|
UK Chevening scholarships for the year 2009-10
Chevening scholarship deadline Sep 15
Karachi, Aug 09, 2008: The British Council has announced the Chevening
scholarships for the year 2009-10, which covers the cost of a year's
post-graduate study in the UK. Projects Manager Seema Khan said that the
deadline for the applications is September 15 and application forms are
available from selected TCS outlets or from the British Council website. These
scholarships are awarded to Pakistanis with high intellectual abilities who will
play a formative role in the country's development. Last year (2008-09) there
were 425 applicants from Sindh and Balochistan and 25 were short-listed for
interviews. The four candidates finally selected will leave in the next couple
of months for higher studies in the UK. The scholarship is for one year of
post-graduate study in the UK. App
Post your comments
Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan exam results in September
Karachi: The annual examinations of 90,195 madrassas or religious
seminaries held by the biggest board, the Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan
(WMAP), started on August 2 and ended August 7. Their results will be available
in the first week of Ramadan. "The work on result preparations will start within
this week and the results will be finalized in three weeks and hopefully the
results will be announced on the first Ramadan (first week of September)," said
the WMAP's Qari Hanif Jalandhri on Friday. Answers
booklets would be checked in Karachi rather than in Multan, owing to the warm
weather and constant load shedding. The examinations were held peacefully and no
complaints were reported. "We had doubts that some problems might occur due to
the situation in the tribal areas," he said, but there was peace in Kurram
Agency, Dera Ismail Khan, Matta, Swat, Bajaur, Wana, Waziristan, Charsadda and
in other sensitive areas. Daily Times
Post your comments
'Peela' school children tickled pink with real academics
Karachi: Over 600 students at three major government school campuses located along the sewerage drain known as the Green
Belt in Mehmoodabad are getting a real academic environment for the first time
ever as a group of philanthropists have decided to make the 'peela school
culture' evaporate forever, it was learnt on Friday.
The students
will also celebrate the country's 61st Independence Day on August 14 after a gap
of four years by organizing and participating in a number of events, including
national songs competition, tableaus and other related activities.
The
three schools, a primary, a secondary and a higher secondary campus, are spread
on approximately 4.5 acres alongside one of the city's major sewerage drains,
best known as the Mehmoodabad Green Belt, Jamshed Town. The provincial and city
government education departments neglected these schools and the teachers did
not show any interest in them.
The school buildings look war-torn and
most of the open spaces became part of the adjoining sewerage drains. The
accumulating sewerage water ate away at the boundary walls, bringing them down,
and added to the damage to the single-storey buildings that now have multiple
cracks after the basements were split by seepage.
The 17-year-old schools
have a very low actual enrollment but show a record enrollment on paper; in fact
the school received a larger school management committee (SMC) fund for the last
many years than any other school in the city. The SMC fund is issued according
to the number of students enrolled in the school.
For the last two years,
the Awami Welfare Services (AWS), a Citizens Community Board (CCB), has taken
charge of these schools to improve their overall condition both physically and
academically. The AWS comprises renowned professionals, including educators,
engineers and businessmen, and is headed by Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Siddiqui, while
its executive committee consists of Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui, Pervez Sadiq,
Engineer Khalid Jamil Ansari and others. Only two months ago, the city council
formally handed over charge of the school to the AWS and approved its proposal
for a renovation and uplift project worth Rs 10.5 million.
During a visit
of green belt schools on Friday, this correspondent observed that AWS members
have achieved some what they proposed to do two years ago when they approached
the city government to register their CCB and propose a project worth Rs 28
million.
AWS President Siddiqui said that the AWS is focused
on three major projects to improve three schools, the Government Higher
Secondary School in Mehmoodabad, the CMS Higher Secondary Schools on Nishtar
Road and the Government Higher Secondary School on University Road. However, the
school on University Road will be replaced with another school project as the
city government has adopted this school as a model school.
The goal is to
refurbish these schools, which are in worse condition than any other city
government schools, and this is a joint venture by the Federation of Pakistan
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and the CMIS. The CMIS is a committee
set up to monitor and improve CDGK schools and to complete two pilot projects,
the establishment of 40 model schools and the setting up of a town educational
development center.
AWS Executive Committee Member Engineer Anwarul Haq
said that they have focused on five basic necessities which are
missing from these schools. "Provision of potable water, improvement and
installing of sewerage system, providing security and safety to the students as
well as infrastructure, furniture and installing electricity with electric water
coolers, fans and other facilities," he said.
He said that during the
last two years, they did what they could with the financial assistance
generously provided by renowned businessmen. They have pooled some million
rupees to upgrade the overall conditions of these three campuses. The city
government has yet to issue its share, 80 percent of the total cost, while the
CCB has raised the 20 percent, which the AWS has submitted as its share in the
Rs 28 million project, he said.
"Most of the open spaces on the premises
of these three schools were inundated with sewerage water throughout the year
but in collaboration with Jamshed Town Nazim Javed Ahmed, we filled these
ditches. The town nazim also provided potable water connections for the schools.
Besides this work, we also renovated the auditorium which had disappeared under
wild weeds that engulfed the whole structure," he said.
The AWS members
have shown great enthusiasm in bringing such an extraordinary change to the
current education system and said that if the government shows a greater
interest in supporting philanthropists this way, the academic situation in the
city can be upgraded in record time.
Currently, the three schools have a
total of 695 students and a staff of 50, which includes teachers and the
non-teaching staff. The AWS members want to increase enrolment of students and
teachers.
"Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq recently assured us
that the government is inducting 7,000 teachers for the schools of the province
and needs of all schools located in Karachi will be addressed on priority," Haq
said.
However, the AWS is also devising various plans to encourage
students and teachers to make these institutes role models for academic
institutes located in the Mehmoodabad and Jamshed Town, which comprises 13 union
councils with a total population of 733,821 as per the 1998 census. Daily Times
Post your comments
|
