Pakistan
Students, exams and politics!
While writing a column I came across many news ideas. Thought once to pass on a comment on news that Ali Amin Gandapur is distributing cash before Azad Kashmir election and those who are claiming ‘transparency in polls’ are now trying to find excuses after being caught ‘red-handed’.
For me PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s grilling of PML-N was also an interesting topic that forced me to think that didn’t Bilawal recall when and where his party extended cooperation on the whims and wishes of those in power?
Whether it’s the cooperation on letting Sadiq Sanjrani becoming the Senate chairman or is the move to reduce the PML-N seats during the Senate elections, or to seek the government’s help for getting former Prime Minister Sardar Yousaf Raza Gilani elected as Senator- Shah Mahmood Qureshi made Bilawal realized it on the floor of the house. The once again retaliatory tone of PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz during Azad Kashmir election campaign could also be the topic of opinion, but at this point of time the most important topic to me is the future of youngsters and the government’s “controversial” policy and “cold” attitude.
The PML-N walked out of the National Assembly session over exams controversy. MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique said on the floor of the house that Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood was approached with a request to cancel the exams, but the government has yet to respond. “The Opposition must be taken into confidence as to why the government wants to hold supplementary exams 45 days after taking one exam and failing students,” Rafique remarked. Upon this parliamentary secretary education Wajih Akram said exams in Balochistan have already been completed, these are continuing in Sindh so how it’s possible to postpone the ongoing exams? Rafique hastened to add that the government didn’t want to discuss with the opposition the postponement of exams and eventually PML-N and other opposition parties staged walkout from the Lower House.
After the matter was raised on the floor of the house, Federal Minister Shafqat Mahmood took to twitter, saying why the nationwide exams should be postponed and why those students who got their exams prepared be punished? He said those students who need more time for preparations could appear in the supplementary exams to be held under all boards after two to three months.
The ongoing tussle between the government and the opposition indicates they both are not willing to sit together, thanks to the new trends in political culture of mounting intolerance. Here a question arises if we have decided to sacrifice the future of Pakistan for the sake of egoism and stubbornness? It is quite painful that no one has taken this matter seriously so far that what’s the real problem of the students? Why they are taking to streets? Are they protesting over not be prepared for exams or they are facing real problems regarding their syllabi?
To understand their problem we take a look back in March last year when the decision was taken to close all educational institutes to contain spread of the coronavirus. More than 300,000 schools faced closure while education in colleges and universities also got affected. The expensive educational institutions in a few major cities including Karachi and Lahore though provided digital platforms to their students. But hundreds of thousands of students were unable to counter the new situation as they lacked smart phones and internet. And those who possessed smart phones could not avail 3G-4G networks in rural areas. The simple logic is Pakistan’s inability to cover the entire country with this technology.
According to a UNICEF report, around 22.8 million out of 70 million children in Pakistan are already out of schools, so access to education was already a problem for us and now in addition to poor-rich disparity the coronavirus pandemic has also created a visible difference as who can avail technological facilities and who can’t. And the same reason forced the university students to protest against online classes.
The biggest problem for online classes has appeared to be dis-connectivity due to poor infrastructure despite internet facility and it’s a continuous issue in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Gilgit-Baltistan. Even the internet speed doesn’t support online classes in rural areas of Punjab. Broadband services are costly and cell phone possession is too not more than 51 per cent of the total population of the country. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, only a million school students have access to digital services.
The government adopted distant-learning system, as 40 million Pakistani kids have access to television, and an education project “Teleschool” was launched with $5 million World Bank grant. But how much effective could be this education learning programme- especially when the parents and students are not well-equipped for this- is not difficult to understand.
The government can easily conduct a survey either by approaching financially-poor families at their doorstep or conducting a survey to check availability of smart phones and use of 3G/4G technology. The information can be collected from those households where four to six kids go to school and only one smart phone is usually in the use of head of the family for official purposes.
The educational institutes are now open and the students are facing extreme difficulties especially those who are about to appear in the secondary and intermediate board exams. While conducting exams without realizing the problems of students, the officials are now defending their stance that the students, who are not prepared, could appear in the supplementary exams. Is participation in the supplementary exam the only solution to facilitate students? The simple answer is that the government neither paid any heed to the students nor listened to the stance of the Opposition.
The Covid pandemic this year could be blamed for causing blow to the education and exams, but at least this is not only a warning for the people at the helms of affairs but also an opportunity to identify core problems in our education system. Nobody can say such pandemic will not strike us or we will not come across any such untoward happening, so we need to improve online and distant learning education on modern lines. We can get rid of ghost schools and untrained teachers only when the education system will be put on the path of latest trends.
This pandemic has taught us many lessons. The respective governments will have to formulate long-term policies to save the education system from the effects of any disaster like Covid in future. Side by side we also have to keep the most important role of teacher intact as the teacher is the only person who could bring discipline to the students as his role to educate them is always central.
In societies like us, majority students are not capable of learning and studying their own. With the advancement in the education system, there is a need to bring teachers at par with latest technology and required resources. The quality of education for better Pakistan should also be among the top priorities!
Sports
Ayesha Zafar's 108 not out goes in vain
Lahore beat Peshawar; Karachi beat Multan and Quetta beat Rawalpindi on day one of National Women’s One-Day Tournament.
Faisalabad: Peshawar opener Ayesha Zafar hit an unbeaten century on the opening day of the National Women’s One-Day Tournament but ended up on the losing side after Lahore romped to a seven-wicket victory at the Bohranwali Cricket Ground in Faisalabad on Wednesday.
Ayesha stroked a 94-ball 108 not out with 16 fours and two sixes but lacked support from the other end as Peshawar were dismissed for 166 in 32.5 overs. Ayesha Bilal (four for 33), Anam Amin (three for 30), and Noreen Yaqoob (two for 40) shared wickets. In turn, Lahore achieved the target in 31 overs for the loss of three wickets, with Dua Majid scoring 66 not out (74b, 6x4) and captain Kaynat Hafeez contributing 61 (69b, 8x4).
At the Iqbal Stadium, Karachi defeated Multan by six wickets. Multan, batting first, were dismissed for 116 in 36.3 overs, and Karachi raced to victory for the loss of four wickets in 23.1 overs, with Omaima Sohail top-scoring with 49.
Quetta’s Rameen Shamim produced an all-round performance to help Quetta collect maximum points against Rawalpindi at the Jawad Sports Complex Ground. She took four wickets for 16 runs as Rawalpindi were dismissed for 80 in 43 overs and then scored a 76-ball 27 not out before Quetta achieved a two-wicket victory with more than 13 overs to spare.
Scores in brief:
Lahore beat Peshawar by seven wickets at Bohranwali Cricket Ground
Peshawar 166 all-out, 32.5 overs (Ayesha Zafar 108 not out; Ayesha Bilal 4-33, Anam Amin 3-30, Noreen Yaqoob 2-40)
Lahore 169-3, 31 overs (Dua Majid 66 not out, Kaynat Hafeez 61)
Karachi beat Multan by six wickets at Iqbal Stadium
Multan 116 all-out, 36.3 overs (Gull Feroza 44; Syeda Masooma Zahra 2-15, Aimen Anwar 2-20, Syeda Aroob Shah 2-22)
Karachi 117-4, 23.1 overs (Omaima Sohail 49, Huraina Sajjad 21 not out; Noor-ul-Iman 2-35)
Quetta beat Rawalpindi by two wickets at Jawad Sports Complex Ground.
Rawalpindi 80 all-out, 43 overs (Maham Anees 25; Rameen Shamim 4-16)
Quetta 84-8, 36.3 overs (Rameen Shamim 27 not out; Tania Saeed 3-11, Fatima Zahra 2-24)
Next round Fixtures: Quetta vs. Peshawar, Iqbal Stadium; Lahore vs. Karachi, Jawad Club Cricket Ground; Rawalpindi vs. Multan, Bohranwali Cricket Ground.
Pakistan
President invites Turkish companies to benefit from Pakistan’s investment policies
President Asif Ali Zardari calls for further enhancing bilateral cooperation with Turkiye in trade, economy, education and culture.
Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday invited Turkish companies to benefit from investment-friendly policies of Pakistan and invest through the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
He was talking to Ambassador of Turkiye to Pakistan Dr Mehmet Pacaci who called on him in Islamabad today.
The President called for further enhancing bilateral cooperation with Turkiye in trade, economy, education and culture.
He said Pakistan can benefit from Turkiye's development experience, especially in infrastructure development.
The President suggested undertaking a joint feasibility study to establish a railway connection between the two countries for promoting regional connectivity.
He also underlined the need for increasing bilateral educational and cultural exchanges.
Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan and Turkiye enjoy historic and long-standing ties and they always supported and stood by each other in difficult times.
He said Pakistan looks forward to welcoming Turk President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the 7th High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council session in Pakistan.
The President expressed his gratitude to Turk President for his congratulatory messages on his election as President of Pakistan and at the beginning of Ramzan-ul-Mubarak.
He also conveyed warm greetings and sentiments to the Turk President.
Pakistan
CM Maryam directs to complete projects soon
The Punjab chief minister emphasizes over transparency in the projects across the province.
Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawa said that transparency should be ensured in the construction and rehabilitation of roads and hospitals.
“I will go and review these projects myself,” said CM Maryam while chairing a review meeting on the rehabilitation of roads, Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centers (RHCs) across Punjab on Wednesday.
The Punjab CM directed to complete Lahore Ring Road SL-3 project as soon as possible, besides taking immediate steps, in collaboration with the federal government, for the construction of SL-4 at the earliest.
The recommendations for the construction of Deepalpur-Layyah Mega Road besides other roads were also discussed in the meeting. CM directed to plant trees on road sides, including 100,000 trees along Gujranwala-Lahore Expressway.
Earlier, Madam Chief Minister was briefed that under "Sarkein Bahaal…Punjab Khushhal (Roads Restored...Punjab Prosperous) Programme,” the construction, repair and rehabilitation of 590 arterial and connector roads across Punjab have started. So far, 04 roads have been rehabilitated, while work is in progress on 05 others.
It was told that the construction work on Muridke-Narowal, Painsara-Shorkot, Jhangra-Ahmedpur Sharqia, Chawinda-Sabz Pir and Zafar Wall roads is in full swing. It was told that Bahawalpur to Jhangra East will be the most beautiful expressway of Punjab. It was briefed that an investor conference will be held in May for the construction of Multan-Vihari Expressway.
Chief Minister was also apprised that the construction and maintenance of health centers in Phulnagar, Manga, Shamke Bhattian and Ferozwala has been completed, while the work is in full swing on rest of them. She directed to complete the upgrading of health centers on war footing.
Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Provincial Minister for Communication and Works Sohaib Ahmed Malik, Chairman Planning and Development Board and Secretary Construction and Works attended the meeting.
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