Recently, Imran Khan’s Q&A with students in Karachi was telecast in To the point on the Express channel. There were some good questions and some not-so-well-left dodges. To two questions in particular, on refusing to be critical of MQM and on articulating a succession plan for PTI, Mr Khan avoided any direct response. In the case of the latter, in fact, he digressed into the sher and geedar metaphor that he is so fond of. Mr Khan has begun to avoid assigning blame to the MQM in Karachi. He always refrained from blaming the Taliban and militant groups for the deaths of countless Pakistanis. And in spite of his apology to the Baloch in his Karachi rally, he has also shied away from questioning the role of the security agencies in violating the rights of the Baloch.
I find it curious that the PTI has been in existence for 15 years and consistently it has insisted that, unlike other parties, it draws on the expertise of professionals to formulate policy. Yet when pressed for policy prescriptions, Mr Khan gives only brief populist responses, followed by the refrain that think-tanks are working on it. If the full policy has not been unveiled in the last 15 years, what will change in the next year or so to make this possible?
Mr Khan appears sure of one thing. There is to be one system of education across Pakistan. But he has never clearly articulated which system this will be. Will the medium of instruction be Urdu or English? It would be unwise to do away with English and opt for Urdu as not only is professional education primarily available in English, but English is also rapidly becoming the lingua franca of our world. Even countries like Germany, that have advanced education available in their native tongue and are particularly renowned for their engineering, are now aggressively making English classes more readily available to their population. This would leave us with the conclusion that if we are to have one system, then the medium of instruction in our schools should be English.
There is a problem with this however. How will we ensure English-speaking teachers in rural areas far removed from the cities? Often, it is difficult to find teachers in those areas who are fluent in Urdu as Urdu is only the native tongue of a fraction of our population. Nevertheless, it is still far more possible to hire teachers who are competent in Urdu than in English. A few years ago, I visited some government schools in Sheikhupura, just an hour outside Lahore. The schools were being resuscitated by a joint collaboration between the NGOs ‘DIL’ and ‘CARE’.
Not only do we have an Urdu/English divide but we also have a Matric/GCSE divide. It will be next to impossible to find teachers for every district in Pakistan that could teach GCSE-level English and equally impossible to deny those who can afford this elite education for their children. Hence the divide will remain. Mr Khan would be wise therefore to talk about the uplift of the current education system but he is hoodwinking the people if he claims he can enforce one system of education in Pakistan.
Add to this the complication of the growing chain of madrassas which have introduced yet another system and enhanced divides among our population. Will it be possible for Mr Khan to convince the proponents of the madrassa system to dispense with their curriculum and priorities and follow those of the state? What will he do if they refuse?
Finally, Mr Khan also stated that he will double the education budget if he comes to power. This is great news but doubling the education budget means cutting down on something else as there are only so many pieces of the pie. Given that we have one of the lowest allocations to education in the world and have one of the highest allocations to defence as a percentage of our budget, it would make sense if the shortfall came out of the defence allocation. But does he have a green light from the establishment that seems close to him to go ahead with this very welcome change? If not, what prescription does he have to double the education budget? Surely, taxes must be raised on the rich and more people added to the tax net, but the effects of that will take a few years to materialise. It would be good for PTI to think through these tough questions and understand that if they make very tall claims, it will be very difficult to follow through on them.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2012.
COMMENTS (71)
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I understand your concerns in the article that Mr Khan should deliver more detailed information to earn his popularity and be in power and not just make claims like previous parties did in last 55 yrs. But I would disagree with your point that education should be in English as you can see around the globe Max countries representative speak in their native language either they are addressing international media or their own Parliament where as in our country we are running away from Urdu and try to be more English than English themselves
Dear author, First of all, English is the language of the world but no country in the world forces their people to use it for their basic education. All of them including the quoted example Germany are increasing English language classes to teach the language to their people so that they are able to communicate but they are not teaching them logic and concepts in English. There are rare bechalor degrees offered in english in these countries. Secondly, you talked about the budget so just for the information, the education budget was higher in Musharraf regime than current government so it is doable. I agree that madarsah's are one problem that he will have to deal with and thats challenging. Regards Ijaz
"Even countries like Germany, that have advanced education available in their native tongue and are particularly renowned for their engineering, are now aggressively making English classes more readily available to their population."
After studying and working in Germany for the last 8 years, I feel confidant to say one thing: Your statement about Germany is misleading at best! Well, learning English is one thing, having it as a medium of instruction a completely different thing. Your conclusion that the medium of instruction in Pakistan should be English is also so detached from reality, as you are from Pakistan. Try teaching science, mathematics or for that matter any subject to a kid in a Pakistani village in an English medium system, and you would realize that it just doesn't work. This is exactly what is happening at the moment, and the poor kids don't understand a word. All they do is memorize the stuff without understanding it, just to get through. This is like spoiling the whole nation through bad decisions and misguided education policy.
As a matter of principle, I would rather abolish this English medium system completely, as it its just a reminiscent of colonial era and makes no sense at all. However, because I believe in freedom, I think it can and should coexist. Making "one" system for Pakistan is perhaps not the solution. Instead, the government should concentrate on improving the quality of existing school system.
I pray that you keep publishing in an English newspaper and stay away from any education policy in Pakistan!
Imran makes tall claims and may not be the perfect candidate... But really ask yourself, Does Pakistan have a choice? Things have been consecutively going downward spiral with the people in charge now and before... he may our last hope.
patience is one of the many virtues that is hard to find among Pakistanis these days... we already have PTI's policy statement; it takes time, expertise and hard work to translate policy into strategies and action plans... lets give them opportunity to do their best, instead of pointing fingers in haste.... peace!
I like this kind of writing. In Pakistan people often talk in circles.
I think you can look at African education systems.
There was one system during the British period and much later.
Important thing is to pull the masses up rather than push the elites down.
We have large number of students coming from modest backgrounds and doing extremely well, particularly in the science subjects, also in economics.
English has to be gradually introduced and attract more focus as a student move up to professional levels.
Sardar Asif had suggested something like that.
That education article is farcical at best... Talking about non issues like medium of language instead of syllabus, and comparision with gcse which doesn't even fall under government education domain.
medium of language, i.e. english vs urdu hardly matter if the stuff being taught is a hundred years old. Knowledge is not dependent on medium of language. the idea that education would be standardized implies in itself that the standards need to be raised to match with other modes of education. Only dumb people need it to be put in so many words.
Secondly even currently the government board offers you a choice to answer your paper in. I gave my intermediate Islamiat and Pak studies papers in english. And for a person who has experienced both the systems, i can say that standards of education imparted is a lot different, irrespective of the language
Thirdly there are a lot of differences between the local boards as well. federal board is much better than the provincial board. So yes having one high standard education system in the country should be an idea.
Furthermore GCSE/ O/A levels are internationally recognized education certificates, that can be given in any country whatsoever. So the abolishment of that doesn't even come under the ideal of standardized government education system of the country.
Ayesha, your analysis, I appreciate that. But I just want to make a remark. No nation can lead until they devote and dedicate to education. For that we all need cuts in every aspect. We have to sacrifice at every level for education, individual, collective and being a nation as well. Its a long process.........Thanks
@Nadeem Khan: Sir! can you name one prominent person in PTI who has never been elected before? IK or Kasuri or Qureshi or Hashmi or Tareen? They all have been part of parliament but their performance is also infront of everyone. For me, he is an old wine in a new bottle. And if you are happy with only slogans, then be in your fairy world. God Bless you.
A majority of Pakistani children already attend madrassas. It is thus simple to create one education system - all Pakistani children can go to school in madrassas under PTI rule. There will also be more private sector jobs available to the madrassa educated kids -- the Taliban will be hiring a lot more. This will also be in line with Imran's stated vision of creating an Islamic welfare state, with which the Taliban have a lot of experience since they already created one in Afghanistan. ;o)
I'm just wondering why people who oppose PTI are so totally devoid of any logic despite their long list of degrees and fancy organisations behind them. If Ms Ayesha is expecting Imran to correct the ills of this country with the sweep of a magic wand,shes in for a disappointment.One should have faith and look for incremental improvements. Who better equipped for that than the person who has given this nation the few reasons to hold their heads high like the world cup, the cancer hospital and the NUML universirty. Can we try naming a few other candidates with similar history of successes? And can we even believe that successes of such caliber were made possible without careful planning and execution?? Patience, madam...
yet another biased piece of writing... these writers have done no analysis in the last decade on the education system but now that somebody is talking about policies and reformations they put him under the bus whenever they can. Shameful :(
@Khurram: Really? Reflects minimal insight. All the issues she mentions are in fact not the most difficlut issues and have practical and actionable solutions. In fact she has not addressed the real challenges of education in Pakistan. Sorry but the forum is not where a comprehensive discussion can take place. I would suggest that the author do a little leg work to find out the huge amount of work involving people and organizations providing english medium free education to hundreds of thousands of the poorest in Pakistan. Yes, tehre is already a huge amount of work in progress and now the effort is underway to scale these very successful efforts from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions. The author is ways behind the curve on the subject she has chosen to write about. Is she seriously counting on readers to educate her. One reason she is seeing this strong reaction is that many of us expect the Express Tribune to raise the standard of articles while the author can maybe see fit to do some research on the subject to get up to speed. Otherwise her fan club will be restricted to only those who know even less than her
Whatever policies Imran Khan comes up with, they surely cannot be any worse than what has plagued Pakistan for the past 50 years or so. And if anything will be a whole lot better.
Let me imagine if I am Imran Khan.
I just announced in the jalsa of 25th October that Jehangir Tarin will bring together the work of different 4 different think-tanks, compile it and will arrange two seminars each month to announce policies on different sectors and the policies will be allowed to critique in a public forum and preferentially telecasted. I also announced that the policies will continue to evolve before elections and even after coming to power. For now i will announce the highlights. What kind of Pakistan we intend to make.
But wait i forgot there is group of intellectuals sitting at homes or their offices waiting to pounce on me. They are very much willing to offer pre-mature critique for the detailed policies i have not yet publicized. Why do they care if i am worried the mainstream political parties are ready to pounce and copy paste to fool the nation once again. Why am i worried that i am the only one being ridiculed and that too quite unfairly.
I opened the doors for mainstream politicians to join my party. But wait I am being damned for that. Am i the one responsible for leaving the nation poor, uneducated and messed up. They would rather want me to invent some magic potion to convince the rural voters to vote for a nobody that i give a ticket to. Or i can wait for another 20 years and continue with my Tableegh and be ready for some miracle to happen sometime soon which transforms every Pakistani into an honest, patriotic, educated and rational human being.
Why I am selling hope to Pakistani nation in the form of rhetoric. I should just sit at home in a sober way and publish my detailed policies. Pakistani nation is educated and aware enough to know the truth once they see it. Why am I telling them imaginary and idealistic things? Let me tell the reality. Guys you are doomed anyways. Sit back and relax and enjoy the destruction. Don't do anything to change things. Let the democratic process unravel and things will smooth out 20 years down the line.
I am Imran and I am a fool. I am not intelligent enough, I am not intellectual enough and I am not politically wise. I am not realistic enough. I am not Bhutto enough. I am not League enough. I am not Sharif enough. I am not feudal enough. I am not Prime Minister material. Guys go elect your Sharifs and Zardaris. Leave me alone and in peace.
Improving education system is not possible in Pakistan. So why try? Leave it Imran. Let us leave it to the pseudo-intellectuals. Why bother? They can change everything by writing good sounding and intelligent articles. Imran you do say education emergency will be applied and it is a very hard task and it will take years, but the writer forgot to research, so forgive her. But She is right. Nothing can be done. So leave it man. Let's continue with Zardari.
So basically what the author and most of the commentators are suggesting is that they would not wait for Imran to unveil his detailed policies. The geniuses here who have served the nation a great deal with the never dying optimism have already decided that there is no solution to Pakistani problems and anyone who says otherwise like Imran Khan is a liar. They won't wait for him to announce his policies rather they would ridicule his rhetoric. Since they geniuses here know everything and they have a long history of serving Pakistan unlike the idiot Imran Khan so they are allowed to ridicule or mock Imran under the pretext of rational reasoning. Bow to you people. You are great. You just won me over. Who is Imran khan? What has he done for this country? Nothing. Let's reelect either PPP or PML-N. Imran is just fooling us because he wants a taste of power because he has nothing else to do. WOW. So much wisdom being spread here in the oasis of constructive journalism.
An excellent analysis of facts. Truly and surely these questions arise in our minds and we need answers. well done Ayesha and keep it up, you are the star
@Maira: But what is the alternative, madam? Criticizing the one who has not even been elected against those who are enjoying positions of power and literally sending this country on the verge of a collapse --- On one hand, the current govt has failed to deliver, and on the other hand, people like you are complaining that no one should even raise a slogan.
Brilliant. It is not only education, he never gave any exact and clear policy on any matter. He just raise slogans but never gave solution how he is going to do it.
Those were the valid questions but Why didnt she also compare Imran Khan's track record, his philanthropy efforts, his honesty with those of his counter parts while raising these questions. Understood, she asks valid questions, however, in a rhetorical society that we live in, we should always see thru these rhetorics...
...Nothing new to me nor it will be any change in such a complex country like Pakistan. Very well written article though missed the gender and religious bigotry issues. Easy to talk but impossible to implement for our politicians including IK (English, urdu or provincial language, pvt, govt or madarsa, co education or gender segregation, double the budget or cut the budget, Matric/GCSE, stereotypical free (gender, religion and ethnic)!
on language - i really hope his "one system" doesn't mean one medium of instruction. the medium of instruction, at LEAST, for primary education should be in the mother tongue / regional language. this is what everyone does, it's not rocket science. there is nothing wrong with supporting english / urdu as a second language alongside (as you have mentioned germany does) but forcing either as a medium of instruction (and subsequently as an artificial requirement for entry to official jobs) is counter-productive. read the british council report or this article that describes the issue with using english / urdu exclusive. of course it will be an uphill task developing resources and training teachers to teach in those languages, but no solution to education is going to be easy. dismissing solutions as "impossible" is easy. on gcse/matric divide - again, the over-emphasis on finding teachers who can teach "gcse-level english" is ... over-rated. on doubling the budget - i don't know how pti hopes to fund this, good luck to them cutting down on defence spending. ;) having said that, they should look into restructuring the budget to NOT spend 90% on teacher salaries. government teachers are one of the biggest obstacles to progress in education imo. they should be hired, evaluated and fired by the school itself, not by a bureaucracy that sings to the whims of any senator they can call to get transferred to another school whenever a serious administrator comes around and makes them work. the last point i want to make is that i disagree with the comments here saying the pti - or any other party - should not release their policy for fear of it being copied by everyone. if it gets copied, they should feel good - 1) because it means they got it right, and 2) if they really care about improving education, it means there are more chances of a good solution being implemented. (remember john edwards making all the democratic candidates in '08 rethink / improve their health plans)?
Right on the money. I have the same gripe about the area of justice policy. Curious given it's a justice party.
For all the critics to Ayesha's article here. I can answer why Ayesha only "targeted" PTI and not the other parties. The reason is that thoughtful people like Ayesha do not care about other parties. They have been tested and have failed to deliver in due process. The only hope is PTI and people feel worried/cared about its future approach. I would say, keep healthy criticism posted, Ayesha.
@Moderator ET
Since you seem to have understood the purport of the post by @TARIQ IRSHAD KAZI, do you mind translating it for us lesser mortals?
I too, wonder often when will the details of populous policies surface. More noise than anything else thus far.
nice
Its a well thoght out article and I belive that PTI should learn from such articles in order to formulate their policies because such feedback very constructive any progressive political party.
I think widening the tax base as Imran has always said will fix a lot of problems. I think people in Pakistan underestimate just how rife with corruption our government is and just how much it drains our economy. Solutions are in our faces and yet we ignore them, this memo scandal if you can call it that (Veena malik was also a scandal right??) shows where the priorities are, save their own skin first then save your banks, then maybe think about the country after tea though.
Ayesha Ijaz Khan: please at the end of your article insert one paragraph of suggestion you really intrested in for your education system. that will be helpful for khan i believe.
Moeed Saheb, Ms Khan has neither any conflict with Imran Khan nor she is bashing him. She is simply stating the facts as she sees them, a fact is a fact regardless how, where and when one presents it. I fully agree, the prerequisite for social and economic development of a nation is the quality education and to provide it we need a very well defined policy based upon solid financial facts. Unfortunately our leaders including Imran Khan are somehow able to promise everything between here and the moon to the electorate even when they are fully aware that they do not have legs to deliver the goods they are promising, from legs I mean real capital. To develop any system it takes good planning, time and enormous amount of money which we do not have at present. If I were in his place my priority would have been to eradicate the corruption that is eating at the very core of my nation and collection of taxes once this is accomplished I can assure you, there will be enough money to fund the quality education and few other programmes. That is what Ms Khan is seeing right now in PTI's election platform, bunch of mirrors and smoke machines to create a grand illusion. Have we not been such shows a few times before?
PS to my previous submission. I see Imran's thoughts as being some guiding parameters for a solution to our education emergency. Undoubtedly these were serious parameters. If the author agrees with the problem statemnt, then perhaps the solution will benefit from an approach she may have in mind. Or she may come up with her own problem statement (possibly restricting it to what she thinks can be realistically tackled) and provide her thoughts on how her problem statement should be tackled. Again, lets becoem party of the solution becuase that is where we need the best minds. Finding holes n what others say is makes for lively discussion but is less beneficial than offering actionable solutions. It also puts us all in in the same playing field rather than most of us commenting from the sidelines on the few that are on the playing field.
Look at this from another perspective. Excluding the under fiver years and over 60 years prts of the population, Pakistan has a functionaly illiteracy of about 100 million and of the literate you have about 30 million with no competitive skills to participate actively in the economic revitalization of the country. I suggest to the author and all others who have taken the time to read her thoughts and coment on them, that it is unrealistic to apply western measures to evaluate programs and policies. Each and everyone of us has to be party of the solution instaed of the evaluate and critique apprach which is more applicable to developed countries. Let us for discussion purposes agree on a problem statement so that we are addressing only one problem for a focused discussions. I suggest the problem/challenge for Pakistan can be stated as "irradicate illteracy and provide needed skills to over 100 million people - young, middle-aged and close to reitired (but still influential in a social context) Pakistnis in ten years". Now let us come up with a comprehensive, out-of-the-box, solution to meet this challenge that addresses policy, delivery, technology of delivery, syllabii (remember your range of ages), budget etc. My guess is that this audience will from the get go get totally divided on all aspects and you will see more sweeping statements and disagreements rather than a concerted unified approach to believe in and determine a creative solution. As a hint, so standard established solution can be adopted. So let us get realistic and stop demanding of our politicians off teh shelf solutions to such intractable problems. As long as they have a desire to honestly adress the challenge, they need ALL of us to pitch in rather than limit ourselves to ctriiquing their opinions. I can assure you that no one can satisfy all of us with any solution they propose - this has to be a national effort.
School systems in Pakistan represent class system in the country. Having one school system means having no class based society which is impossible. The best bet is to raise the standard of education in state schools through better trained teachers, low student - teacher ratio and bring religious education into main stream. Private schools have always been there and will be there, no matter who runs the country. About the madrassa as Javed Ghamdi said, they must be forced to have same curriculum till year 10 or 12 then they should teach students religion as specialization, exactly the same way other students would be studying medicine, engineering and arts. There is Australian model, in which same curriculum for all main three school systems such as state schools, convent schools and private, mostly run by the church. The difference is the facilities, student teacher ratio, extra curricular activities and more focus on building character and personalities. PTI jialas should learn to see and accept difference of opinion. Though Imran is far more honest and sincere but he is not the wisest, therefore he can be wrong as well. From his statements it seems he is oversimplifying issues such as corruption and fixing the education system. As he said, once in power, he will remove corruption in 90 days, even the prophets can not do this. It will be a miracle if stems the rising corruption at the current levels and he may need a decade to reverse this curse.
education policy! i think the writer should have the courage to first ask tbe ones in government first what exactly their education policy is? both in punjab and under federal rule?? First get answers from AZ and NS, and then ask anyone else...............just common sense!
I dont think doubling a abysmal education budget and unifying all Education boards under one Syllabus constitute "tall claims". Education in Government is also already supposedly "free". Local government to the village level followed by close monitoring will solve alot of the Ghost school problems.
The language issue is overblown. Pk studies/Islamiyat at the Inter level right now can be given in both in English or Urdu. Applying this to science subjects would be much simpler. Basic changes to question paper(i.e MCQ, Computerised checking, Private Roll no., questions paper in both languages) dont exactly require a huge leap of imagination.
Having done O levels and then FSC. The problems with our education system are not un surmountable, most of it are structural. The course material of the Federal board along with Text books are comparable to O level/ A level equilants. BTW Shahzad Roy is in PTI, If anyone has any idea of what needs to be done its probably him.
No need of raining on the PTI parade needlessly. Its not even in power.Or will the writer be satisfied with 5 more years of the PPP/PML N/MQM/ANP/JUI F coalition.... Or is she a APML supporter lol
@A Shahid: raise the Tax GDP ratio to an internationally acceptable level then slash non-productive expenses and root out the perenial corruption and you will have the money for all the above reforms. lol Andddd The man is simply a dealer in miracles with no let-downs on his record. a big LOL this time .
Thought-provoking article. We dont need no hoodwinking and of course no trolls as well. Come on Mr Khan explain your policy in the light of these questions and only if you have any policy. :) And let me add why compare with a lower standard of governing like the present govt. which you have dubbed to be the most corrupt . Look for some bettter standard as well , act like a statesman if you are gonna be one. Good Luck Pakistan
To set the record straight on PTI not having any policies for 15 years, the following is the link to a comparitive study of party manifestos conducted before the 2002 general elections by PILDAT. They concluded :
"Of all the parties included in our study, PTI seems to have presented a manifesto that covers most of the important issues agitating the minds of the voters."
"PTI has come out with the most balanced manifesto addressing a bulk of the issues of the current election campaign. The party has made many extensive pledges on a variety of issues that seem to be rather fresh and unique."
http://www.pildat.org/Publications/publication/manifestoes/whatdopoliticalpartiespromise-comparisionofpoliticalpartiesmenifesotes2002.pdf
(This was before PTI even formed their think tanks..)
Dear Writer! On your "writing style", i give you ten on ten! But i'm afraid your article seriously lacks logic. If the current education budget is low and the defense budget high, it doesn't mean in any way that a portion of the defense budget necessary has to be used up to pay for the increase in the education budget. As you have put it yourself: "there are only so many pieces of the pie", Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf can sure sneak out money from the pies other than the defense pie, preferably from the "President House pie", from the "Prime Minister House pie", or the "CM House Pie". Imran Khan in my opinion follows the ideology of Plato. Plato pointed out that there be an EQUAL system of education for all, so that talent can be brought in from all corners of the country and people who are talented enough but are from the lower socioeconomic class, can make their way up. Plato also said that if there is no equal education for all, the rich will get richer with their superior education and the poor will get poorer. I am a teacher for the Cambridge Curriculum, and I firmly believe that the shift from the Cambridge Board to the local board is no problem at all. All it takes is time! I advise my fellow youth of Pakistan to think logically and rationally and not to fall in traps. I advise them to bring change through their vote.
Well you can’t have a rally in Karachi without MQM’s approval. And after Imran, the Chairmanship will obviously go to Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s son.
Ayesha,
Your column has two distinct points:
a- Imran or PTI has not yet cleared up what their Education policy is.. indeed, they haven't done it for the last 15 years.
David Cameron became leader of British Opposition 31/2 years before his election to reside in Downing Street. For that period in opposition, the main criticism he had to face was that his party just had bones but no meat on their policy rhetoric.
Your criticism is just but premature. My understanding is that the strategy employed by all opposition parties in developed world is to announce their policies just before elections.
b- In terms of classification of educational streams, rightly pointed out by you, the right attitude, in my humble opinion, would be to first acknowledge the problem. It is only then a resolution to that problem can be worked at.
To this end, I invite you to read Imran's latest book from page number 354 to 356.
Hope this helps.
Well in america even there are some private educational institutes and some very very expensive and there are catholic, jewsh yashiva, islamic school systems exist but main thing is one language and its a English we want in pakistan one lang school system not three diff kind of schools and thats why i am with imran that he wants to make english a common school lang.
attack of the anti-PTI trolls...
So have the Germans decided to switch the medium of instruction at all levels from German to English now? Obviously not. Neither have the Japanese, the Chinese, the Russians, the French, the Turks, the Iranians and many others. They allow facilitate the learning of English as an additional language but not as THE PRIMARY language of teaching. There is no evidence to support the theory that in order to make technological progress in the modern scientific and technical international milieu some one who has been taught in Urdu medium schools will not make it. If this was true Dr. Abdul Salaam would not have accomplished what we all know that he did.
will Mr Imran khan will ask kasuri to open all Becons and City school for all.
The simple solution to these issues is to raise the Tax GDP ratio to an internationally acceptable level then slash non-productive expenses and root out the perenial corruption and you will have the money for all the above reforms. Good thing is IK has put all these steps into his emergency agenda and is keenly aware of these 'practical' difficulties. I am sure similar feasibility reports were thrown at him regarding Cancer Hospital, of which we know the result today. The man is simply a dealer in miracles with no let-downs on his record.
Ms. Ayesha, it would nice for you to show a bit of patience with regards to PTI's policies, because some parties have a habit of copying everything innovative that PTI comes up with. As far as I know, this is the main reason the PTI CEC is holding out on unveiling the detailed 100-day plan
(salient features of which have already been announced some time ago after about an year of work by PTI think tanks: http://insaf.pk/News/tabid/60/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/7063/PTI-proves-its-readiness-to-tackle-Pakistans-issues-Imran-presents-100-day-plan-to-media.aspx).
PTI's plans will speak for themselves when they are unveiled in a few months' time (given the elections are round the corner). And you'll have plenty of answers to your questions about PTI's education policy.
P.S. I have always sensed that you have a cynical attitude towards IK in particular. I hope and pray that changes in due course (if and when he comes up to your expectations).
As I was reading the article and then looking at some of the comments I see there are some stanch followers of PTI who would not like critisim of any sort. I myself see Imran Khan as the only hope for the country provided he delievers the promises he has made, but why are we as a society so reluctant to ask question, its our right to vote , and we should have the liberty to grill our leader and ask them for answers before we decide who to bring to power. I feel that we sometimes get so overpowered by these leaders that we exault them to God like stature(nauzbillah) they are mare humans we the people give them the authority to rule us they are our servants not our masters why is it so hard for our nation to understand this concept no one should be above public scrutiny not even imran khan. Alot of people would think that ever since imran got popularity/public support he has become rather mild in his stance , it might well be his political acumen but atleast he should then admit and update his policy stance .We all like this person for his honesty and strenght of character he has nothing to fear so I would request imran to be as transparent and open on each matter and for that matter please do give out his partys political agenda in detail and then stick to it.AS far as this article is concern I think the author has some valid concerns about the implementations of one education system groud realities seldom help to make the task menial we need highly enthusisatic professional to resolve this problem so I can only prayand wish Imran luck for his efforts
Why don't I ever see articles criticizing or discussing other political parties and their policies and their lies, they so shamelessly speak everyday on TV? Why don't I see these 'concerned' Pakistanis talking about how the policies of Nawaz Sharif and PPP have been nothing but on paper and they have Continuosly plunged thus country into chaos? Oh ofcourse I know why: PTI bashing is just 'different' and such people feel they are quiet smart as they don't believe in what the masses believe, that Imran Khan will bring success to this country. Well gloat over it as if things do go wrong it will be for the better for these educated people as they will finally get rid of this corrupt and religious based system they so hate and have completely no hope for Pakistan
@moeed:
Few months back Interior Minister Malik also gave an ultimatum of "one week to all government offices to eradicate corruption". I am sure you can see the results in your daily life!!!
A strategy is a good as its implementation or in other words a good idea presented or implemented in a bad way is a "bad idea".
It make sense to question the rational for specifics for claims to solve problems that have plagued Pakistani society for decades.
All over globally macro management execution excellence create an good organization culture if your macro induction and placements are quite thoughtful and people focus on plans execution through micro management processing then process of corruption will start minimizing and it will help for commencement of positive thinking and everybody will look forward to contributing something to the society . Mechanics of the plan are easily workable but need dedication and commitment to the corporate mission which is only possible when you treat people fair and provide adequate funding to the project people are given respect honor and above average decent motivating compensation it will bring unprecedented blessings to pakistan in every government and private sectors
there is one another ignored group of society, who neighter fall under english or urdu...they are based in religious schools...now question is pakistan needs a gradual transition....one cannot make changes over the night...say english or urdu will not answer the question.
Socialize religious schools kids into main stream educational system. Introduce more english medium subjects/ or robust curriclum at least for science/ english/ social studies at urdu mediam schools will shift the trend.Any how, i remember, urdu mediam schools (state owned-government) already started to convert in english medium some 10 years ago, they did not start shift at all levels, rather began at 1 to 5, so each year upgraded batch will phase out older structure....
Remember ZA Bhutto, he too saved Pakistan from the clutches of capitalism and dragged us into socialism just when the world was about to turn it's back from socialist, Khan is also on the same path of glory. I have total faith in Khan who himself is a beneficiary of the western education system from childhood to his adult life and now chooses the same westernized education benefits for his children. Madam writer, Stop asking so many questions! You are confusing the gullible citizens of this country, we also need hope and Khan gives us hope, more importantly when he says it he looks really cool!
Imran Khan is always in favour of single syllabus for all. However, definitely it will take time and training of teachers. He is clear in principle but execution is not easy.
education system does not mean changing the medium.....your article is way out of sync with the rules.
i don't know what is ur problem with imran khan your previous article was same imran bashing style if he wants to double the education budget the solution is very simple which can come into ordinary mind like mine stop the corruption in pia railways land revenue fbr and etc and put that money into education where there is will there is way atleast he has a plan
you are overexpecting the things....let it come slowly
yes because we, like America put all our candidates through such scrutiny, so why not Imran, right?
A superb and convincing analysis deserving serious attention by all Pakistanis.