The Culture of Research and Learning

Murtaza Sahib - Excellent article ! While this a good effort in formulating in words a problem we all know exists, I was hoping to hear some suggestions from you. The question that come to mind regarding the sorry state of R&D in Pakistan are these:

- is the non-existent R&D ONLY because of the lack of funding? I am of the opinion that the `culture of learning and research` seriously lags in Pakistan even at the levels where the funding is available. The minds who should grow up to form R&D instituitions, go through a school curriculum in their formative years which is not conducive to developing any constructive ``thinking``.

- Is indulgence in R&D a result of love and care for the society you live in? (as you suggest). I tend to think that indulgence in R&D is a matter of economics. You cannot get involved in R&D for the sake of R&D. R&D should result in the creation of goods and products which the society benefits from. If there is no market for these products, there would be less incentive for anyone to spend any money on R&D.

[It is imperative to understand that the culture of research and learning also promotes the tradition of philanthropy. The patronage of academia and arts by individuals and firms has resulted in benevolent partnerships. ]

Excellent Point.

pmishra`s sarcasm is in a way appropriate here.

Good article on an important topic.

However,


ijaz_gul # 1

``I run a college!!``

The situation seems critical indeed.

by the way eds -- this article was published in dawn many weeks ago, on its weekly education page -- the writer should have mentioned it

pmishra2,

Or the following:

a) Indian soldiers who kill fellow Indian women, children and potlical dissenters (TREASON ALERT!)
b) Soldiarity with Israel, which blow up and raze neighborhoods full of, you guessed it, children.
c) Ranting about Islam....just because...

Please don;t bother with all these complicated things. They will be hard for you to understand. It is better if you remain focussed on the following:

(1) Kashmir cause, and the need to fund jihadis that kill indian women, children and goverment officials.

(2) solidarity with palestinians who blow up buses full of israeli children

(3) ranting about natural superiority of islam and its great future.

Murtaza, What you have pointed out is indeed a dire need of Pakistan. Unfortunately,niether the government has the requisite funds, nor enough social capital is diverted to this field. How can we break this logjam

The corporate sector in Pakistan has yet to deveopl the this to support education. Their flagships like LUMS and GIK are already sinking. While our engineering students are still making fire extinghuishers as projects, students in USA are making hi tech equipment.

The college that I run has an exclusive Research and Development Department for both undergraduate and post graduate students. We began it with the misunderstanding that we would be able to make linkages with the corporate world and industry. As it has turned out, they see us as beggars. So we end up creating man machine interfaces and artificial intelligence which cannot be utilised. We are also strapped for funds.

So waht do we do?