An innie in an outie’s world
Growing up, I was such a quiet child, especially compared to my loud, older sisters that my parents would often forget me. They sometimes failed to remember they had a third child. Once, they lost me at a supermarket and realised it when the store manager called. Had it not been for him, I’d be a feral child living in aisle six gorging on cereal and candy bars for the rest of my life. No offense to my parents, they just didn’t know what to do with a little person like me. Innately introverted Had someone explained to them that I was innately ...
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Note on terrorism from a Pakistani 5th grader
Every day we hear the words terrorism and terrorist. But most of us children do not know what these words mean. I looked up terrorism which means an illegal act which causes threat to human beings or property by some miscreants who take such cruel actions just to make the world fearful. They do this just to get their illegal demands. These cruel people are called terrorists. From what I understand since the Afghan war and war against terrorism we have seen unfortunate incidents terrorism in the country as well. Hundreds of our innocent civilians and armed forces jawans were killed in ...
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Gender disparity and education for all
Each year, the United Nations announces a different theme for International Women’s Day. This year celebrations revolve around the need to ‘Empower rural women: End Hunger and Poverty’. I only wish the world body would focus on the apparently-simple, yet not-so-easy aspiration of doing away with gender disparity in education. That would be a true celebration of womanhood – to have the right to quality, universal education. If only we could celebrate no other theme but that every year, rest assured the rest of the objectives will follow almost automatically. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWfuQ6wQXQ&feature=related] Global education has to be our most compelling need if we are to ...
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Feeling regret in the markets of Parachinar
I cautiously embarked upon my journey through the tribal area in FATA, this was my first visit to the Kurram Agency. I stayed in Parachinar for six days, an area that had succumbed to sectarian violence, and was now trying to recuperate. Although the community has inflicted much of this violence upon itself, I was impressed by what they had learnt from their trials and how they were shaping their lives now. Having heard so much about the violence that prevailed in Parachinar, I assumed a guarded pose upon reaching the disputed area. To my surprise, the Kohat-Parachinar road, once ...
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Crowded classrooms: 3 teachers for 500 students
Often young minds, unaware of the notion of enlightenment, tend not to be inspired with a desire to learn, progress and achieve. They fail to comprehend the significance of education and that its absence can lead to an irreparable personal loss.This leaves them with the ‘monotony’ of school and a mushrooming culture, of neglected nurturing, of their innate inquisitive nature. Why is this so? One of the major factors is the gradual increase in the high student-teacher ratio in public schools of Pakistan. According to the data provided by Unesco in 2008, Pakistan has the most crowded classrooms in South Asia. The ...
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The 101 on how to survive an admission test
Overheard at Regent Plaza last Sunday… “These pagals who give the Scholastics Aptitude Tests (SATs) and get their 2400s,” said girl A, “Bar bar daytay hain, aur phir LUMS Common Admission Test (LCAT) ka grading scheme mess up kar day tay hain” (they take the test over and over again and mess up the LCAT grading curve).” “I swear yaar…,” said girl B. That was the weekend the Karachi Literature Festival kicked off at Carlton Hotel while a rally was taking place at Mazar-e-Quaid to protest against India, drones and everything in between. It also happened to be the weekend that the Opal ...
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Waiting for evolution in Pakistan’s classrooms
When I was in class III, my school teacher showed us an unusual illustration in our science class. It was the classic drawing of the evolution of man, from monkey ancestor to homosapien, and I remember thinking back then: well, that makes a lot of sense, we look just like monkeys. There was no big debate in our science class. The teacher just taught us evolution (change via natural selection across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations), and we just absorbed the information and assumed it to be true. The narrative of how life came into existence ...
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The miseries of a Pakistani graduate
So what runs in the mind of an average middle class Pakistani when investing a large proportion of its income into their child’s education? An educated person can add value to society, take mature decisions, know the difference between right and wrong and use his skills to bring prosperity and well-being in general. Sadly, all these factors are secondary; the only primary focus in the mind of most families is the monetary return that education can bring. From an early age, children are told that if they study hard they will become a ‘bara aadmi’ one day. So how exactly is ...
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You deserve 20 marks if you’re a Hafiz-e-Quran
I recently read a news story where I learnt about an incident of discrimination against a Pakistani Christian student named Haroon. Haroon couldn’t get into medical school because he was refused the 20 extra marks that Hafiz-e-Quran students are given on the exam. According to him, the practice was unjust since his Bible knowledge was just as good. I sympathise with Haroon; I am all for giving him the opportunity to study at a medical college, but not at the cost of demoralising people who memorise the Holy Quran and earn those 20 marks. Let me explain why. Twenty marks hardly make a two percent difference in ...
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Dawkins made it to my sociology class
Growing up in a society that discouraged asking too many questions, I often wondered what it is about modern western education that the conservative right is so scared of. Reading the news and following politics on television and online has helped me understand how our policy makers think and what issues matter to our general public. If you have done the same, you will know that every effort to modernise our educational system and make it more culturally and religiously neutral has met with stern resistance from political, religious and other factions of the society. But one day, while sitting in ...
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