from school level. Urdu along with regional languages should be taught as compulsory subjects.
4. At University level I feel plagerism is growing in to a serious problem as per my view we as nation donnot like to do research we rather love to do search on internet. Plagerism has brought lot of humilation to Pakistan in recent years.
Lastly I would like to say Sir I was in the university when you used to be the visiting professor. I fully believe that you have the ability to transform our education system from junk to some thing compatitive at least within our region if not in the world.
Dear Minister of Education,
I will suggest that every organization/institution should work according to the limits provided in law and constitution.
I have read many comments suggesting to do this and that with HEC. Is it responsibility of Education Minister to make the policies of HEC?
I would rather suggest to make chairman of HEC answerable or responsible for policies related to higher education in pakistan.
Let us not repeat mistakes of the past!
Thanks.
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no court, no law can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.” — Learned Hand
———————————————————————————————————-
From Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s constitution:
-Freedom for Women - Free education up to Matric fro girls from poor households.
-Launch an Education Revolution to promote universal literacy and raise the standard of education in our schools, colleges and universities.
-To introduce a uniform system of quality education and to develop core curriculum for all strata of society and to discourage elitism.
-To work at the grass root level for mass literacy and education, for setting up basic health facilities, for building and maintenance of infrastructure and to educate people in better civic facilities and sanitation.
———————————————————————————————————-
In nutshell, there should be a uniform standardized syllabus created to be used nation-wide is government, private schools alike. If India can come up with a standardized syllabus, CBSE, then why can’t we.
Education should not be the means of segregating the society by providing two different mediums of education according to the social class. English should be taught in government school as it is taught in private schools designed for Brown Sahabs. However, it does not mean Urdu should be forgotten. Urdu should be continued, along with other national languages such as Pustu, and Sindhi etc in the classrooms depending on the geographic location.
Education should be free, as in ‘freedom’, for students from lower-middle class families. This can be done by increasing education budget, and by decreasing the military budget. If there is still more monetary support required, is should be generated from taxing the Brown Sahabs.
Defining to what extent education should be free, as much as possible. In Cuba, not just high schools, but colleges, and universities are free to attend, and they provide quality education. But, in general, education until high school should be at least free.
As stated in Tehreek-e-Insaf’ constitution, there should be education revolution launched. Basically, that revolution is to speed the process of establishing government schools that would provide quality education to the majority of suppressed Pakistanis.
Madrasses should be integrated in high schools. In other words, religious education should be provided side-by-side with social, behavorial, and natural science education. This would also eliminate the “fact” that Madrassas preach extremism.
The bottom line is that where we see our children, our next generation in the future. Do we want them to be educated, professors, engineers, doctors, lawyers, researchers, and scholars so they can transform the county in the future? Surely, we what that. So, to achieve that, there needs to be an emergency implemented, educational emergency, to empower the youth for tomorrow, so they can lead the country, and the world towards future.
God Bless Pakistan.
There should be a thorough discusion in the parliament on education policy.
Otherwise there would not be any difference between a democratic gov. and a dictator.Ehsan Iqbal should not decide himself like the minister in Musharaf Gov. did.
Regards,
Munir
Sir - I would like to say that the one of the major problems of our fsc system is the way the subjects are examined. People learn the same things each year from 5 year papers and the same thing comes up in the papers. Rather than putting forward analysis questions which could encourage the students to use their minds, students with good “ratafication” score highly. I feel that with such a pathetic way of examination, students hailing from smaller cities have no chance of competing with students who have done a-levels and o-levels.
Another major issue is that the syllabus is never revised. A few years back my younger brother gave class 9-th exams in hyderabad and he had to write an essay on “A cow”. Just a few days earlier my father was telling him that he had to write an essay on “A cow” when he was in class 9th and the same topic could come up again. And it did!
Also, the pay of the teachers is pathetic. One way of improving their performance and teaching methods would be to organise monthly teaching workshops in cities like karachi, lahore, pindi, faisalabad, sukkur and hyderabad and get teachers from rural areas to come and learn the lattest teaching methods while updating their knowledge on the subjects which they are teaching. These visits should be organised by the government and all expenses should be fully reimbursed.
And lastly, to improve our higher education our universities should have deals and exchange programmes with leading universities in UK and USA so that our country can have high quality graduates.
Mohammad Rafey Dahar.
London.
SECTION 6.4 LITERACY & NON-FORMAL LEARNING (Also PRIMARY LEARNING)
General Suggestions:
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1. Primary education must receive a lot of attention if we are to compete by 2015 or 2030.
2. It is foolish to wait till age 10-11 to start teaching the children a second language. We need to start this in years 2-3 as research has shown that Language acquisition neuronal-networks in human brain are at their most active in years 2-7 of a human being. If we are going to teach children English (or persian or arabic or punjabi), we should have immersive learning happening in “Katchi” as opposed to in grade 6! (this is the main reason our English is so abysmal) Children should be taught in native languages first if possible.
Human brain is a sponge for linguistic information in the very early years and we should leverage this biologically timed capability at the time that is most appropriate for it.
SUGGESTION: Some innovation in this field could be that micro-learning apps should be created by department of education for cellphones which the parents can then download and have their children “play” with these educational apps.
3. There must be commitment by the Federal government that at least 6% of the GDP will be spent on Education. Actually, Education spending for a given period should be made part of the CONSTITUTION! This should be increased to 10% if possible. Build a few less PNS this and BABUR-missile that, and spend a little more on your young… otherwise they will be so stupid they will give away the freedom of their nation for free (because they will be misinformed imbeciles like a certain jurnail).
Lack of proper education is an existential, Mortal threat for Pakistan. More than Indian Army on our borders. This is the Truth!
4. The national “syllabus” should be exactly the same for both “mainstream” and “Literacy & Non Formal Learning” scenario’s for the beginners. There should be ONE PRIMER “TO RULE THEM ALL” .. It should be a big thick book which will have the “advanced” sections but start out with very basic stuff (KG/Grade 1 materials) and move on to 4th & 5th grade. This primer could contain diverse things; such as gulistan/bostan, local stories, local proverbs. math/algebra concepts, LOGIC, LOGIC, LOGIC (most pakistani students say the stupidest most ILLOGICAL things.. and that is because there isn’t ANY logic taught in our schools.. a little bit of logic will go a long way.. Every dang madrassah in the old days (pre English times) used to teach a bit of logic precisely because information without Logic/Critical Thinking cannot be converted into working knowledge (wisdom?).
5. We must assume the worst and put a system in place which will withstand the shocks in the future if another FA pass jurnails decides to “save the nation” from certain destruction.
This means the Primary Education system should be structured along revolutionary lines, and we should not assume more than 2 years of democratic rule.. so we must act in a manner which will survive an almost certain coup.
Education for Grade 0-5 revolves around a Universal Primer developed Nationally.
Govt. Provides “Education Dividend” to Village girls who have finished the primer (each year’s worth adds.. ‘lets say RS. 2000′) at the time of their marriage.
The primary education should be made as independent of infrastructure and govt interference as possible. Once a person learns to Read and gains basic mathematical concepts, they should be ready to learn with nominal mentoring by another “literate” person (whose basic qualification would be this primer itself)
There should be Public libraries established in all Primary schools which should have a basic set of books which people learning from the Primer could checkout and read independently.
Classics should be provided on newspaper stock in broadsheet (newspaper) format. This will introduce the populations to classics of our culture and other cultures and help us develop well rounded individuals.
I would say only one think which needs to be consider and this is my hope that it will bring improvement.
We produce students but we don’t provide them apportunity to apply their expertise in field. I mean they don’t get jobs.
We should follow India in case of Information technology. The are producing a lot IT students but at the same time they are big share holder of the IT field in the whole world. We should provide a platform for students in every field where they get jobs and improve their skill.
This is possible when the broader image of Pakistan is good. I can be done if government take step to bring work for student from foriegn countries. They can manage all and use our fresh graduated students to develop softwares and in all the fields.
1. Education budget should be raised to at least 4% of the GNP, an international benchmark.
2. National pride, self esteem and a vibrant civilization, should be the cornerstones of education policy. which means unnecessary and morbid imitations of external cultures and languages should be done away with. Multiple education systems such as old British, O level, A level, should be discarded.
3. Existing Primary and secondary system should be merged into a single tier Elementary system, from nursery to grade 10. This elementary tier should be universal, mandatory and fully covered by the state. First 5 years of elementary
should cover four languages (mother tongue, Urdu, Arabic, English) along with basic skill training in math, science and Islamic history. There should be an elementary school for each population unit of 10,000.
4. Grade 6 to 10 should focus on immersion programs in math, science, Islamic history, civic sense, business planning. Grade 8 to 10 should phase into independent self studies and student projects.
5. Undergraduate University: From grade 11 to 14, split into two major streams (1) academic and (ii) technical, more on the existing models. There should be one undergraduate university for each population of 40,000.
6. Skills Training schools: Medical, Engineering, Fine Arts, etc. from grade 15 to grade 18. There should be one Skills training university for each population of 100,000.
7. Graduate University: from grade 16 t0 20 . involves higher studies; Masters, Ph.D and post doctoral. There should be one Graduate university for each population unit of 1,000,000.
8. Continuing Education: For all citizens to continue with life long learning. Should offer small modules, courseware, and skill training for everyone to develop personal skills and or switch careers.
9. Virtual education: through on line courses, internet, TV, correspondence. There should be one virtual education unit for each population unit of 1,000,000.
10. University teachers should be trained within the country through rigorous Ph.D and Post doctoral programs. Call overseas Pakistani scientists home to deliver quality Ph.D programs within the country.
11. University’s performance must not be measured in terms of pubiications, but in terms of innovative research, that generates leading edge technologies, businesses and jobs.
12. Stop sending Pakistani scholars to UK for Ph.D training. UK have played havoc with our generation of students with substandard Ph.D training. In fact UK has been a big proliferator of mediocrity in our universities.
13. Stop Eeperimenting with German, Swedes and French universities. For Gods sake, dont throw our young scholars into new language trials. We had enough of languages already -mother tongue, Urdu, English, Arabic. And now German, Swedish, French and what not. Remember! All developed nations are what they are today because of their one and only native language education system. This is the most flawed element in the current education policy.
14. Engage into a nation wide translation project of scientific and technical information into local languages. Provinces may compete with one another in converting science into regional languages.
More can come if time permits.
Dear Minister,
i would like to suggest few points in regards to education policy for Pakistan.
1. We should have same curriculum through out pakistan for public and private schools.
2. Should have schools in every town according to population and college in every District and Univerisity in every City. This is the only way to go forward for the future of Pakistan.
3. Teaching and examination department in every school and college and university should be seperate.
4. Update curriculum every two years with all new advancement in that particular field.
5. Give incentives to parents to put their daughters in school and free lunch for all the school children coming from poor families (Currently adopted by few indian states and very successful)
6. Pay teachers well so we can get the best teacher for our children.
7. Get rid of all the ghost school. Every student in our school should have basic facilities like table and chairs to sit on, drinking water and toilets.
Finally we have to go the basics to fix the problem. If we keep on investing in higher education and dont do anything at the grass root level then we ll not be able to survive in 21st centuary.
Thank You
My two cents on this topic:
1. Improve (or atleast sustain) the funding of HEC
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HEC has contributed significantly towards human resource development in Pakistan during the recent years. While I admit that there is room for improvement and some policies need to be reviewed, in general, its a good effort. For people who are unhappy about primary education level in Pakistan, they should suggest improving primary education ALONG WITH higher education, it seems twisted logic to suggest that higher education should be axed and only primary education supported. Why not both ?
2. Keep the lab financing scheme of HEC
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One of the important schemes of HEC that motivates me and a lot of other scholars to return to Pakistan is that of funding for setting up research labs in Pakistan. Quite frankly, if the new govt. ends all these kinds of projects and schemes, I assure you that this would have a very negative impact on the scholars (and obviously their decisions to return). This is true particularly for the scholars who are actually thinking about contributing to research in Pakistan when they return.
3. Concentrate on improving the Research Infrastructure
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No country in this world can progress without having a good research infrastructure. There are some ideas which can be interesting:
- Concentrate on making the universities being opened with European cooperation, a success
- Try to set up specialized research labs both within Universities as well as independant units.
Finally, if we really are to make Pakistan a prosperous country, a major decision would be to improve the quality of public sector Universities like UET, Punjab University, Peshawar University. etc. because these are the places where the mass of our students study. Students politicis should be stopped immediately. Career advancement for faculty should be merit based and not relationship or only seniority based.
I sincerely hope that together we make Pakistan what Quaid-e-Azam had once dreamed of.