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February 25, 2008
February 25, 2008
Future rulers may regret the honor of running Pakistan - Elites abandon Public Schools
“Whoever ends up running Pakistan could eventually face enough problems to regret the honor”.
“One of the biggest challenges facing Pakistan’s new government is how to repair the country’s dismal public school system. Pakistanis with money send their children to private school and the poor have to be content with the crumbling public school system.”
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28 Responses to “Future rulers may regret the honor of running Pakistan - Elites abandon Public Schools”
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The education system is one the most neglected areas, which the new government MUST look at with a very high priority. If we don’t make reforms and put in the required effort along with economical means then we might have chaotic circumstances. We need to get rid of the ancient OLD system and introduce modern tools to enhance the learning abilities of the youngsters. The teachers’ salaries shall also reflect the big task they have and we must ensure that only qualified people become teachers. This is a MUST for building a stable and strong Pakistan!
/Saqib
This is a very interesting and heartfelt story. I suggest everyone to listen and transcribe at least one sentence of Bilal Qureshi’s report.
No matter how much you criticize Pakistani elites, you have to appreciate the truthfulness of this lady, Muna Atif, who is speaking English at home with her eight years old daughter.
“I would not send my children to a government school. Even if I know it had a good status. It is like a taboo. Speaking Urdu or sending your children to Urdu medium school. We are very English conscious people.
When you grow up if you do not have proper contacts or proper status. Then you are no body here. You can’t go to get good jobs. You can’t do anything. So you have to make those contacts. For that you have to have that mentality.
We even don’t know what kind of life they have. We don’t even want to associate ourselves. We do not want to know.”
“We don’t know how they live. We don’t want to know”
No wonder there is a disconnect.
Why dont we do something?
I wish I could form an organisation to drain knowldge back to pakistan OR a research group to get in to grips of the problem with public schools and propose a solution to the government.
Theres a lot we can do sitting out here , especially in UK.
Lets stop blaming our governments as we ourselves dont do anything.
What BB wrote about Education in her last book:
“The growth of India into a regional and international economic power occurred – not coincidentally – as its middle class exploded into a huge economic and political force.
How can a nation build a middle class? The first key is to build an education system that delivers hope and real opportunity. Good public educational opportunity is the key to the economic and political progress of nations, and it can be so in the Islamic world as well. But in Pakistan $4.5 billion is spent on the military each year – an astounding 1,400% more than on education.
Militant madrasahs did not flourish there because Pakistani citizens suddenly became more religiously orthodox than ever before in our history. The militants took advantage of parents from low-income social classes who wanted a better life for their children. If parents are so poor that they cannot educate, house, clothe, feed and provide healthcare for their children and the state fails to provide such basic human needs through public services, they will seek an alternative. The militant madrasahs have become, over time, an alternative government for millions of Pakistanis. ”
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West by Benazir Bhutto
And BB has not counted $10 Billion given by the US to add to our defense budget. She has also omitted secret budget that is often taken out from other sectors. Mission that Generals don’t take responsibility, eg Afghan/Kashmir covert operations.
How can education system flourish when everything is consumed by generals.
I belong to a bit well off family but we lived in an ordinary Muhallah in Lahore. My parents are not much educated so they sent me to a government school. I ’studied’ there for first 3/4 years. I did not learn any English. School had no toilet and I remember one poor kid who couldn’t control his stomach movement. He would become target of embarrassment. I still feel ashamed. God knows how is he doing now!
My brother had vision for me. He fought with my family. Took me to a top private school, gave me extra tuition for English and maths. He spent a lot of money on me.
Now I am in the UK and think where all my childhood class fellows would be? When we don’t have a toilet how can we expect a library in a school. And this was in Lahore! near Gulshan Ravi-e- Scheme. I visited many schools afterward (including Government Islamia High School Multan Road) and they all didn’t have toilet facilities.
I would REQUEST all the fortunate people to adopt one school in Pakistan and help them build toilet and a library, even if it has just 100 books.
It is really heart breaking…. but this is the reality and we need to face and do some thig about it.
First thing to do is to educate our teacher and increase the salary. In Pakistan one can easily become a teacher without any certification.It is the best past time which gives them the pocket money too. Government should increase the budget. The amount spent on the defence if 50 % of it is diverted to education sector will be helpful. There should be a real educated person at the top not any general. Ashraf Qazi after destroying Railways was given the task of ruining the education sector. It should be mandatory for every graduate to spend a year in the school teaching. Just like NCC in old days with the insentive to get a few more numbers.
It should be compulsory for all the ministers to send their kids to the public schools.
Not only words. We also need to see ground realities. What exactly did BB do in her periods as PM?
Hats of for IK, who is building a Namal Lake Technical college in Manwali.
/Saqib
@Optimist
Pretty inspirational narration. Thanks for sharing and good luck.
While I was a kid studying in a private primary school, across the road was a public high school. And the thing that always pinched me even at that time was that why public schools start teaching ABC from class-six?
When I was in a private secondary school, I always piched by the fact that the public school students study science subjects in urdu(even the terminology was in urdu say, “ansar” for element) And then they have two years in FSc which is the competition exam for young guys in itself, they have to learn science subjects from scratch due languge change & on top of that terminology change.
I don’t know whats going on now. But the biggest problem in our education system in public schools is that schools are meant to create an interest in studies by relating them to real life but they do stress on learning by heart each & everything.
Make the syllabus simple & teach them by relating it real life. There is a common notion in our villages/towns that “Putar parrh likh k ki karna aye” meaning don’t waste your time in education. Since we don’t relate mostly written things to our real life, people tend to believe that books are meant only for reading has nothing to do with real life. This notion is dngerous for our next generations.
And since we are now more vulnerable due to the technology innovation in IT & electronic media to the outer world, We should teaching our next generations Arabic & English languages, former would help them in a better understanding of Quran (their identity in the vulnerable) while later to communicate with rest of the world. The emphasis should be on speaking/listening.
@Saqib
BB not only created awareness but actually incresed the educational budget four folds. Her focus were the poor. Her emphasis was on primary education. Besides education she was also concerned for people’s heath in general and women’s in particular; she inducted 11000 lady health visitors, the people of rural areas are still reaping the benefits. O the contrary her political opponents actually decreased the edsucation budget. Musharraf had an inverted pyramid policy, he spent heavily on higher education.
We need to have an initiative where the needy and the donors can meet. There are three elements in a decentralized schooling system. Teacher, students, facilities (needs donors). It would be cool if these three elements could meet in cyberspace on a needs basis.
So the students register,
the teachers who want to teach register
donors who want to donate register.
Then we have a “KIT” which contains the basiscs for primary education that can be done on a “part time basis”
I’m not a social worker or welfare type person, so I don’t have very detailed ideas, but I think if we can get the children around the ages of 5-7 and give them the urge to read and some basic literacy skills we will create a more aware population in the next decade or so. A “distributed” cell-like schooling system, which churns out graduates with basic reading and maths skill and an urge to learn more on their own.
India is creating more IIT level schools and we are stll talking about most primary level schools not working. We really should be destroyed in the most heinous way.. but I digress.
If anyone wants to brainstorm this, let’s open a forum thread.
@Tab’an Khamosh
There is certianly a need for debate on this issue. Our discussion about Urdu could also be a part of it.
I will urge Admin to open a new thread with focus on education!
/Saqib
When the whole world has developed by giving education in their own language, why are we so enamoured by English? Isn’t it a product of our inferiority complex as a result of 100 years of British rule?
If China, Japan, Russia, Germany and France can progress by having students study in their national languages even in universities, why do we insist on teaching English from Class one? Why do we want to become a nation of clerks like india?
This comments has been deleted due to gross plagiarization.
@Plagiarist Name Deleted
you forgot to mention the source of your “comment”.
Here it is:
Link deteleted by admin
btw, do you know what was the literacy rate during all these times taht you glorify?
education was an extremely elite activity. Yes, many knew how to read Quran, but is there today as well.
But what one would consider education was only for the few. It is not a criticism because that was all taht was required in a pre-industrial society.
In the survey of 1400 years one can only come up with 5-6 major institutions and the names of about 100 scholars.
What was the rest of the society in terms of education?
Today also if we just want to list 5-6 institutions and 100 schoalrs that is no problem.
My friend, there is no doubt taht the Muslim past was good. I admire it to too. In fact, my screen name is one of those great scholars (if you had not realised). But it is no solutions to the different world we live in. If Khilafat was so good why did it end? There must be systematic weaknesses taht led to its downfall. Get out of ‘pidram sultan bood’ - I am sure i do not need to tranalsate since thsi language comes from the period that you so admire - and solve today’s problems by understanding them in a complex socio-political terms rather than simple moral-religious terms.
muqqafa
I believe Pakistan’s dismal educational performance is due to a number of reasons. They could be both economic and social. My views could really infuriate certain readers for which I apologize.
Firstly, as many have said in the past, we were never ready for independence in 1947. Hindus were. I dont want to go into details to prove my point because this would start another discussion. Anyway, despite this sudden physical transformation in 1947, even in 2008 we are mentally subjects of the west. Everything a white man does, we try our best to copy. The west celebrates Valentine Day, we have strted doing that. So much so, we also celebrate Holloween. LOL
We dont take pride in our own heritage.
In our mother tongue.
We dont take pride in our national language.
We are easily impressed by someone who speaks English.
In majority of the affluent homes in Islamabad the household language now is english.
Dont take me wrong, I have nothing against english. In fact, I would go as far as to say that english is absolutely necessary to progress in today’s U.S. dominated world. BUT… we should have a national pride and should not be ashamed to speak in urdu (in public) without thinking how one would be judged. Look at the children of Benazir….you see what I mean.
Secondly, when I was a student in one of the prestigious schools in U.S. I used to have lengthy discussions with one of my Chinese-American professor on why Chinese/Korean/Taiwanese students are so smart. He convinced me by looking at things from an interesting angle. Most of us who went to English medium schools were born in upper middle class families. To this day the major spoken language at our homes is either urdu or punjabi. According to my prof ,regardless how many languages one may learn during the course of one’s life, a person would never be able to comprehend anything as FAST and as CLEARLY as he/she would in his/her own language. THIS IS A PROVEN FACT. In our case, we can say our own language is urdu. So…
If we learn everything in our own language we would learn faster and understand better. THIS IS WHY…..every single research book that is published in U.S. is hurriedly translated in 6-7 chinese languages within a span of six months. Chinese govt. spends billions on such translations. And these translations are not just any translations. In these translations they leave the ‘KEYWORDS’ intact. For example, in medicine they would not translate ‘AORTA’ or ‘VENTRICLES’, they would leave these names exactly like that so the student whenever has to switch to english mode of instructions that transition becomes a non issue.
This is the reason that wherever you go, there are chinese in research and development. This is because their basis is strong, they really know what they are doing.
Unfortunately, most of Pakistanis go abroad just to get a stamp of American Universities and get good jobs.
My suggestion would be to ..
ABOLISH ALL ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOLS. TEACH THE LATEST CURRICULUM (IMPORTED FROM U.K/USA) DULY TRANSLATED INTO URDU. AND ENGLISH (DEFINITELY) SHOULD BE TAUGHT ONLY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE.
Having said that….we need finances to do all this. Well, when there is a will there is a way.
@Optimist
These Khilafat obsessed guys always do a lot of copy and paste work. In fact all their life is copy & paste. They refuse to have an indepndent thinking o any issue.
Long posts which nobody bothers to read.
/Saqib
Muslim-Spanish cities had lighting when Paris and London was in darkness. That was golden age of Islam in Europe.
We will progress again, but to do that we need to have principles, political awareness on grassroot level, vision, institutions, honest leaders, education. Without these we are doomed. Look at Pakistanis all around the world. Given the right environment they can deliver on all fronts.
/Saqib
@Saqib & Optimist: Right on! (now get ready to be labelled as Kuffar-e-Makkah)
As a matter of fact his intellectual ancestors opposed ALL those things in the Islamic Empire that they are now so happy to take credit of. They were the guys who spread BS about rational thought and physical sciences. They wanted people to engage in navel gazing and NOT do anything because we were going to die any way.
Muslims listened to these people and we are being slaughtered everywhere because THESE people decimated the education systems of the Islamic World. They burned philosophers at the stake while they busied themselves like “Mullah Diesel” with the bay-ah .
Think! why is it that everything that Revivalist and his ilk (like Osama Bin Laden) preach culminates in the ruin and destruction of the Muslim Ummah? From “voting” being evil to wasting energy in useless protest when that time could be better spent educating oneself?
@Tab’an Khamosh
The problem with these guys is normally that they do not find references in the holy Qur’an. They rather have a habit of referring to books written by ulema and wannabe ulema without any critical review of what they read.
015.091
YUSUFALI: (So also on such) as have made Qur’an into shreds (as they please).
Most Muslims are taught not to read and understand the holy Qur’an.
025.030
YUSUFALI: Then the Messenger will say: “O my Lord! Truly my people took this Qur’an for just foolish nonsense.”
Just read without understanding you will have benefit. That is what is taught to us. How can we get the divine message if we do not understand?
054.022
YUSUFALI: But We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?
They are somehow zombies left to believe what the ulema say and they only say what their school of thought says. They have locked themselves in certain patterns and can’t get out of fear of being labeled as outsiders.
047.024
YUSUFALI: Do they not then earnestly seek to understand the Qur’an, or are their hearts locked up by them?
I am not saying that all ulema are wrong. What i am saying is that it is useful to have a critical view of angle about anything you read. You have to know when it was written. Which affiliation did the guy have, What was the level of knowledge at that time and many more factors.
/Saqib
well……..i m from london and i have had most of my education in pakistan and i have studied in both so called private and public schools in pakistan.Well i think i learnd more from the public school as it had more decent teachers appointed then the private one.In private schools there is no discipline watsoever.Children of highly sourceable people are studying in private schools and abusing teachers ,indulging in group fights, taking drugs,alcohol at minor age ,and learning all kinds of things which are premature for their ages and not acceptable by Islam.my point of saying all this is that there are many govt schools which are not very posh but then again do we want our children to grow up as soldiers doctors engineers watsoever or make them drug addicts and letting deppression and inferiority complex chase them through out there lives??????
I really do not think that Gen Mush is going to let PPP form the Government. It is already seven day past and election commission has yet to issue notification only after that Gen Mush can call Parlaiment.
well the only option is a single education system. thats it. one that is run by government and all childrent go to same schools. but thats not going to happen so doesnt matter
@ khamosh & saqib
TK Say something new bro.
Bro saqib when ever I post something I give evidence from Islam and I accept the same. Apart from that I prove from reality why secularism is self contradictory and unnatural.
Regards
@Revivalist
It is exactly here the contradiction is, my friend. What is Islam?
According to my conviction Islam is Al-Qur’an and Sunnah. I believe in that, but I will remind you there is a big difference between what is actual sunnah i.e. what the Prophet (saw) actually has recommended and practised in his lifetime, and what is written in the hadith books. Much of what is written is done several decades or centuries after the life of Prophet Muhammad (Saw). I regard these books as hisoricial references with more or less reliability. I am sorry to say, but some of these references seems like pure nonsense. None and absoluteley none can be compared to the holy Al-Qur’an!
/Saqib
Someone mentioned to stop brain drain or to bring them back. Mush’s regieme has done another terrible thing which unfortunately was not taken serious by many people. Under his “GODFATHERS” ORDERS he has slashed permanent posts in every department. Fine, it works well when you are talking about projects whether private or state owned, but if you need people to develop research or any service i.e medicine, you need people for more or less permanent positions. Contracts are fine for trainees but not as consultants. Govt. can introduce appraisals to monitor the progress of an individual like in every other country.Many people like me do like to return back and give our people something back which they have given us. Question arises why would someone leave his setup and permanent job for the sake of one to three yrs contract, which may not get extended. Money is not issue that how much we will be paid, its the job security which is more important. Currently his regieme is not only stopping people to back rather pushing the talents out of the country for the sake of simple living. I wish new Govt. take some steps to correct this chaos.