| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Seminary syllabus blamed for terrorism |
| 2011-05-29 |
| [Dawn] Curriculum being taught at seminaries, where according to a rough estimate over 2.5 million students are enrolled, is promoting terrorism in the country, said prominent columnist Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui on Friday. Delivering his presidential address at a seminar on "Dismal state of education in Pakistain" held at the PMA House under the aegis of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain, he said that it had become a hallmark of the planning commission of Pakistain and the ministry of finance to present exaggerated and fictitious figures concerning the country's gross domestic product on the basis of which funds were allocated to the education and health sectors in budgets. He said the ruling class had never believed in the cause of education because this would lead to questioning their right to rule and it seemed that those at the helm of affairs had purposely kept the masses illiterate. Presenting a bleak picture of the country's education system, he said that according to an international survey "we are intellectually a dead country because our libraries are not well-equipped and lack the minimum number of information units in a library". He deplored that none of the national education policies devised so far had been able to decide about the medium of instruction, while tools for imparting education in the mother tongue were not available in the country. Presenting her paper on "The language barrier in education", senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa said that while all the 10 national education policies announced so far in the country were vague in their substance, respective governments failed to implement even such policies in letter and spirit. She said that the National Education Policy of 2009 had allowed provinces to choose the language for imparting education, but the provinces had not been able to do so and were still confused whether it should be the national language, English or the one being spoken in their respective province. She said that there was no doubt both the English and national languages played a vital role in one's life but it was their mother tongue in which children could grasp maximum about their subjects with much ease and comfort. Endorsing the views of a speaker who spoke on the topic of commercialisation of education, Ms Mustafa said there was no doubt that most educational institutions were being run on a commercial basis. There were also some good institutions, which were imparting quality education, but even many well-off families could not afford to pay the fee they charged. She was also of the opinion that the present education system had widened the gap between different classes in the country. Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology speaking on the subject of "Devolution of HEC and Model University Ordinance" said that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) must be devolved to the province under the 18th constitutional amendment and it should now be the responsibility of all the provinces to improve the functioning of the HECs of their respective provinces. Criticising the Model University Ordinance under which the federal university was set up in 2002, he said that the ordinance was not only 'unrealistic' but was at variance with different cultures in the country. "There are so many articles in the ordinance which cannot be implemented in letter and spirit," he added. Former controller of examinations of the Board of Secondary Education Bloody Karachi Javed Iftikhar underscored the need for conducting exams and compilation of results in a transparent manner. Speaking about growing interference in the examination system, he said that as a matter of fact all sorts of interference in the examination system could be averted by influential people if they wished to do so. Referring to the governor's recent directive to the BSEK that the number of examination centres be curtailed considerably, he said that the controlling authority of the boards should provide guidance to board officials for improving the exam system and the matters concerning the number of centres should be left at the discretion of the controller of examinations. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 I've seen estimates that Pakistan had 5 million madrassah students in 2008, with a similar number in India. In Pakistan this is because they can't afford to the fees of the state schools, in India so that they won't be polluted by secular education -- no worries about the taint of secular education in Pakistan except at expensive private schools. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-05-29 09:57 |