The Aga Khan University-Examination Board: Does Pakistan Need One?

yes i quite agree with manto here -- this article is actually sectarian in nature and a thinly veiled attack on the aga khanis ability to run an examination board --

The responses (interacts) to this article so far have been, exactly as expected, divided along a religio-political debate. I can bet on my head that almost everyone of these gentlemen (or ladies) have not even cared to read the entire article and think about it. None of them have tried to tackle the central issue that has been discussed--the impossibility of AKU-EB`s claims given the ground reality. It is not an attack on Aga Khanis but merely a discussion of the merits and de-merits of a specific proposal and its ramifications on the larger educational scene of Pakistan. Please read the article in full before responding. Try to answer for yourself the questions it poses to its readers.

a) What would an examination board alone (in the absence of requisite changes in teacher quality and syllabus etc.) do to change the standard/quality of education in Pakistan?

b) What all is within the realm of the possible for an examination board? Should an examination board be training teachers and prescribing syllabus or merely conducting exams?

c) Why shouldn`t the money be spent on 24 existing educational boards in the country where people and our country`s hopes for the future rot away under piles of files everyday? Where would we get employees to man this new examination board? One of the telling signs is the that an ex-head of Karachi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education is now a consultant to the AKU-EB. Whom are we fooling here?

To the Liar/Hypocrite who wrote this article:


Since I have had the opportunity of working as `external examinations officer` for an elite school in Pakistan .... allow me to give the author of this article a figure ....

For the May-June 2004 O level examinations for London and Cambridge University, tbe total subject and board fees collected from our school alone was 3 million Pakistani rupees.... Now multiply this with some 50 odd O and A level schools/colleges/academies in Lahore....


Then think of Karachi... with 4 times as many O level A level schools colleges and academies...

The creation of AKU-EB would allow people who can`t afford exorbitant fees to get a quality educational system... and maybe some of those who are in O and A streams might step over to the AKU-EB stream....


The result:

1) Narrowing of the gap between rich and poor wrt education

2) Pakistan saving a lot of forex



-YLH

PS: Your dishonesty and hypocrisy is apparent from your question: `Why shouldn`t the money be spent on 24 existing boards``


AKU EB is an independent private organization .... it is not asking you for your money.... so grow up.

No need to couch it.... like Omar R Quraishi said.... it is nothing but a thinly veiled attack on a community that is far advanced than most in our country... and to a community that we owe our very existence to....


By the way... I hope you are not a hypocrite and frequent the Agha Khan Hospital for your routine check ups....

And this is how intelligent, smart, no-showoffs, leaders who love their people not because they are western-slaves but because they serve their own people. O baighairtO, if nothing, then you just learn from your neighbors. Bhaand-KanjaRR kind of nangaa-shuhdaa-sharaabi behaviour will not fast-forward you into the company of your enlightened and modern neighborS.


http://www.indiachinacentre.org/bazaarchintan/pdfs/madarsas.pdf

Someone pointed out another `talent` among ``educated`` Pakis: Does any country, US UK India--ANY nation, forms polical groups & parties OUTSIDE their homelands? Do they have any identity OTHER than that of the country which issued them the passport. Do American , British, or Canadians [even of Paki-origin] form labour, liberal, republican or democrtic party OUTSIDE the country[Pakistan?]; to ``critique`` ``badmouth`` ``invite foreign-help to fix women, mulla, labour-union, or `education` problems `` back-home``?

How can total ignorants ( read: those from english-mediums fatcats in Pakistan) even think of reform. The very idea that they do not consider themselves disqualified & ignorant is the height & proofof their ignorance..and they think twice about shelling out legal & medical advice; when even lawyers & doctors [ yeah the Harvard types] have to consult imams on shariat matters.

Let me repeat: If you do not have ghairrat, dignity, honour as THE prime & foremost virtue then all the english-french-german stuff your spew out is not only worth zilch;on the contrary you are a huge negative burden on the crumbling spines of our very LEARNED & highly educated but unmissionary-schooled AWAAM.

---

To Kill the Mockingbird

The title of this paper is inspired by Harper Lee’s timeless classic, To kill the mockingbird. The novel has become a metaphor for a misunderstanding of the ‘other.’ Madarsahs too, not only in India but also over the world, have been victims of misunderstanding and hate.

Legend has it that the mockingbird was the giver of language; it taught other
birds how to sing. Madarsahs have played a vital role in the field of education, so much so that, in the 10th century inSpain, talented young Christians were reading books in Arabic and were reported to “despise the Christian literature as unworthy of attention.” Most scholars concur on the idea that it was the Muslim influence on Europe, through their seminaries, which brought about the Renaissance.

..(R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages,Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962).
Madarsah System in India: Past, Present, and Future
Amir Ullah Khan, Mohammad Saqib and Zafar H. Anjum

A very informative report: If only one wants to learn
1. Introduction
Madarsahs (religious schools) and maktabs (primary schools) have been providing traditional education in India.They have helped in promoting literacy among the Muslims. Over the centuries, they have produced academics and administrators such as Sher Shah Suri, Abul Fazal, Faizi, Todar Mal, and Fatehullah Shirazi, among a host of others. Raja Ram Mohun Roy, the Hindu reformer and the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, was educated in a Madarsah. At present, there are several thousand Islamic schools spread all across India

Most mosques have a primary religious school or maktab attached to them, where Muslim children learn the Qur’an and the basics of their faith. For children who desire to specialize in religious studies and train as imams and maulvis, numerous large seminaries or Madarsahs exist, with each Muslim sect having its own chain of such institutions. For many poor families, Madarsahs are the only source of education for their children, since they charge no fees and provide free boarding and lodging to their students


Given the dismal level of access to education, and the increased mistrust against the curricula of government schools, Madarsahs are often the only available educational option for children from poor Muslim families, who have the dubious distinction of being, along with Dalits, the least educated community in India.

http://www.indiachinacentre.org/bazaarchintan/pdfs/madarsas.pdf
[continue...CLICK ABOVE for the rest]

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Re #1 and others by the esteemed disciple of the Quaid-e-Azam

Upon some research you`l l probably find that most people who cry `educational apartheid` have their kids in American schools, O/A level preparatory institutions, the most expensive local schools like Habib Public, or even abroad. Any idea like Aga Khan EB threatens their kids` potential monopoly. Hence the diatribe couched in moralistic, socialistic, and anti-apartheid terms.

And anyway, if Qazi Husain Ahmad is opposing something it must be good and beneficial.

On a related note, I recall the famous line by the late Ambassador Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah that ``I cannot undertake the education of the Education Minister`` (the Educ Minister in the Liaquat cabinet Mr Fazlur Rehman was apparently was of the Qazi Husain Ahmad bent).

Sigalph...

I see that you`ve been reading the `Purdah to Parliament`...

Brilliant woman... that Shaista Ikramullah... if only she was made our first Education minister.... her ideas as expressed in her book are simply brilliant...