Failed education policy? | Madrassa students Maths paper
'Failed' education policy may remain in force for another two years
Karachi, June 06: A flawed educational policy was pursued over the last 10 years
by the federal government, which has decided to review it as the National
Education Policy (1998-2010) has failed to deliver. Convinced that the
policy has remained ineffective, the federal ministry of education believes that
it has failed to achieve desired results, particularly with regard to access to
education, quality of education and equal educational opportunities for all.
Formulated in 1998, the national education policy (NEP) was designed to
achieve the projected targets in 12 years. However, ineffectiveness of
the policy in certain areas has compelled the ministry to review it two years
before its expiry. The NEP framework is found to be an unsatisfactory guideline
and has failed to show the desired results, according to senior ministry
officials. The draft of a revised education policy was supposed to be
announced initially by the end of 2008 and then in March this year. However, it
could not be announced for want of its approval by the federal cabinet.
The draft was presented in the first week of April to the federal
cabinet, which deferred an approval on the grounds that the document lacked
vision, implementation strategy and clear goals. The cabinet, with a
view to making the new education policy more comprehensive and target-oriented,
had asked the federal ministry of education to put forward the draft to the
chief ministers of all four provinces for their comments. Federal
Minister for Education Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said recently that since the
federal education ministry had not yet received the chief ministers' feedback,
he would have to liaison between his ministry and the provinces in order to
expedite the process of finalising a new education policy. He was quoted as
saying that the draft of a revised policy along with the provinces' feedback had
to be presented again to the federal cabinet for approval at the earliest.
Teachers' concern Expressing concern over the inordinate delay
being caused by the provinces in responding to the federal cabinet's request for
their feedback on the draft policy, president of the Sindh Professors and
Lecturers Association (SPLA), Karachi chapter, Prof Ather Mirza said that the
provincial chief executives' attitude clearly indicated how much importance they
give to education. He pointed out that the people at the helm of the
affairs had always been claiming to have accorded top priority to education and
were committed to increase the literacy rate in the country but they had failed
even to formulate a comprehensive and practicable policy through which they
could achieve the desired results and goals. The federal ministry of education
has long been emphasising the need for imparting education in English language,
the ground realities is that the country is not likely to overcome the shortage
of English teachers at least in the next 10 years since the number of students
doing their masters in English at all universities of the country has remained
negligible. "The requirement of English teachers to achieve this goal is quite
high," he said giving an example. Giving another relating to quality of
education, Prof Mirza referred to the physics book-II being taught to Class XII
students throughout the country since 1993 and said its contents were much below
the standard of the book that used to be taught before 1993. Uniform
curriculum The SPLA leader was of the view that a uniform curriculum for
all educational institutions across the country would have to be implemented
through the new/revised national education policy if the government was really
sincere in doing away with the class-based system that was mainly responsible
for its failure to ensure equal educational opportunities for all.
Referring to a recent statement attributed to Shehnaz Wazir Ali,
chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) that there was no need to
change the education policy pursued during the Musharraf era, a senior
educationist who wished not to be named, said that her views had not only
created much confusion about the education policy currently undergoing some
changes, but also reflected a difference of opinion between hers and the federal
education minister vis-à-vis the education policy. The educationists
pointed out that since the draft of the revised education policy still had to go
through several phases ie provinces' feedback and its evaluation by the federal
education ministry, finalisation of the draft and its presentation before the
cabinet and an approval by the federal cabinet before getting through the
National Assembly, the country would have to pursue the same flawed and
ineffective NEP for the rest of its term that would end in 2010. Dawn
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Madrassa students to give maths paper
Karachi: Board of Intermediate
Secondary Education Karachi (BIEK) Chairman Professor Anwar Ahemad Zai said that
from this year, madrassa students who have completed their education and are
seeking an equivalence certificate of intermediate will have to give an
additional paper of General Mathematics along with English in the upcoming
intermediate exams. He added that 70,000 students including madrassa students
have submitted their forms to enter the intermediate papers of Humanities. The
papers of both private and regular students are starting from the 18
June. Meanwhile, IBCC Assistant Secretary (Karachi) Liaquat Baloch said that
the IBCC will not attest certificates of madrassa students who want to get
admissions abroad for higher education. Instead, the students will have to get
their certificates attested from the education department as well as the
concerned embassy. Daily Times
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Radio Diagnostic Complex to be launched at DUHS
Karachi: The inauguration ceremony of Radio
Diagnostic Complex at Dow (DUHS) Ojha campus will be held on Saturday, June 6 at
4.30pm sharp under the supervision of, Professor Masood Hameed Khan, Vice
chancellor DUHS. Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat ul Ibad and Provincial Minister for
health, Dr Sagheer Ahmed will be the chief guest and guest of honour on this
occassion respectively.
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KU offers diploma in Investigative Psychology
Karachi: The Department of Psychology has announced a one-year
postgraduate diploma in "Investigative Psychology" for law-enforcement agencies
personnel in the Evening programme (6.00pm to 9.00pm). The candidates with a
minimum of Bachelors degree in at least in Second Division are eligible for the
diploma. The last date of submission of forms is June 10. Addendum: Admission
forms for the Post Magisterial Diploma in Industrial/Organizational Psychology
for the evening session (6.00pm to 9.00pm) are available from the Silver Jubilee
gate, University of Karachi. The eligibility criterion for admissions is Masters
in Psychology or any other professional degree.
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Short-films by SZABIST students awarded
Karachi: The prize distribution and screening of the short films made in
the 'Kodak and SZABIST 16mm Workshop' was held at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) auditorium. The
event started with a welcome speech by SZABIST Media Sciences Coordinator
Daniyal Ali Khan, who thanked the global film giant and the film makers who made
this workshop a success. The country manager of the film company, Javaid Jaafri
appreciated the efforts put in by the students and expressed his interest in
future collaboration with film schools such as SZABIST. The jury of the
screenings included president and project director, SZABIST, Javaid R Laghari,
Javaid Jaafri, Daniyal Ali Khan and VJ Faizan. A total of 13 short films were
screened. The screening started with Jasim Haider's 'Cruel Intentions', followed
by Hamad Khan's comedy 'Merey Dost.' Other films that were screened included
Farigh, Jiddat, Citrus, Truth, 2minutes, click!, Choti Baat, Mama Kehti Hai and
others. Later, Laghari and Jaafri distributed the prizes amongst the
winners. The first prize of Rs10,000 was awarded to 'Citrus' directed by Abdul
Rafay Mahmood, 'Jiddat' directed by Abdul Aziz and Mohd Saqib took away the
second prize of Rs5000 while the third prize of Rs3000 went to 'Merey Dost'
directed by Hamad Khan. The News
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