Can an American Student Survive in Pakistan?

Hii Farheen,
Nice first person account u did.
But see there is some serious problem cropping up. A certain group of radicals in Pakistan juts cannot digest the western influence, which has been engulfing many of us. But one this is sure, the repiramands of these so called `wise thinkers` are not going to land up anywhere as we have to pave our own way.

I am from India. email me- ankurbatra@lovechandigarh.com

ASSALAM O ALAIKUM

IM AWAIS WORKING WITH WALLSTREET EXCHANGE CO. LTD AFTER DOING MY MBA-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WELL, I READ YOUR ARTICLE ABOUT UR STUDY IN PAKISTAN UR ABSOLUTELY RIGHT AT YOUR END BECAUSE THAT IS UR EXPERIENCE AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT EXPERIENCE BUT I WANT TO SAY SOMETHING TO U ALTHOUGH OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS NOT TOO GUD LIKE AMERICA BUT U CAN SEE MANY MANY PAKISTANIES WORKING IN THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN REGIONS U CANT COMPARE AMERICAN EDUCATION WITH PAKISTANI EDUCATION BECAUSE THERE IS NO COMBINATION IN BETWEEN THESE TWO THERE IS A HELL OF DIFFERENCE U SHOULD COMPARE UR EDUCATION SYSTEM WITH THAT OF ENGLAND, GERMANY AND MANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD WE ARE NOT UR COMPETATORS IN EDUCATION BUT U KNOW STILL WE ARE GETTING HONORABLE JOBS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ALTHOUGH WE HAVE POOR EDUCATION SYSTEM U CAN IMAGINE THIS FACT THAT IF WE WILL BE PROVIDED FACILITIES LIKE UR GETTING IN AMERICA WE CAN DO EVERYTHING.

I CAN WRITE A LOT OF MATERIAL WITH FACTS ON THIS TOPIC BUT IM IN MY OFFICE AT THE MOMENT SO THAT I CANT WRITE TOO MUCH.

HAVE NICE DAY FOREVER
ALLAH HAFIZ

I`m Sudeep, a std.12 student from India.
A victim of the `educational` system of my nation since 12 years, I know just how easy it is for the Masters and Controllers of Institutions to kill the creativity within an individual, fill that emptiness with `desire to learn ``by-heart``` and then proudly declare, ``He/she is a genius! He/she came in the Merit List!``.
And so, the value of an individual is reduced to a number and a letter on a sheet of paper, signed by a Government official.
Thus, after ten long years of schooling, `Sudeep the Student` (never `Sudeep the Writer` or `Sudeep the Actor`) was processed by the Authorities through the SSC exams, packaged with his mark-sheet and admitted into another institution for non-creative `learning`, a `Junior College`.
For another five years now, I will have to remain in this system that is killing me from within, unless I go abroad and enter an educational system that actually bothers about `Sudeep the Person`.
However, to do so, I will once again have to prove my `worth`. To escape from this System, I must immerse myself wholly in it and become completely integrated within it. Only if I achieve this will I be able to use the creativity within me for `practical purposes`
There is a quote by William Blake that I once truly believed in and lived by, but which is slowly ceasing to hold meaning, for me:
``I must create a system or be enslaved by another man`s; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.``
To those who call out for action against such a mind-controlling system and question why we merely complain about it, I have just this to say:
The System is powerful and comprises the majority of the `people who matter`...i.e. those who earn big-time, some legally but most...well, you know.
I come from a middle-class Indian family whose earnings are very much average.
We can afford to have a comfortable life, yes but then it stops there. Apart from the fact that we do not really want any extravagances, we cannot afford to pay for them.
It is true, there are many schools and colleges that are coming up here in India, that offer world-class education that actually focuses on the creative growth of the individual, not just the academic progress. However, it is also true that such places of learning are simply unaffordable for individuals like me, let alone anyone from the lower-middle-class and below. Thus, a liberal education in India, today is only for those who are able to shell out outrageous amounts of cash. And to add a sprinkling of statistics, more than 70% of the Indian population resides in villages. I reside in a city and in that, at least, I am lucky. One can only imagine the mind-numbing method of education that is used to `educate` students from villages.
Life in India, for a creative student isn`t easy. To survive and remain sane, the average Indian (and from the article, I gather, Pakistani) student must learn to be a conformist in every sense of the term.
In conclusion, I would like to drive home the point that approximately 90% of the students here who are able to strike a balance between their creative desires and their academic syllabi are the ones having mummies and papas with large purses and fat wallets.
It all boils down to stating the obvious:
Show them money and status and you`ll `Pass` in Life.
Show them talent and creativity, minus the green...
`Fail`

The experiences that you had are indeed not very pleasant and I dont blame you for going back. There is however one thing that comes to mind and that is: if you feel this way about Pakistan` education system, are you doing something about it? Just by complaining about the system cant do any good......this is the system that produces some of the best professionals in the world!!! So it cant be all that bad.............

Agreed with what might have happened back in the early 90s. Still I think it the same here. No change. Definitely my fellow college mates from the US in Pakistan are finding it hard to adjust to the `norms` and `trends` of the Pakistani student life. Sad! :(

Judgments reserved towards the educational system have its reasons, be it positive or negative. However, there is one thing that this system teaches us, and that is discipline and hard work. For instance, currently I’m studying in a reputed English university, yet just a few weeks back my seminar tutor was giving his student a lecture on how to take exams and write essays. It is a well-known fact here that the Asians are best at exam taking and hard working especially under pressure.

It does not matter what system we studied-matriculation or A levels- we have been taught from an early age to start preparation for exams months in advance and are very use to studying till the wee hours of the morning. In the Cambridge system of A levels and A starts from 85 or 90%, where as in England it starts from about 70% (that’s an average not exact score).

The lenient system of England is producing students who are no more working as hard and an increasing amount of students are not even attending universities. While Asian students are increasing especially women. When I tell my British friends at how I study for exams, and that is get all notes ready and revise etc, the usual that we’re so use to, their reaction is just utter shock.

I am not insinuating that our educational system is the best, I’m merely pointing out at its positive consequences that are encouraged and appreciated here in the west.

Come to think of It.......


There must be some sort of inferiority complex here......

because I have seen...... how they litterary droll over Americans ....provided they are
White skined...... or `` Gorreey Chamree Walay.........``
Its only when they find..... the American they are talking to IS/WAS one of them...
A Desi ......... Maybe then some sort of Jealousy, inferiority complex, sense of denial takes over.
and they find satisfation in riducling......or playing Down on HIm....

Farheen,

I should say that you sure did have a rough time. However i am not surprised at your parents moving back to Pakistan. I know a couple of families that moved back because they had daughters and thus decided that it would be best if their girls grew up in Pakistan. (Go figure that out).

Please remember that there are only a few schools in Karachi which hire trained teachers. Those schools make sure that their teachers are well paid. However many schools will hire anyone to teach especially if the person knows how to speak English. Take me for example. I was a teacher only because i wanted a part-time job and i was hired within a few hours just because i could speak English. I had just completed my 10th grade and had no experience.

Teaching taught me a lot and showed me that we were ruining our children. Our children are not allowed to use their own brains and after a few years i rebelled against the system but made sure that the children learnt to use their brains. I would ask the children to read a story from their English readers and then would ask a group to act it out in front of the class. I did this for two years and am satisfied that at least i tried to make a difference. I got a lot of opposition for doing such things but the results quieted my critics. The problem in Karachi is that we need to make sure that all teachers are well paid. if a teacher gets Rs.2000 a month than why would he/she put in the effort.

Now i have a couple of questions for you:

Did you ever tell your parents of how people were treating you in school? Did they do anything?
Were things really that bad or you really wanted to come back to the states?

Mr. Urstruly (S. Mohammed),

Quick question: do you live in the US, UK, or Pakistan?

Satire

Re:#15.
i been reading this `meta` stuff lately.. and so i kinda OD`d on it.. chowk`s porcelain is special and always all so willing to take anything everything down the drain.. ;)

Sorry to hear you had such a rough time Farheen. I was in a similar situation too -- moved to Karachi from the US when I was in 4th grade, and was enrolled in a well-reputed private English-medium school. The other kids would make fun of my accent, especially when I would try speaking Urdu, but were generally friendly. I have to say my experience was very unlike yours though -- my teachers were very supportive especially my Urdu teachers. I could understand Urdu but could barely speak or read the language and was at the kindergarten level, but after giving the rest of the class work to do, my Urdu teacher would take me aside and individually teach me and give me easier work -- work I could do at my level. She would make different tests and exams for me as well. She was determined to bring me upto the class level by the end of the year. Looking back now, I have to credit my first few Urdu teachers for my vast improvement and confidence in speaking the language. Without their coaching and support I don`t think I`d could have come up to speed so fast. Just want to take my hat off to all the teachers out there who went the extra mile for me to help me out!

And by the way let me just add a sad joke to my last post. The Muslims who have freed themselves from the Mongloid-making education system of their own homelands have been able to introduce and establish Islamic law for themselves in Kafir but free countries but shamefully not in their very own so-called Muslim countries. An example is the establishment of Shariat courts in Canada, Britain, Sacnadnavia (excluding Finland), and probably Germany and France. It was not possible without the self-confidence that they attained by going to the education institutes of free societies.

The current education system in Pakistan is based on a system created by British colonialists to mass-produce rote zombies and mindless slaves who could never question the system. The powers that be in Pakistan i.e. the progeny of those who collaborated with Colonialists, i.e. the likes of napak fauj, feudal, and capitalists, benefit immensely from maintaining this system of mental oppression and psychological Mongolism. The only people who can see thru all this are the people who have experienced an education system of a free society - people like Farheen. The people who have vested interests in keeping the status quo call those who question the system with names like ``anti-social elements``, ``religious fanatics``, ``Jehadists``, ``terrorists``, ``al-Qaida ideologues`` - etc. That is exactly the reason the neo-colonial powers like US and Britain dictate the education policies to their puppet despots in the countries like Pakistan. In free societies like theirs, studying our ``terrorism`` or what we do is considered as social science and large think tanks engage themselves in this exercise and their work is highly valued. On the other hand when our education institutes, for example, our madrassas and universities investigate the terrorism and aggression of West, it is labeled as ``preaching of hatred``. The rote Zombies and slave class among us shake their heads on everything that West feeds us, without question, like those little bob-head toy dogs that sit on the car dashboards and whose heads bob with every jolt of the car.

#7

I took this article at face value. A simple narrative on the hardships faced by the author in the Pakistani educational system. No system is with out flaws, that`s a no brainer. However, the US education system isn`t so bad that you don`t learn the things that most dumb folk don`t know about. Everything you mentioned as being hidden from the public isn`t hidden, because most educated people tend to know that the US has showed ruthless imperialism through out the ages from good ole asia to a whole bunch of countries in latin america. they`ve killed tons of indians, to take over their land. But that`s not hidden. that`s the great thing about the education here, it`s much more objective if it`s comprehensive. When you get to the college level, even at the high school, it`s hard to hide the past in country where freedom of speech is ALMOST always condoned.

#12

I went to a private school too, but I guess it must`ve been a crappy one. Because my teachers really sucked. But then again I was only in the first grade.


IF ANYONE CAN MAKE IT IN PAKISTAN THEY CAN MAKE IT ANY WHERE.

Re: #7

There are many things about the US educational system that could be greatly improved (e.g., the ludicrous emphasis on self-esteem building at the expense of real learning) but the long laundry list of ``flaws`` taqat-e-parvaaz has pointed out is not one of them. The complaints pointed out are applicable to a typical US school curriculum in the 1960s or the 1950s but not todays. Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction. The (often marginal) role of non-whites/non-males is played up at the expense of ``dead, white males;`` or haven`t you looked at any conservative critique of the US school curriculum? While the ``white-washed`` curriculum of the 1950s/1960s is far from perfect, two wrongs really don`t make a right.

Farheen,

Good you said what you wanted to. Its another graeat episode when you sit down to write your autobiography. And I am glad there is no resentment. We got to bloom where we are planted.
HN


#14

Well put, if in contrived language! But methinks thats characteristic of all chowk writings. Take a look at Veeresh`s current board!