The Need For Comprehensive Education Policy in Pakistan

Education plays a central role for the long term development and prosperity of any country. Only country with educated and skilled workforce can perform competitively in this modern age. On the other hand, a nation with poorly educated men and women is always bound to rely on the human resources and technical expertise of the other nations. However, policy makers of Pakistan - whose education system has been infected by many challenges and problems - are determined not to learn from the history of the world.

Budgetary allocations shows how much a government prioritize one sector from the other. Pakistani governments have a history of low education budgets and inadequate funding for the research and higher education. Some of the ministers are even heard saying that we do not need highly educated people because we do not have enough jobs for them. In the other words, the leadership of the Pakistan is still unaware of the importance of the promotion of education for the development of the country.

On the other hand, policy makers of the ministry of education are not willing to pay the due attention to make the things right. They do not bother to understand the ground realities prevailing in the towns and rural areas of Pakistan. Their policies are decisions are - most of the times if not always - for those students who are living and studying in major cities of Pakistan like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. They simply seem to be ignorant of the problems faced by the students of rural area. In addition, they do not seem concerned with the future of the hundreds of thousands students living and studying in small villages.

English is another problem faced by many students in the lengths of Pakistan. After matriculation, most of the text books are in English and the student - due to the poor quality of teaching in the rural schools - find it difficult to absorb the nuances of the theories of Sciences. It is said that the English has become an international language and the students must be taught in this language so that can move ahead with the international world. However, no one pays attention that if a student can not understand very well what a text exactly means then how can he perform well in the examinations and in the practical life.


Another problem of our education system is related with private colleges and academies. Now a day’s much of teachers are busy in their private academies and colleges. They teach their student in such a way to make them a dependent of their academies. If we see Top 30 positions in Gujranwala board then we will find that 27 out of 30 positions were achieved by the student of private colleges and the remaining 3 positions were won by those students who studied in academies . In the other words, it is a complete demise of our education system.


The point to be ponder is that there is a great number of those people who are sacrifices their needs just for only to educate their children. They dream to highly educate their children but due to the present educational system their dreams are never going to become a reality.


There is a need that all the political parties of Pakistan sit together and make a comprehensive policy on education. They must be enough increment in the budgetary allocations for the education sector. Policy makers for the education sector must be selected on merit and they must have a solid knowledge about the problems in rural areas. Our education system should be free of corruption we have to translate all our science books into Urdu. To save our education sector, the government have to discourage academies and private colleges and increase the standard of the public education institutions.

A Blog Written By Mr. Nasir Bashir




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Traveling From Paris Nord to Sarcelles-Saint Brice by Line H of SNCF.

Yesterday, it was sunny and I were free. So, I decided to visit my friend who lives in Val d'Oise department of Paris region - or in 95 if you speak in pure French and local terms. Since it is the train which is the most convenient way of commuting not in Paris but also in Paris region, I preferred not to disturb the peace of my car and I decided to travel by train.

I had to go to the city of Sarcelles-St.Brice, a small city in the suburbs. The station of Sarcelles Saint Brice is served by the line H of SNCF trains. Modern trains are simply the great.

At the station, one can see the small hills, covered with green plantation. Though, at this point I had not been too far from Paris's busy and modern life but I was feeling that I am in very peaceful part of the Ile-de-France ( or Paris region )

In this picture you can see the board declaring the name of the station; Sarcelles Saint Brice.

In France - like many of the European countries - trains use electric energy. In this picture one can see the electric poles and wires, which are installed to feed the energy needs of the trains.

This is exterior of the train. I took this picture when the train was not completely arrived at the station of Sarcelles Saint Brice. You can have a look on the design of the front side. The design and combination of different colors give the perfect impression.

Following three pictures were taken from the interior of the train. Though, it was not my first travel in this train - however when I first travelled in this train, I was completely meserized by its interio beauty and luxury.

Right now, there is a massive construction works are going on across Paris region to modernize the traffic and train networks. This construction work is supposed to finish by 2016 and one can hope that commuting in 2016 will be far more easier, effiicient and may be even fun...

Do Our Souls Have A Gender?

That was a sunny day in Paris. In the central Paris, we were sitting at the terrace of a Café and were brainstorming over an abstract but interesting topic. At the end of our discussion we knew at least one thing very clearly; we know nothing about ourselves.



This is information age and the information is flowing every where. Few clicks in the Google search box can bring us tons of relevant and irrelevant information. So, it is a bit hard to believe that we know nothing about our self. Please keep it in mind that when I say ourselves, I actually mean one’s real self.

Catherine - unlike many of her western counterparts - at least believed in the souls or spirits, as I did. However, on my part, I were also not an expert. I had some pieces of information and both of us tried to put them together and


You might be thinking that to discuss the existence of soul or spirit is quite a boring thing. So, better to make it evident that it was not a date! It was our session to feed our thoughts, which we are used to do whenever our schedules are compatible.


The most interesting part of our discussion was when an idea occurred to my mind, and I immediately shared it with Cathe; how about the gender of our souls? This question bring many other questions into life, for example, if a soul can change its gender in different lives ( please read it in the perspective of re-incarnation, though I personally do not believe it ), or the soul is not divided into genders; it is genderless?


Here, Catherine was sure, and even a bit proud too on her belief, that her soul was a female soul. On my part, I was actually thinking if the question ( about the gender of the soul ) belongs to our world which is chained in the limitations of time and space. In the simpler words, we were trying to figure out the characteristics of the soul and the body. At that point of our discussion we were thinking if the soul and the body have similar or contradictory features.

After further discussion we found enough reasons to believe that both the soul and the body may not have similar characteristics ( for example if a soul also have mass or weight then after the death of a person there must be considerable reduction in his body weight ). Our bodies are subject to the boundaries of time and space. On the contrary, thus, we can not view the soul in terms of time and space. At that point of our analysis we wondered if gender is also an issue of this materialistic world or in the spiritual or astral world, souls are also present in the form of male and female!!


However - mentally both of us were so tired that we preferred to postpone our so called ‘intellectual curiosity’ for some other time and decided to have a walk along the river Seine!!




 
 Blog From Paris
If you are interested to learn more about your soul, then Muraqba may help.
You can find a detailed artile at wikipediea about Muraqba.
Azeemia Foundation UK, also have a comprehensive article about Muraqba on their website. To view this article, please click here.

Exact Independence day of Pakistan; August 14 or 15?

On the eve of generally accepted and unquestioned independence day of Pakistan, August 14, Wussat Ullah Khan, in a blog published on BBC Urdu, has raised some questions about - or politely challenged - the authenticity of the exact date of independence of Pakistan.

The author has done proper research about on the topic and has furnished some facts which require proper consideration by every Pakistani. We have a history of distorting facts and masking the truths and this practice has put the exact independence day of Pakistan under the shadows of doubts. Probably, the time has come to ‘correct’ our history.

Blogger mentions that it was the morning of the 15th of August 1947, when Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah announced the independence of Pakistan, the biggest Islamic country on the world at that time. The blogger further says that it was on the morning of the 15th of August, when Justice Abudul Rasheed, Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, took oath from Qaid-e-Azam and then Qaid-e-Azam, as the Governor General of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, took oath from his ministers.

The blogger also mentions that it was 15th of August, when Pakistan broadcasting service started its service. He says that at 12:00 am or on the 15th of August, Pakistan Broadcasting Service announced ‘This is Pakistan Broadcasting Service’ from Lahore, Dhaka and Peshawar stations. In his blog, the authors states further facts which make us think about the actual independence day of our nation.

Apparently, the author seems to have enough reasons to challenge the exactness of our independence day. Should we hope that after 64 years of independence, we will - at last - be able to ‘discover’ exact  independence day?



( The original blog of Wussat Ullah Khan can be found at following URL; http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2011/08/110814_baat_independence_a.shtml)

Blog From Paris….