Sindh position holders educational trip to Punjab
Sindh position holders to go on Punjab educational trip
Karachi, Oct 6: The students who attained top positions in different boards in Sindh
will go on a Punjab tour and would be the ambassadors of their province
during the visit, said Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy Pir
Mazharul Haq while addressing a ceremony hosted in honour of 21
position holders, by Sindh Education Dept at a local hotel. "We
are proud of the position holders. The Sindh Education Department would
invite the position holders of Punjab Education Boards to visit Sindh.
I appreciate the teachers and parents of the position holders and the
achievements are a result of their joint efforts," said Pir Mazhar. The
position holders along with educationists left for the trip on Monday
(today) morning. They are scheduled to visit historical places and
prominent educational institutions during the visit which has been
offered by the Punjab government. On the occasion, Sindh
government also honoured the position holders with cash
prizes, appreciation certificates and shields. The news
Post your comments
Criticism of co-education: Saudi scholar sacked
Riyadh: Senior Saudi scholar Sheikh Saad Al Shethry, a member of
the government-sanctioned Saudi Supreme Committee of (Islamic)
Scholars, who has openly criticised co-education at a new $10 billion
university, has been removed from his position by King Abdullah.
The royal order gave no reason for the action, but the decision came
after Shethry publicly criticised co-education at the King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology. The university, located north of
Jeddah, is part of King Abdullah's plan to equip Saudi Arabia to
conduct advanced scientific research. Sheikh Saad bin Nasser Al Shethry
was first reported to have resigned from the board of the Council of
Senior Clerics. The move came after Sheikh Shethry publicly
criticised the newly opened university and its curriculum. "We are
looking at some of the sciences that have included some irregular and
alien ideologies, like evolution and such other ideologies," the daily
Al-Watan quoted him as saying last week in response to a viewer's
question on Al-Majd television channel. He also recommended
setting up Sharia committees at the university to oversee these studies
and look into what violates the Sharia, the newspaper quoted him as
saying. He demanded an end to co-ed classes in the
university. "Mixing is a great sin and a great evil," Al Shethry was
quoted as saying by Al-Watan. "When men mix with women, their hearts
burn and they will be diverted from their main goal (which is) ...
education." The post-graduate institution has been projected as a "beacon of tolerance".
More than 800 students from 61 countries have enrolled at the
university which aims to expand to around 2,000 students within eight
to 10 years. Of the total, 15 per cent will be Saudis, university
officials have said. Dawn
Post your comments
Poverty eradication must to boost literacy
Karachi: Sindh Senior Minister for Education and Literacy Pir
Mazhar-ul-Haq has said that it is imperative to spread education in
order to eradicate poverty and illiteracy from society. He was
speaking in a seminar held at local hotel to celebrate the World
Teachers' Day, here on Monday. He said the government is taking steps
to ensure better facilities to teachers including allowances, medical,
residential and recreational facilities and steps for a better future
of their children. Provincial Minister said that teachers have
always been respected in our is termed a noble profession, as all
Prophets themselves were teachers of mankind. He said it is on the
government priority to revive a due social status for teachers. He said
all teachers in the province would be provided with all basic
facilities including good salaries and allowances, he added. He said
that we face shortage of teachers in schools and colleges in rural
areas; however, now comparatively more teachers are willingness to
serve in these areas. "I request to all educators and educational
institutions to come forth and promote education in rural areas, which
would be greatly helpful for country's prosperity and
development." Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq said his that his mother was also a teacher and due
to her efforts, he and his brother acquired higher social positions. He
said in past teachers used to get promotions on political basis;
however, we have changed this tradition and transfers and promotions in
education sector now are being carried out on merit. He said a
summary has been forwarded to Sindh Chief Minister for increase in pay
scales of teachers to make them par with teachers' pay scales in other
provinces. Special Assistant to Prime Minister Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali,
Member National Assembly Nafeesa Shah, Education Secretary Rizwan
Memon, and a large number of teachers attended the moot. The nation
Post your comments
Flowing into the realm of calligraphy
Karachi: Cultural exchanges are always a welcome sight in this
entertainment-starved city. As such, it was a pleasant happening when
the first cultural envoy in 30 years from the USA came to Karachi to
collaborate with the Thespianz Theatre. The play, titled, "Water
Calligraphy", was staged at the PACC on Sunday and Monday evenings. The
envoy, Dr Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, is an Associate Professor at the
University of Washington and an expert in performing arts, dance,
theatre, teaching studio classes, directing, and choreography. It was
no surprise when the organisers announced that she had been handed the
chair of director for the play and choreographing the dance sequences.
She even wrote part of the story for the play. The play, a dance
theatre, was about the importance of water and our apathetic attitude
towards this precious commodity. It integrated western singing and
modern dancing with theatre. The play started with a multitude
of characters moving about the stage in premeditated paths. The
Calligraphy Man was depicted as an old man who tries to do calligraphy
on the ground using water. Aban and Bahaar are two close friends in
search of something to do that would bring them the riches but they are
often at odds with each other over the morality of their actions. Abida
and Mehreen are aunt and niece, who live in New York. They are
infatuated with collecting junk and deciphering their stories. As much
as this irks her aunt, Mehreen does what she wants. While deciding what
to do with her junk and their stories, she dreams of the water going
dry. This prompts her to call her friend Bahaar and Aban and urge them
to do something to conserve water. The cast included Osama
Ghazai, Mehreen Hashmi, Qurut-ul-ain Shamim, Haseeb Aslam, Hamid Malik,
Mudasir, Alamgir Khan and Zeeshan Hussain. Three dancers employed in
the performance included Alamgir Khan, Arfeen Iqbal and Sikander while
vocals for the accompanying songs were provided by Shahzaib Waheed Khan. Having
just got into town nine days earlier, the lack of time for preparation
and perhaps a language barrier between Dr Kochhar-Lindgren, the actors
struggled with their speech and made it difficult to grasp the
performance. The news
Post your comments
Egyptian scholar asks student to remove veil
Cairo: Egypt's leading cleric ordered a student to remove her
face veil while he was visiting an academy linked to the Al Azhar
University in Cairo, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Monday.
Mohammed Tantawi, Azhar's Grand Imam, asked the student to take off her
veil when he spotted her in a classroom, the daily Al-Mary al-Yowm
reported, adding that the student complied. Mr Tantawi reportedly
said the niqab was a tradition, not an Islamic obligation.
The newspaper also reported that the Minister for Higher Education Hani
Hilal decided to ban women wearing the niqab from entering university
residences. Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, a veil
that covers the hair, but an increase in women wearing the niqab has
apparently alarmed the government. The ministry of religious
endowments has distributed booklets in mosques against the practice.
Post your comments
Islamkot's only girls school a victim of neglect
Mithi: Expressing concern over the shortage of teachers and
class rooms in the Government Girls High School, Islamkot, the
residents demanded funds for the construction of additional class rooms
and repair of the dilapidated building and also called for inducting
female teachers for smooth functioning. Virjimal, Khilumal,
Khushhaldas, Mubarak, Abdul Latif and others said on Monday that
more than 375 girls were enrolled there. This was the only girls'
school in the area, they said adding that out of seven female teachers
only four were conducting the classes and three were on deputation in
Chelhar and Mithi. Teachers take lessons beneath the trees
due to the shortage of class rooms, the school building is in
dilapidated condition and also lacks bathroom facility, they said.
Dust is eating 16 computers because of unavailability of an instructor,
students are suffering due to the absence of a science teacher, road
passing through the school is in shambles with yawning gutters and
heaps of rubbish adorning the school. Dawn
Post your comments
Four education officials arrested in Dadu
Dadu: Four officials of the Sindh Education Department were arrested
on corruption charges here on Monday. The
anti-corruption department has been conducting raids to arrest more
than 30 education officials, who are booked under sections 467, 468,
161 and 34 PPC. Those arrested are Superintendent Muhammad Bachal Abro,
Accountant Badruddin Memon, Head Clerk Aftab Mallah and Senior Clerk
Hayat Burdi. The raids were conducted on the directive of newly
appointed Anti-Corruption Chairman Mir Muhammad Parhar, who had ordered
reopening of corruption cases against education officials. The
anti-corruption police, led by its circle officer Mukhtiar Soomro,
conducted raids on the offices of the EDO, the DO and the ADO
education, confiscating all record related to embezzlement of Rs5
million fund of the School Management Committee. The raids were
being conducted to arrest as many as two EDOs, five DOs, 10 ADOs and
more than 20 low grade employees of the Education Department. The news
Post your comments
| 
