The Power of Ideas and the Modern University

Prof. Hoodbhoy has been highlighting the problems in Pakistani education system for quite a while. Criticism of the weaknesses and defects of the existing method of teaching and doing research is healthy and commendable but a few things that I found missing in his articles relate to his failure to highlight the progress made in Pakistani education system over a number of years (or, is there no progress?). Say, for instance, how our present system is better than the one that was used some twenty years ago. Have we made any progress or are we static or retrogressive? If there is some progress, what is it?
Another thing which has been nagging my mind for quite some time is regarding the research work done in Pakistan. Are there any scientists who can be compared with some well-known western scientists in terms of the excellence of their research work. Some names come to my mind although I don't precisely know what significant contributions did they make in their own field. You come across a few Indian names who have made significant contributions to, say. the theory of strings. But nobody from Pakistan.
When I do internet search for prominent Pakistani scientists, only one name appears again and again; it is that of Abdus Salam. In the context of de-emphasizing the manufacture of nuclear weapons, Prof. Hoodbhoy's name comes to the fore.
Some Pakistani scientists (including Prof. Hoodbhoy) should take the initiative to write articles highlighting the contributions of the contemporary scientists. Such articles are sure to stimulate interest in the minds of the students. It is hard to believe that no meaningful research work has been done in Pakistan during the last 3-4 decades.

Mohammad Gill

Here is what an ideal university would REALLY be like.

1) Students will go there only for their love of learning – not for a rewarding career later on. The students will not spend their time partying. They would not care what grades they get – there won’t be any grades because the true gain will be the learning itself. Students will not get involved in politics, or maar-peat, or gunda-gardi.

2) Faculty would not care about low pay – or any pay at all. They will starve if necessary, and would not care! Their pursuit of knowledge will be its own reward which will be more satisfying than material thingies could ever be – perhaps even better than mind-blowing sex – perhaps a lot better than what the macaws and the tarantulas could ever accomplish!

It is fair to say that at this time, with MANY well-known U.S. institutions of higher learning, the profit motive rules and learning (if it takes place at all) is merely an added bonus – in other words, Laxmi has relegated Saraswati to the background. Most of those schools are too busy paying the fat salaries of the professors and the administrators to worry about nurturing the mind!

Having gotten that out of the way, here is what I am REALLY yearning to say!

If you do not mind my saying, Sir, for a fourteen-year old to be dreaming of electrical transformers, motors and the like instead of the fair sex – there has to be something drastically wrong with the hormones! All I can say is – if the idea of electric motors turns you on, I shudder to imagine what full-fledged sex would be like.

Perhaps somebody has got your number – an imaginary number, that is!

PS: wonderful article, as usual!

Rabindra Nath Tagore for Pakistanis??

I thought some quotation from Iqbal that traces every sciences to the will of Allah would perhaps summarize the policy in an Islamic state like Pakistan.

It was nice to see and hear Pervez Hoodbhoy

tell it like it is last Saturday in San Jose.

I think that Pakistani-Americans can actively

support some of his initiatives.

Glad to know that he shares my Alma Mater, KGS.

It is always a pleasure to listen to him.



Ras

Pervez,

Do you know that a certain bearded bloke who lurks on Chowk has already finalised the blue print for the higher education system in Pakistan?

Do you know that the Honourable Minister for Education has already accepted the proposals made by the bearded bloke in question?

Why do you propose a system that would increase the number of "dimwits", "morons", "peons of the west", and "red assed baboons" in Pakistan?

Why do you want Pakistani students to study science? Is this a conspiracy by the evil US elite?

You obviously lack credibility since you have never been published on lulu.com. The bearded bloke is a celebrity on that website.

Pervez,
Are you not aware that ancient Muslims had discovered all there is to discover in science & medicine? MRI, CAT Scan etc had all been discovered by our Muslim ancestors many centuries back. Any doubts on this score can be answered by the genuine research works of the bearded bloke referred earlier.

Before the intelligentsia of Chowk (led by the bearded bloke) descends on you in hordes, let me compliment you and wish you luck...

#5 Okhla99

May I ask who the bearded bloke is - and why you are after him?

Re: # 6

Yes, you may. ; )


: )


: )

Thanks for quoting from one of my most favorite poems of all time.

At last, through teh intervention of teh americans, Jinnah archives have been opened and here is a little know visionary poem from the man himself.

Quoted from the forthcoming book by Stanley Wolpert, " the little known Jinnah",


"Where the mind is full of hate and the gun is held high;
Where rote learning is free;
Where the country is broken up along shia sunni lines;
Where words come out from the depth of memorizing;
Where tireless jihad stretches its arms towards heaven;
Where the clear stream of hatred see no end;
Where the mind is led forward by the two nation theory--
Into that heaven of freedom, my allah, let my country awake".

Re: # 9

That is a truly magnificient and apt national anthem for the pure land of hate.

baasi laddu/jay thakeray: shouldnt you pandit hates love Pakistan if you think it is the "land of hate"??

Hoodboy sahib, now you gone and done it..Masadi is sure to inject some of his brilliance into the discussion. (right after he wakes up cleaning the bathroom at the gov't college)

tahmed bhai,

we love Pakistanis -- we just hate the idea of Pakistan

Okhla writes "Do you know that a certain bearded bloke who lurks on Chowk has already finalised the blue print for the higher education system in Pakistan?"

Look a-hole be man enough to confront ideas and not rely on made up BS. I am not "bearded", and as far as looks go, I look more like your Western "gods" than the MAJ did, but that by itself is no qualification for enlightenment, and as far as using the methodology of science in my work goes, I beat any of you so called "modern" folk on here whose best work is "Fun at fishing"- that is all this miserable fcuk has managed to produce in his ilog, now visit my ilog and read some of my articles at http://articles.asadi.org and you will see where enlightenment is to be found....All this fool can manage is conjuring up false images of "bearded fanatics" to discredit ideas based on BS. Like it or not my recommendations were persuasive enough to make it through to an institute whose head is a pro-West Western educated highly qualified person and he was moved by them so much that he forwarded them to a federal minister for distribution country-wide, when this fanatic PH, who writes BS with veiled attacks on Islam, is able to manage that even with his long list of credentials and sources- don't forget that my history of teaching here is short and his is long- then we can talk....until then, Okhla shut up...

Chaltahai writes "right after he wakes up cleaning the bathroom at the gov't college"

No a-hole, my bathroom cleaning days were left behind in the USA, here I am King of the department but not at GC who are third rate paymasters where the elite divide up the HEC funds among their group and pay new comers very little, well below the pay scale I demand;

By the way nothing wrong in cleaning bathrooms but you don't need a graduate degree in sociology from the US to do that in Pakistan, there are many other options.

tahmed writes "pandit hates"

Direct result of the MAJ's actions on behalf of the feudals and the colonials to scapegoat the Muslims of India. Not only breaking them up politically and thus making them weak but producing just such a multitude of "pundit hates"- while producing multitudes of wealth and power for themselves. The idea of Pakistan in its essence was anti-Muslim, just like the Mullah's attempts to use Islam for political gain or terrorism is anti-Islam...The Church of MAJ is dead in Pakistan, and as such the days of "Pundit Hates" are few, the Muslim Political Power that MAJ fragmented and made weak will emerge with much greater than the whole with an alliance of the "Third World" against YOUR colonial masters, then people using theological seperation, ethnicity and other such distractions will be wiped off like dirt by the people.....