Scribbler's Corner! By Adeeba Ahmad

Today's special!

How often do we hear that education should be free for all, literacy rate must go up and that government is not doing enough, this is not only Pakistan's issue but also in almost all developing countries.

Interestingly enough, when we delve into the educational policies of these countries, we cannot be more impressed, then where lies the fault? Implementation and good              governance , that is what is lacking. Not just the will to deliver is required but also the means. Now you must be thinking, where there is a will there is a way, ahhh well yes,   how I wish we could get the job done with clich'es only!

Just do it!

Implementation has to be done meticulously  alongside checks and balances, otherwise corruption takes over and we are left with the current state of affairs. The good news for Pakistan is that after the 18th amendment,  provinces are autonomous in devising and   implementing their education policies. Why is this good, you may ask, well, this takes   away the tussle between federal and province units. The provinces can design the          appropriate curriculum according to their context and implement it too. They can         mobilize and train their manpower to implement it , the governance body must involve  federal and provincial representatives.

The Big Fish!

Having said this, there are so many issues in each province, for example, local bodies/   jirga elders/bureaucrats/religious leaders and political point scorers jump in and either   object to the curriculum/infrastructure decisions and then the process is halted or           delayed. Getting all these stakeholders on the same page is by far, no easy task, however it is not impossible. I believe that the policy makers must not only design a policy but   also provide the roadmap and which then needs to get approved and made into a law,     this would  bind the stake holders together and implementation can take place.

Go Global!

Apart from generating our own resources and manpower, there are various international agencies willing to help and provide support in different areas of education, namely     world bank, USAid programes etc. Although they are met with a lot of criticism too that they have their own ulterior motives, but who doesn't?

All too Private!

Think about the fact that our  very own Pakistani private school owners. What are they doing? Capitalizing on the  opportunity for business; the not- so- good state of               education is good enough chance for them in the name of filling the educational void!  Even if   we believe ourselves to be  naive enough, we can at least ask them to use their resources to adopt a school located   in the 'katchi abadi's', not just raising charity         money (read asking parents ) once a year!Most of these schools, specially in the affluent part of Karachi city, have total authority as they please, be it admission fee or monthly  tuition   fee raises or field trip/sports day/   annual concert/carnival charges or overheads, there is no stopping them, and any parent 'dare' question them, is met with dire             consequences! They can remove a child immediately in the middle of the term (and we  think they care about their students!)they can put a ban  on any parent such as  attending any of their  child's school function for years on end because that parent had the            courage to challenge their decision.Yet we rush to leave our kids in their hands even      though we rarely see a trained teacher in these schools the only criteria of getting a job   in a private school is, spoken English fluency(which is by the way again a rarity).

Seal the Deal!

Coming back to true and tangible benefits of the reformed educational policies, we can only reap the fruits if we include teacher training as a core ingredient of implementing, otherwise it's just as if you buy a latest sophisticated gadget without it's manual!

Trained teachers are real teachers, I do believe in born teachers but I also believe in       sharpening, upgrading and learning teaching, as opposed to relying on your innate           teaching ability and closing your eyes to the world around you!

Think it to ink it!

Implementation of Free Education for all, as the article 25-A states, is all the more         urgently required, as the world is changing rapidly and we need to keep up pace to         compete, if we want to succeed and provide a better enlightened future for our next       generation! But are we??

Addiction of Social Media and its Impact on Students - By Ahmad

Could face booking, viewing and sharing videos on YouTube and tweeting impacts any student’s academic performance? What kind of effects these sites are having? Social media communities are here to stay. As per recent statistics of 2014, Facebook has intersected 700 million daily active users whereas over 500 million tweets are sent on a daily basis. YouTube claims that they have over 1 billion active users per month who share and watch videos on YouTube. Millions of YouTube video views is a fact that cannot be denied by anyone.

No doubt there are many benefits that can be jotted down with lots of words which can be spoken on positives of social sites but I believe everyone would agree that these social sites have caused severe impairment to society as a whole. The School children and college students become the central than anyone else. The consequence of social media on our life pattern is now unavoidable. A clear majority of students are nowadays involved in spending their time in use of these social sites in some form. Students who get tangled in activities on social sites during study lose their attention from study. This reasons reduction in their academic performance as well as competencies.

Nowadays students hardly interconnect in person with people and are behind in communication skills. Most of the employers are now not happy with the communication skills of fresh graduates they recruit. Effective communication skills are must in the real world. Students who are spending their major time in talking from behind the screen are less able to communicate effectively.

Another immense area that is being hurt in the students is use of slang words during socializing or use of abbreviated forms. Reliance of computer grammar and spelling check options have resulted in significant reduction of creative writing skills.

Researching for academic material on social sites is another problem. Mostly students prefer to search in social sites. This leads to decline in research capability as well as might direct them to misleading information.
Addiction to Social media is now at a point where students updates their statuses on Facebook from bathroom, while sleeping, while studying, and even upon awakening during late night hours. While the addiction to socialize might be innate, excess time online can intensify or stimulate symptoms of depression.

What’s the solution to this addiction? We need to moderate the access to electronic socialization as well as educational institutions should plan and guide the time to be allocated on use of social sites, face to face interactions, physical outdoor activities and study. Parent’s role is significant in educating children and implementing such time plan. Social media addiction is like a poison and a clear majority of the students are suffering from it. New tools and websites are constantly being created. Facebook with over billion active users claims first position beating Google in the race. Google is now thinking of integrating over billion YouTube users with millions of Google+ users to get the first position. What’s all this? Ever wonder why these figures are increasing and how impacting our students’ education and academic performance?

Are Schools Producing Heavy Weight Champions??? By Samer Iqbal

It has been observed that serious problems are rising due to heavy school bags among primary and secondary students. Although parents care about their child in all aspects but this problem is silently inculcating and causing hurt innocents kids. This problem has been ignored since long. As per NewsWise report, 50% school going children who carry heavy bags daily, feel pain and tiredness. American Physical Therapist Association (APTA) revealed in the study that “students carry 15% more weight heavier than their body weight”.

In the same way, In Pakistani context majority of school children have heavy bags more than their body weight. They not only carry it on the shoulders but also put on the laps all the way when they go by school van for at least 1 hour. This causes thigh pain and they are unable to move quickly when they dropped at school or home. What a Pity!

One famous Medical Director of Spinal Disorders Avrom Gart, revealed that, "To balance their body weight school children lean forward which cause abnormal posture as they groom”.

Sadly in this modern age of technology, students are carrying heavy bag day by day. Weight of water bottles is additional. School bags must be used properly to avoid grievances. In Pakistan, schools put the extra burden on students by making timetable in such a way that they have to bring books and copies of at least 6 subjects while the normal ratio to carry weight as per your body weight is between 10 to 15 % but it is in the range of 25 to 40% more or in some cases higher than this.

All stakeholders could do combined efforts to constantly guide their children to control the weight of the school bag. Here are some suggestions to reduce the burden on child’s back:

·         School managements should control the ratio of weight of heavy bags to the body weight of students through 100 % weighing of school bag and students in all classes for a normal day on arrival.

·         To reduce weight of heavy school bags, worksheet culture could be promoted instead of books and copies. Students will only bring worksheet files of all subjects. They can read reference book and text-books at home. Keep the classwork copies in the school and replace homework copies with worksheet files so that it could be easy for all to bring it daily.

·         Lockers can be provided to all students in the class to put their extra books and copies in it rather than bring it daily.

·         Homework could be submitted online.

·         Teachers should find the ways and means to control the weight of bags under control limits. They should emphasize on hands-on activities because through these activities students could more engage in real life rather than books and copies.

·         If school management strongly believes on homework and classwork copies they should make separate portion in one copy to reduce the burden of two copies and change copies semester/ term wise.

These suggestions are beneficial for all stakeholders. We should understand that in later life the risk of poor physical development is real. The problem is wide-spread, which no single stakeholder can handle individually. School management and parents should feel that how our kids are suffering from heavy weight otherwise their kids would be called as heavy weight champions more than student.

Education in Pakistan … HIJACKED by SHADOW SYSTEM - Shairose Irfan Jessani

In a country like Pakistan which invests 2.5% of its GDP¹ on education and has 56% literacy rate² education has been hijacked by shadow system. This booming industry has

produced remarkable influence on the education market and pointed out a huge gap between the existing and desired quality of education in public and private schools. One could ask questions; is the whole set-up of shadow education demand driven or supply driven? Is the parallel system a support or challenge to formal schooling? Is learning enhancement through private tuitions a reality or fantasy? Considering the drastic growth in this

domain, educationists and policy makers have started thinking about the social, economic, physical and intellectual impact of shadow system.

 Dang & Rogers³ (2010) called shadow education as “third important education sector” globally, though a great diversity is observed in the nature, purpose and scale of informal tutoring in different parts of the world. Unlike developed countries, in Pakistan tuition is considered as the supplement to formal education rather than substitute to low quality formal schooling. ASAR report⁴ (2011) shares that 20% students in lower primary, 25% in upper primary and 35% in secondary seek paid tuitions with fees ranging from PKR 300 to PKR 3000/month. Doesn’t it sound weird for a country where 60.19% people live under the poverty line, which means earning less than $2/day i.e. 6000/month⁵?

Though less empirical studies are available on root causes, stakeholders’ perceptions give critical view on it. A parent said, “Coaching Centre is must; almost everyone goes there. These centres guarantee for good marks and prepare students by providing notes and marks gaining techniques. After all we want our children to end up in good universities”. This comment indicates several itching points of our education system like peer pressure, rote learning approach of examination system, tuition as fashion trend and futurist goal of education. Interestingly, shadow education has aligned its strategies with the current demands and hence got complete support by parents and students. It has attracted youth and parents so much that students get enrolled in coaching centres prior to their admission in colleges. This cancerous attitude has penetrated in our society so deeply that its removal seems next to impossible. Further, over reliance on tuition develops the habit of selective study, lack of participation and tradition of absence from school among students. A student replied when asked for his long absence from college,

“I became confused whom to follow, school teacher or tuition teacher so I decided to focus on tuitions despite wasting time in school”. These dual instructions, methodologies, standards and parameters make children confused and hence they give priority to shadow education for achieving their academic goals.

What else could be the success indicator of any country’s education system? On the other side, teachers consider it an easy way of income generation. Mr. Imran⁶, a college teacher, shared his routine that after 6 hours every day in school; he goes to coaching centre and takes 5 classes of an hour each with 10 minutes break in between, teaching the same concept to different groups of students. How can one think that this tiring and mechanical job will leave any room for creativity and innovation on teachers’ part?

Though the above discussion implies that shadow system leads to social disparity, economic instability, mental and physical stress on students and parents, it could serve as the opportunity for university students, trainee teachers and retired individuals. It’s neither desirous nor possible to ban shadow system completely, a fine line should be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable norms to avoid negative consequences. For example, teachers shouldn’t be allowed to give tuitions to the children whom they teach in school. This would ensure that teachers don’t compromise on quality in their classrooms. Also, restriction on teachers’ dual affiliation, issuance of permit to university students, development of parent school partnership for quality assurance, shift in examination’s process and focus are some of the areas where policy at school as well as government level needs to be formulated, implemented and monitored.

It’s a dire need of today to reflect and realign our formal system of education else we would lose the direction and real essence.

References:

¹  Associated Press of Pakistan, retrieved from http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85740&Itemid=2

²   http://www.dawn.com/news/1012884/literacy-and-pakistan

³  Dang, H. and Rogers, F.H. (2008), ‘The Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring: Does It Deepen Human Capital, Widen Inequalities or Waste Resources?’,

The World Bank Research Observer, Advanced Access Published 18 April 2008

⁴  Aslam, Monazza, and Suwaibah Mansoor. The Private Tuition Industry in Pakistan. Issue brief. N.p.: n.p., 2011. Print.

⁵   http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/business/03-Jun-2014/earning-2-a-day-60-19-population-live-below-poverty-line

⁶ Pseudonym

 

Free Education to Increase the Literacy Rate in Pakistan - Samiullah

Free education is funded through charitable organizations or taxation, rather than tuition fees. Primary education is free in many countries. In many developing countries, a small number of children step in secondary schools. In Pakistan, the literacy rate, as revealed by PSLM Survey 2012-13, is around 61%, which is considered the low literacy rate than the other countries. In contrast, UNHD 2011 report reveals that India, a rival country, enjoyed 74.04% literacy rate, with increased in later years.

This low rate of literacy is mainly due to the low public investment. Another reason is that the public investment is chiefly skewed towards the higher education, letting upper-income class obtain more benefits offered for education. Primary schools (institute of lower education) suffer from the conditions i.e. lower income classes can't enjoy subsidies or/and quality education.

Educational system in Pakistan has been criticizing mainly because it fails to increase the literate youth. Despite, the recent step of Free Education taken by Punjab Assembly to approve Free Education Bill 2014 seems a gateway to double the literacy rate in Pakistan. The bill makes parents obligatory to send their children to schools, or else they will be fined. The bill puts special stress on free education up to matriculation level. Education departments will be funded to provide free copies and books to make more affordability for educational expenses. The bill aims to remove illiteracy rate in Pakistan by 2020. In this way, children working to support their families will be able to attain education up to matriculation, simultaneously earning their daily bread.

Attaining education is a primary right to every child as by UN Declaration of Human Rights back 50 years. However, it is not the motive developed countries decided the provision of free education, rather than they recognize the increased and positive externalities of the primary education. For example, primary education doesn't only benefit the individual receives, but also benefits the society as a whole. Noteworthy links have been found between better health and education along with fertility rates and mortality. For this reason, Vietnam has gained higher literacy rates though it is a poor country. It enjoys the child mortality rate that is 1/3 those of Pakistan. In addition, attaining education is considered to be an instrument to decrease poverty as it raises productivity in all economic spheres.

Despite the noteworthy step of "Free Education" taken by Punjab Assembly, the primary education remains inequitably accessible among diverse income groups and various regions throughout the country. Literacy rate in Pakistan is lower as compared to those of other similar levels countries in economic development. The target "minimum provision of primary education" is yet to be achieved. A comprehensive and effective educational revolution is needed to improve the educational system in Pakistan. Therefore, we have to examine the existing educational system not merely in a specific province, but throughout the whole country and should address the issues in professional, progressive, and adequate manner.

I would like to invite all to appreciate Punjab Assembly for such advantageous decision and to encourage other provincial Assemblies to make such decision for more literate Pakistan.

Timed Math Test – A destructive practice! - Zeenar Saleem

Timed testing is the part of Mathematics teaching and learning processes since time immemorial. The teachers and university admission cells are in practice to take the timed Mathematics test, since ages in Pakistan and around the globe. These tests are commonly known as ‘mental-math tests’. In these tests, students are asked to solve a mathematical problem within a minute. However, the complexity of these mathematical problems varies as per the age, for e.g. Six years old are expected to do the problems involving basic operations, whereas a high school graduate is asked to do more complex question including surds, exponents, algebraic equations, etc.  Hence, timed-testing in math, continues from early-year schooling to admission tests at colleges and universities. However, keeping in view the complexity of questions the time is extended from 20 seconds in class tests to 1 minute in college entrance tests. But the question to ask is, are these timed-tests beneficial?

The perceived goal of timed-testing is to develop mathematical fluency, so that the students are able to solve mathematical problems fluently. Nonetheless, this fluency is often associated with speed. Moreover, it is considered that ‘Good Mathematics is speedy Mathematics’. However, the opposite is true, Mathematics is about depth and not speed. Neuroscientists have suggested that Mathematics should never be associated with speed, because many mathematicians are slow thinkers. One such mathematician, Laurent Schwartz, a Fields medal winner, highlights that he considered himself to be ‘unintelligent’ during school-time, because he was slow in mathematical problem-solving. He further states in his autobiography that “At the end of the eleventh grade, I took the measure of the situation, and came to the conclusion that rapidity doesn't have a precise relation to intelligence. What is important is to deeply understand things and their relations to each other. This is where the intelligence lies. The fact of being quick or slow isn't really relevant”. Hence, he disregarded the importance of speed and re-shifted the focus from fast and furious solutions of math problems to in-depth exploration of mathematical concepts.

Research also suggests that when children encounter timed-tests, they feel anxious and stressful. This stress occupies the working memory. The working memory is the controller and regulator of information that the brain processes. When students are given less than a minute to solve mathematical problem, their working memory shuns and problem-solving aptitude and interest in subject diminishes. Researches also highlight that working on math problems don’t make children anxious, but problem-solving in timed situations make children feel vulnerable. The damage to working memory and anxiety for timed-tests expounds that there are some people who can handle math, while others can’t. This segregation deprives a larger population to think that Mathematics isn’t for them. Hence, they don’t take interest in mathematics and deprive themselves with a lot of professions that involve mathematics.

Beside creating anxiousness and segregating people into math-people and non-math people, these messages also discourage the students from deep thinking in mathematics and force them to memorize the facts and ‘tricks’ which could help them to ace others. Hence, the roots of rote-learning of mathematical formulas, tricks and procedures are laid down very early in the childhood and entrenched up-till higher education. Because of enculturation of timed-testing, students get the habit of using the learnt formula, rather than seek patterns to create the formula. Consequently, students are unable to solve complex problems when ready-made formula isn’t given.

To check whether the same anxiety exists in Pakistani context, I asked 29 pre-service teachers to elicit their experiences and feelings about timed math tests. Almost 75 percent of pre-service teachers stated that they felt scared, nervous, anxious and terrible while timed-math tests. However, some of them wrongly considered timed-testing to be beneficial in the development of mathematical fluency. Hence, teachers in our contexts have less awareness about recent developments in Neurosciences and Mathematics Education. Because of this, they pass wrong messages to the students about the nature of Mathematics and wrongly judge students’ capability. Resultantly, they deprive learners from exploring the beauty of Mathematics.

To eliminate this ingrained belief about the association of speed and Mathematics, there is a dire need for teachers and parents to study current literature. Mathematics Educators including Boaler and Dweck urge stakeholders to develop ‘number sense’ in students. Number sense implies the sense of flexibility of decomposing and re-forming numbers and explore number relationships. ‘Number talks’ is an important strategy to develop number-sense, by engaging students in the articulation of their thinking process. Other strategies include the explorations of a number-relationships using hundred charts, customized games, number-line, base 10 block, area model and so forth. These strategies would enable children to develop mathematical thinking and love for the subject.

Conclusively, this article pleads mathematic teachers, parents and university admission cells to stop terrifying the students in the name of ‘timed tests’ and help them unleash the true beauty of Mathematics. This wouldn’t be possible until and unless we wash out our previous beliefs about the usefulness of timed-testing in Mathematics, with new developments in the field of Mathematics education. Thus, to help students in discovering true Mathematics and developing love for it, teachers and parents must know that the timed - testing is a destructive practice, so we should give adequate time during tests.

Riskshaw with a toy!! By Shelina Bhamani

In Karachi more than 70% people travel in public transport amongst which Rikshaws are found to be one of the most common means of transportation and favourite ride for the young children. It is observed that young children enjoy best by standing and holding a handle that is between the driver and passengers. No wonder a bumby ride in rikshaw fascinates children because they can feel the jumps meanwhile enjoying hustle bustle of the surroundings.

I too have been a regular traveler of rikshaw since ages. Today, to my amusement, I saw an interesting and innovative way to use the handle( that works as a separator) as one of the most common toy for fine motor development for young children in a rikshaw. I asked him the reason for innovatively using that handle as a toy so he mentioned

"Baji app log pain baton mai masruf hutein hu bacha bechara bore huta hai so Mai ne toy lagaya takey bacha handle bhi pakray aur kheley bhi akhir bache bhi tu hamare customer hein" English translation " because I find mothers talking to each other while children get bored so during heir ride they can hold the handle and also play after all they are also our customers"

Not thinking about about children friendliness of this innovation I appreciated him and had given him some extra money for taking this initiate and counting children as equal part and respecting their rights.

Proud of you my karachiets!! We are surely developing!!! 

Some pictures for you to enjoy!!