Entries categorized as ‘Education’
KARACHI: Chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has stressed the need of grooming and educating the youth to assume the country’s leadership while keeping the traditional values of the society intact.
He criticised the rulers “for toeing the American line” by trying to impose a ‘secular education system’ in the country. The new education system, according to him, would prepare an army of Pakistanis who would be American in their thought and serve their masters without giving a second thought to the welfare of the country.
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Categories: Education · Pakistan
‘Muslim deprivation, not religion, led to Partition’
* New Pak Studies syllabus ‘eliminates prejudice against non-Muslims’
* Includes concept of ‘enlightened moderation’, economic and privatisation policies, October 1999 coup
By Irfan Ghauri
ISLAMABAD: The government has made drastic changes in the new Pakistan Studies curriculum, including new chapters on the Musharraf government’s economic and privatisation policies and “enlightened moderation”, and less biased explanations of the Two-Nation Theory and Partition.
The causes of the military takeover of October 12, 1999, the devolution of power process introduced by Gen Musharraf’s government and the 2002 elections will also be covered in this section.
Special space has been given to Musharraf’s policies of enlightened moderation, privatisation and industrialisation. Also included are the economic reforms of the present government masterminded by Shaukat Aziz, first as finance minister and then prime minister.
Complete Story: Daily Times
Categories: Dictatorship · Education · Pakistan
PAKISTAN’S education policymakers are in for a shock. Unesco, which has been monitoring the performance of countries in the school sector, has released its report for 2006 and the findings on Pakistan are dismal. All the tall claims made by the government notwithstanding, the intake of children in school is not increasing. Nearly 6.5 million children in the age group five to nine years in Pakistan are out of school — they are either helping their family with housework at home, or are part of the child labour force or are loitering in the streets. This is not taking the country anywhere close to the millennium development goal of education for all. It is not boosting the literacy rate either. As the chief of the policy review team in the ministry of education disclosed, the enrolment ratios can be quite misleading. Though 59 per cent of the children are enrolled in primary schools, on an average the boys spend only 3.8 years and the girls 1.3 years in school instead of the conventional five years. No wonder, the drop-out rate is phenomenally high.
Continue reading: Dawn Editorial
Categories: Articles & Reports · Education · Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Experiencing a rise in its illiterate population, Pakistan ranks second among the countries of the world with highest number of out-of-school children.
These shocking revelations about Pakistan, which spends a little over 2 per cent of its GDP on education, were made in Unesco’s Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2007 launched here on Thursday.
However, Minister of State for Education Anisa Zeb Tahirkhaili, who was the chief guest at the launch ceremony, said she was hopeful about the situation despite Unesco’s scepticism.
Continue reading on: Dawn
Categories: Education · International View · News Items · Pakistan
By Shahid Javed Burki
WE in Pakistan — and by that I mean those who make economic policies and those who comment on them — are not given to deep reflection. Why? There are several reasons. The country’s colleges and universities don’t teach economics, political science, sociology and anthropology the way they should be taught.
Consequently, those who enter public service either as politicians or government servants are poorly equipped to handle economic and social issues. Those who write on these issues from outside the government are equally ill-equipped to correctly analyse the situation or events on which they comment.
Continue reading on: Dawn
Categories: Articles & Reports · Economy · Education
Asia Report N°84
7 October 2004
Pakistan’s deteriorating education system has radicalised many young people while failing to equip them with the skills necessary for a modern economy. The public, government-run schools, which educate the vast majority of children poorly rather than the madrasas (religious seminaries) or the elite private schools are where significant reforms and an increase in resources are most needed to reverse the influence of jihadi groups, reduce risks of internal conflict and diminish the widening fissures in Pakistani society. Both the government and donors urgently need to need give this greater priority.
Recent attempts at reform have made little headway, and spending as a share of national output has fallen in the past five years. Pakistan is now one of just twelve countries that spend less than 2 per cent of GDP on education. Moreover, an inflexible curriculum and political interference have created schools that have barely lifted very low literacy rates.
In January 2002, President Pervez Musharraf’s government presented its Education Sector Reform (ESR) plan, aimed at modernising the education system. A major objective was to develop a more secular system in order to offset mounting international scrutiny and pressure to curb religious extremism in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks. But Pakistani governments, particularly those controlled by the military, have a long history of failing to follow through on announced reforms.
Executive Summary & Recoomendations: www.crisisgroup.org
Full Report
Categories: Articles & Reports · Economy · Education · International View · Pakistan
