Private schools against online education

Private schools against imparting education online
Karachi, Nov 5: The administration of private schools has rejected the idea of imparting education online due to the recent wave of terrorism. Thse institutions are seriously considering over the continuous threat of terrorism that may cause deferment in the educational activities. The facility of email cannot be ignored in term of giving home work to students at their home, besides some other sources are also being considered by some elite-class private schools, a Chief Executive Officer of a leading private school said on Tuesday.

She said that some private elite educational institutions in the City had already been sent threat-letters by unknown groups, but the government did nothing in this regard apart from issuing eight-point security plan to schools.

Talking about the issue of online teaching, an owner of a private school said that majority of schools have already rejected the idea of online teaching because of reluctance from parents who usually do not allow their children to use internet facility at home. However, the majority of school entities are agreed over the efficacy of the home work that can be given to students in case of any untoward situation to protect the academic time of the batches, he said.

The provincial government has no plan to save the educational institutions in the province, despite the fact that private institutions especially missionary and community educational institutions are on the real risk of terror activities, he claimed.

It is pertinent to mention here that a bomb hoax at the primary section of Saint's Joseph School few days back had created the immense panic and fear among the students and staff of the Saint Joseph School.

A lady teacher of a leading private school of city said that the school's administration had directed teachers to collect the date of students so that in state of any mishap such data can be used to cover the academic loss of the students.

Besides, parents have expressed their concerns over the presence of vendors outside the premises of the missionary schools where thousands of students are enrolled.

One of the complainers informed that vendors, some of them were Afghans, used to setup their temporary pushcarts outside the schools that was not only threat to the security of the institutions but also schools' managements. The nation

Post your comments

A shady reopening of ghost schools
Karachi: At a time when the country faces an economic crisis and the government needs to undertake austerity measures to tackle the situation, the Sindh Education Ministry-arranged trip for journalists to witness Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq reopen ghost schools in Nangarparkar is a perfect example of how taxpayers' money is being wasted. The two-day trip's sole purpose was that the journalists of Karachi and Hyderabad could witness the reopening of the schools first-hand. But despite that, the minister went on to inaugurate the schools with the journalists left waiting at the local administration office. The journalists were shocked when education ministry officials told them that the minister had already visited the schools and he would brief them about the reopening later.

When the journalists demanded that they should be taken to the 'reopened schools', the officials turned down their demand. Many journalists, irked by the attitude of the education ministry, refused to attend the minister's briefing. It is pertinent to mention here that there are around 8,000 ghost schools in interior Sindh and according to the education ministry's reports, around 1,400 of them have been reopened. Nangarparkar is a small town located in the Tharparkar district of Sindh. The media has highlighted the issue of ghost schools in this area time and again. The area's influential people are using many of these schools as their personal property.

Had the journalists been allowed to visit the schools, they could have provided an actual picture of the progress made on the rehabilitation of ghost schools to the public, however, the education ministry officials' reluctance in taking them to the schools has raised many questions. What is more puzzling is that apart from some close aides of the minister, no one knows which schools did the minister visit, how many schools are still closed and what happened at the time of the reopening. The education ministry officials later attributed the cancellation of the journalists' visit to the schools to miscommunication among different ministry officials. If this is true, it is a glaring example of how things work in the government departments.

"The taxpayers' money gets wasted in this manner. The journalists should have been taken to the schools so that the true picture of the situation could be presented to the masses," said Irfan Jan, a senior journalist, who has been working in the field of education for the last 12 years. One of the officials of the education department said the minister was angry with the officials who did not take the journalists to the schools. However, this was not enough. Daily times

Post your comments

FUUAST announces MA, BA results
Karachi: The Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) announced the results of MA (private) final 2008 and BA (private) part-I and II, 2008 on Wednesday. According to a notification issued by Controller examinations FUUAST 296 candidates passed the MA examination out of 374 who had appeared in it. The passing percentage was 79.14. While 203 candidates passed BA examination out of 335 who had appeared in it. The passing percentage was 60.60. In the MA examination Irum Zehra clinched top position in Islamiat. Muhammad Kamran Qureshi and Muhammad Mansoor retained second and third spots, respectively.

Post your comments

BIEK announced exam forms date
Karachi: The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) has announced that all eligible private candidates of Humanities group for HSC Supplementary Examinations-2009 could submit their exam forms and fee without late fee from November 10 to November 19. A late fee of Rs200 would be charged from Nov 20 to Nov 30; Rs500 from Dec 1 to Dec 9 and a late fee of Rs1000 from Dec 10 to Dec 14. The exam forms and fee will be could be submitted at United Bank, BIEK branch.

Post your comments

Poster competition held at KU
Karachi: University of Karachi (KU) Vice Chancellor Prof. Pirzada Qasim and Sindh minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon jointly inaugurated the poster competition at the Department of Social Work on Monday. Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, Professor at the Department organised the event that depicted the various problems of the city.

The themes of the posters included 'Traffic Problems, Homeless Children, Marriage and Dowry Problems, Morning scene at Karachi, Responsibilities of Media, Street Crimes, Poverty and Unemployment, Immorality and Violence on Women and increase in Suicidal tendency.

Prof Qasim said that the world had become a global village and the students at the KU were part of it and he was proud of them for their intelligent endevour. The student of Social Work have the in depth knowledge of the society and Dr Nasreen Shah was ably guiding them. The news

Post your comments

Students advised to take part in CSS exams
Hyderabad: Talented and meritorious students are advised to utilize their abilities in achieving high government positions by appearing in competitive examinations of the Central Superior Services.

Members of the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC) Major General (Retd) Ovais Mushtaq Qureshi and Masood Alam Rizvi said this while lecturing at the University of Sindh on Tuesday.

They told the students not to fell shy in appearing in the CSS examinations as this would provide them with more opportunities in life.

Mr Qureshi explained the procedure of general recruitment in the federal government departments through the FPSC in BPS 16 and above grades, while Mr Masood Alam Rizvi delved on the importance of CSS examinations and informed the audience that the job quota of Sindh could not be fulfilled as candidates qualifying in written and viva voce remained short.

Majority of our brainy graduates prefer private occupations because of high salary package and facilities such positions carry, he said while exhorting on the youths to appear in the CSS examinations for competing in different federal government employments and feared that any lapse on their part would not help in achieving development targets.

He said that all seats of Punjab get filled as bright candidates begin preparation for the CSS examinations right from the beginning. He asked the Sindh University students to prepare for the CSS examinations.

Post your comments

Minister admits shortage of teachers
Mithi: Sindh Minister for Education Pir Mazharul Haq has said that the ban on appointments in government departments for more than 13 years in the past has created shortage of teachers in the schools of the province. However, he said, the present government was making all out efforts to open the non-functional schools and provide teachers to educational institutes.

He was talking to journalists in Nagarparkar where he had come to assess the efforts to reopen 80 non-functional schools of Tharparkar district. He said that about 13,000 posts of high, junior and primary school teachers were lying vacant and 22,000 candidates had passed test for the posts. It was under active consideration of the Sindh government to fill the posts as soon as possible to remove the sense of disappointment among qualified youths.

Answering a question about the strategy the government had devised to overcome the shortage of teachers and open the non-functioning schools, he said that despite financial constraints, a plan had been chalked out to do the needful with the collaboration of the National Commission for Human Resources Development, Education Foundation and Ed Links.

Earlier, disembarking from his vehicle and talking to protesting youths at Islamkot bypass, who have not been issued posting orders for the post of teachers, the minister assured them that the government was aware of their concern and they would be provided jobs. Dawn

Post your comments

Dr Wahab felicitated by Japanese foreign minister
Karachi: Professor Dr Abdul Wahab, the President of Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, has been congratulated by Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada on being conferred a prestigious award by the Japanese government. Wahab, who has also headed the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), was conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, which is the second-highest award given by the Japanese government, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to education. The Minister offered him his best wishes and hoped he would continue with his good work in the future. The news

Post your comments