Why should Sindhi be taught in all schools of Sindh?

The Government of Sindh recently announced that it would ensure that privateeducational institutions offer Sindhi language as a separate subject. The announcement went on to state that schools refusing to offer Sindhi would be fined or even have their permits revoked. 

This announcement has led to predictable outrage. Some have argued that students who attend private schools have no use for learning a language that is ‘only’ spoken within Sindh. On the other hand, children attending public schools, given their financial background also have little practical utility for studying the region’s native language. This, in itself, is a false assumption as private schools cater to a wide range of students from the full spectrum of financial backgrounds.

Others have suggested that this is nothing but a cynical attempt by the PPP-led provincial government to canvass support amongst rural Sindh and its constituents. Since much of the politics in Karachi is along linguistic lines, giving Sindhi official patronage will help cement the PPP as a true representative of the Sindhi people; both within and beyond Karachi.

Although at the end of the day, all decisions are political, there is not even a little mention of the actual educational value of learning a regional language.

In my opinion, merely offering Sindhi as a separate subject is not enough and the medium of instruction should be Sindhi at primary and even lower secondary level. However, there is a necessary precondition:  schools, whether private or public should engage students in their mother tongue, if that is the language they commonly use at home and within their local community.

This precondition is necessary because a state mandate forcing schools to offer Sindhi as a language to students who are unable to use what they learn either at home or within their community, is questionable at best and a waste of resources at worst. Practically speaking, where will all these Sindhi language teachers come from? Will adequate textbooks be available? What learning opportunities beyond the classroom are available? Will schools compromise the quality of the subject to tick a box just to soothe bureaucrats and politicians while wasting students’ time?

Most importantly, if students and parents wanted their children to take Sindhi as a separate subject, private schools would have responded to this need and included it in the curriculum already, right?

Over the years, a lot of research has been conducted on teaching children in their mother tongue. Studies show that once young learners gain confidence learning in their most commonly spoken language; it facilitates learning in other subjects and languages as well. Young learners especially require functional linguistic skills and students who are forced to learn in an alien language struggle more. Parents who do not have the requisite linguistic skill and hence, are unable to contribute towards their child’s learning, will in the long run hinder, rather than aid student attainment.

Examining the situation in our own country, our state project to promote a sense of patriotism by pushing Urdu as a medium of instruction and then placing English on a pedestal has only led to even more confusion for students. Do we really believe that the existence and ideology of Pakistan is so fragile that it would be compromised by children learning in a regional language?

Rather than imposing restrictions out of ignorance and fear, we should aim to allow every student to have access to as wide a range of learning opportunities as possible. Hence, forcing students to learn English or use Urdu as a medium of learning is pointless when they have few opportunities to apply what they learn in their homes and communities.

Thus, two things are quite clear. One that students should be taught, at least at an introductory level, in their native language; and two, that the government should actively encourage schools to do so.

Nevertheless when it comes to the Sindh government’s proclamation an argument can be made for both sides. Yes, Sindhi should be a subject offered to students who actually use or have the opportunity to use Sindhi in their daily life. However, forcing students who are unable to use Sindhi in their homes and communities will not add to their educational experience. Hence, the end result of such an imposition will be a situation in which children are merely used as a tool to facilitate politics by the state.

Politics by any means indeed.

Published in Tribune Blogs: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/19234/why-should-sindhi-be-taught-in-all-schools-of-sindh/

At NUST: Fined for ‘wearing tight’ or no ‘dopatta’

As its contribution towards disciplining the youth of this country, the National University of Sciences and Technology (Nust) imposes fines on students for breaking their dress code.

In their haste to fine students for wearing jeans and not wearing a dupatta they overlook something called grammar. No one is perfect, but when one is running an institution of higher learning perhaps one should have higher expectations. However, I digress.

According to dawn.com, Nust has denied the report and stated only that students are instructed to wear ‘decent’ dresses. The fact, however, remains is that this isn’t the first time students have been fined at Nust or other similar higher educational institutions and this surely won’t be the last time.

If there was ever an illustration of why our educational system is failing, the picture above speaks a thousand words. The lazy assumption that regimentation, discipline and uniformity makes one educated died a mournless death back in the early 20^th century. Individuals associated with the military, bureaucracy or civil service who then venture into the education sector impose what they know to be the best system – or at the very least what they believe works best for themselves.

This top down, administration pleasing approach to education is of little service to the students themselves. Rather than situating teachers as the centre of academic learning, students face the red tape and bureaucracy of administrators who arrive at these positions with little or no background in formal education.

This patronising and condescending attitude of educational institutions towards their students which assumes that adults are unable to make good choices for themselves does little to help young adults mature and broaden their exposure if they continue to be treated as if they are in school. While an 18-year-old can join the military, drive a car, obtain a pilot licence, Nust believes that a 22-year-old must conform to an individual administrator’s whims of what is and what is not proper.

However, should any of us be surprised that an institution of higher learning enforces a dress code and treats it as a disciplinary issue?

When the picture of the notification went viral, the obligatory commentary on how we are an Islamic country and women (in particular) should observe “proper dress”, followed. Somehow our culture and society is hotwired to view any woman who makes choices that essentially impact her, a public matter.

Are all the men present in Nust unable to avert their gaze if they are offended by a woman not wearing a duppata? Can the concerned instructer keep his personal world view a private matter and not impose it over an entire community of learners?

Hypocritically, while the youth of the country who end up at such institutions need to be disciplined and regimented, the sons and daughters of the very same administrators who end up running these institutions, attend the undisciplined universities abroad.

The vigour with which such rules are enforced is sadly not met with the same enthusiasm when substantive issues regarding teaching and student welfare hit the headlines. When allegations of rape were made in another institution that enforces a dress code; International Islamic University, the dean at the time commented that to protect the institutions honour the case should be hushed up. When a teacher and some students protested against the administration of Bahria University the administrators called in naval intelligence to keep tabs on the demonstrators. A retired Brigadier assaulted a lecturer in National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and he was made to apologise for “inflaming the emotions” of the retired officer.

When all else fails the following argument is offered:

If the students are unhappy they can leave.

What a shameful fall back. Higher education, or indeed any form of education should be about inclusiveness, reducing barriers and encouraging individualism. These institutions are subsidised by the tax payer, receive state land at a subsidised rate. To say, students should have to leave an institution of higher learning because of the clothes they wear does not conform to the administration’s world view shows how warped our idea of what education is and should be actually is.

Why is it then that students and parents put up with this? Do parents believe that their son or daughter in their early 20s needs to be treated in a university as if they are in school? Do students accept these norms because they have been socialised to believe that being told what to wear as an adult is acceptable?

Perhaps what is most frightening: do the administrators at Nust believe that such rules actually equate to an education? That is the question that we must all consider. If we think it does, then perhaps someone should send an email to all the universities currently ranked higher than Nust, as they have definitely missed a trick.

From the Tribune Blogs: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/18977/at-nust-fined-for-wearing-tight-or-no-dopatta/

Death on Nanga Parbat: imagined scenery, detached from reality

Like almost everyone I know who has travelled around Gilgit Baltistan, fond memories of the unimaginable scenery and the hospitable people creates an emotional bond with a region that hardly ever makes the headlines....unless, the news has something terribly bad to highlight.

Be it the tragic murder of a climbing expedition, floods or deforestation, you know that GB will make headlines only when the tragedy falling upon the region, matches the daily upheaval that faces the rest of the country.

For many people, myself included, Gilgit Baltistan has always been something to boast about.

Talk about the mountains, share some pictures.

Thanks to the benevolence of mother nature, GB is a part of Pakistan that advertises itself, and doesn't require introductions. Obsessed with how our country is portrayed in the foreign media and amongst outsiders, it is always handy to remember the name of a few peaks, glaciers and town's to highlight the regions awesomeness.

However, it is this admiration, all be it from a distance that has also alienated us from the people of the region and vice versa.

Recall the rise of militancy in Swat. All we heard and read was references to Swat as the "Switzerland of Pakistan". That was pretty much what most people knew about the region. Who knew about the people, the various linguistic and ethnic identities, local politics or even wider geography of the region? The "Switzerland of Pakistan" was what people knew the region for, even though they had never been to Switzerland themselves.

The same is true for GB. The region has been devastated by natural disasters in the past. Yet the important thing that people in the rest of the country highlight is how "strategic links" with China and Siachen is threatened.

When an avalanche led to the creation of the Attabad/Gojal Lake, our media was full of blogs and articles about the "pristine waters", "beautiful waters" and "Allah's gift" to Pakistan. The many thousands of people who lost their land, homes and belongings were never factored in. Still living in various refugee camps along the KKH, they are all but forgotten, but the obligatory picture of the "pretty lake" is shared on social media, as if the beauty of the lake somehow compensates for the suffering of the local people.

The power and influence of the timber mafia has led to extreme deforestation. Does anyone care? No. Why? Most probably because the still images that we associate the region with show pretty sceneries and the damage and long term effects of mass deforestation has not registered. Even if we are in the "know", we casually assume that the local people must be grateful for the economic activity (not).

Now had we not faced the 2010 floods I would probably understand this view. But given the devastation those floods caused, and the obvious contribution deforestation played towards intensifying the flooding, one would think they would be a greater outcry over the rape of "Allah's blessing to Pakistan".Yet silence.

Today, the mass murder of a climbing expedition is likely to be the death knell of the tourism industry in the region. Yes, many domestic tourists do visit the  region. However, the large climbing expeditions, which are spread over a long period of time, require a large number of supplies, porters, guides, etc, generate badly needed income in the region. The government says that they will "monitor foreigners in Pakistan" for their security. Well, I may be wrong, but climbing expeditions spending tens of thousands of dollars are unlikely to line up now to come to Pakistan, only to feel as if they are under constant observation. Given our failure to protect our fellow citizens it's debatable how effective such measures would be. Such targeted violence also adds to other problems. For example, expeditions may find it difficult or expensive, to find adequate insurance to cover their trips. Private companies such as The North Face and Red Bull which have been sponsoring climbing and gliding expeditions may back out, not wanting to risk involvement.

The demise of the tourism industry cannot be overestimated. In 2010, I was travelling through the region with a group of foreign friends. Along the KKH and other highways, we were stopped so that foreign nationals could fill out a register. Entering Deosai Plains the register had about 42 names by end July, 2010. Looking back to 2004, they were 5000 or so names uptil the same point of that year. Talking to the policeman and national park officials, they all shared how dramatically the number of tourists had fallen away.

This year had seen a large increase in the number of climbing expeditions. Such groups are more aware of the risks, but are also aware of local conditions. I doubt anyone would have thought that there was any risk of being attacked at a base camp at 4200 meters.

The cost of this tragedy will be borne by people who have very little to loose to begin with. Isolated villages along the way to various peaks, who make some money during the tourist season offering their services as porters, cooks, selling fruits and vegetables, etc.

The rest of the country views the KKH and GB as something to boast about, when it comes to natural beauty, or a strategic asset in terms of Siachen of China. The people, nature, wildlife are secondary of no concern. May it be massive logging and deforestation, or corps commanders and their buddies flying into Fairy Meadows for some illegal hunting that the local people abhor, but obviously can do nothing to stop.

Now, this is not to say that people in FATA, Balochistan or indeed any other part of the country are any less "othered away" from the nation's imagination. I believe these arguments apply to them as well. However, I guess in this case, personal experiences shape my views of a region and people, who I would hope are more than just pictures in an imagined, perfect postcard.

Perhaps we need to push people to scratch beneath the surface and appreciate that people living in "the Alps of Pakistan", "majestic heavens", "breathtaking beauty", "mighty mountains", etc, are mostly stricken by poverty and malnutrition.

Who will spare a thought for them?

I have no doubt in the coming days security analysts will churn out opinion pieces on how foreign forces are trying to scuttle the "strategic economic corridor" and the "potential of Gwadar", yet the victims will just be a number, the people of the region will remain unmentioned and references to "breathtaking beauty" shall be frequent.

Problem in the air (II)

The following Letter to the Editor was published in the Express Tribune on the 26th of May, 2013:

I was surprised by the reaction on social media and the Pakistani press of a PIA flight from Lahore to Manchester making an emergency landing at London’s Stansted Airport. Many commentators have argued that somehow Pakistan’s image has been tarnished and the crew aboard the aircraft should have calmed the situation down rather than requesting help from the control tower, which then scrambled jets, leading to this embarrassing situation.The provision of adequate safety for passengers and crews is held paramount in global aviation. If news reports are true that the two arrested individuals tried to force their way into the cockpit, which in itself is grounds for a serious breach of airline safety, according to regulations established post-9/11.

Critics should also consider that as the PIA aircraft was flying through European Union and specifically in UK airspace, it is also required to follow local rules and regulations as recommended by their aviation regulators. The captain and crew should be commended for erring on the side of caution and keeping the safety of their passengers paramount.

Syed Nadir El-Edroos

See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/554327/problem-in-the-air-ii/

Tweaking our understanding of education in Pakistan

Pakistan's uncharted educational landscape

Its nearly election time, and while everyone goes back and forth in an increasingly emotive manner, cheering on their respective side, one issue that does stand out amongst all speakers is the importance of education for whoever comes to power post 11/05.

This is perhaps as good a time as abt to evaluate what education should be and how it should be delivered. This too has seen a lot of debate. But then sometimes in the midst of all the discussion it seems as if each party is cheering on their own interpretation of how they will reinvent the wheel, in mostly symbolic ways, i.e. exam boards, examination methods etc.

Alot of good work has already been done. I won't go into the specifics at this point, but at a more general, macro level, I believe that small tweaks and changes in our understanding of education is important before we move forward. Ignoring the basics, while trying to change the complex is bound to fail.

Recognize the importance of early years education  and play

Like most things in Pakistan, a top down approach to education is seen as a quick fix. The development of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) over the last decade, and how its captured middle and upper class imagination in its quest to improve Higher Ed is remarkable. The HEC perhaps matches defence organizations in its ability to churn out "strategic institution" or "disciplined institution" to whenever its faces any criticism.

While the development of a strong higher education sector is important. It seems that in Pakistan this is happening at the expense of other levels of education. Flip through the news or any newspaper, and while issues related to the HEC make headlines, schools can go without teachers or basic infrastructure for years without any mention.

Now this is probably the result of our middle and upper classes investing their energy at the top end of educational qualifications. The final product of 16 years of education, a degree and then a job.

I find this approach self defeating.

Investment and attention at the top must be matched by recognizing the importance of early years and basic education. Primarily because:

The most formative years of learning is during early childhood (See Alison Gopnik's talk above). Society may feel that what a 20 year old in university learns is more important than what a 4 year old learns in terms of practical and economic importance. However, what we ignore is that what the 4 year old learns or does not learn will have a much bigger impact on learning when older, than massive spending on higher education itself.

In the current model where the HEC offers scholarships to students and hopes to improve outcomes. This is all well and good, however, an investment in early years and basic education would help improve educational outcomes from the bottom up. Students entering university will be better prepared academically. The very best today are good in relation to a very low benchmark. We must invest in policies that lifts everyone, not just a select few at the top.

Early years interventions have the added benefit of resulting in higher social benefits. Investment in higher education helps increase private benefits of the scholar himself.

At this point, hoping for universal nurseries and kindergartens is pointless. But a recognition of its importance would help as a start. Highlighting the importance of play, open spaces, curiosity etc is as good a start as any. Providing information to parents or local communities, interlinking such interventions with the provision of vaccines and basic health would help shift attitudes.

After All, a rising tide lifts all boats.

Children learn themselves and teach each other

Sugata Mitra has done some exciting work on how children learn and how they teach each other across the globe.

Below are some extracts from his talk which speak for themselves:

So then people said, well, how far will it go? Where does it stop? I decided I would destroy my own argument by creating an absurd proposition. I made a hypothesis, a ridiculous hypothesis. Tamil is a south Indian language, and I said, can Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village learn the biotechnology of DNA replication in English from a streetside computer? And I said, I'll measure them. They'll get a zero. I'll spend a couple of months, I'll leave it for a couple of months, I'll go back, they'll get another zero. I'll go back to the lab and say, we need teachers. I found a village. It was called Kallikuppam in southern India. I put in Hole in the Wall computers there, downloaded all kinds of stuff from the Internet about DNA replication, most of which I didn't understand. 

The children came rushing, said, "What's all this?" 

So I said, "It's very topical, very important. But it's all in English." 

So they said, "How can we understand such big English words and diagrams and chemistry?" 

So by now, I had developed a new pedagogical method, so I applied that. I said, "I haven't the foggiest idea."And anyway, I am going away."  

So I left them for a couple of months. They'd got a zero. I gave them a test. I came back after two months and the children trooped in and said, "We've understood nothing." 

So I said, "Well, what did I expect?" So I said, "Okay, but how long did it take you before you decided that you can't understand anything?" 

So they said, "We haven't given up. We look at it every single day." 

So I said, "What? You don't understand these screens and you keep staring at it for two months? What for?" 

So a little girl who you see just now, she raised her hand, and she says to me in broken Tamil and English, she said, "Well, apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule causes disease, we haven't understood anything else."

Children are curious. And this curiosity allows them to overcome linguistic, technological and economic barriers (to an extent). We must recognize this because the ability to overcome these barriers diminishes as children become older. 

A second lesson to learn here is the importance of encouragement. The "granny effect" as Mitra states refers to the importance of positive reinforcement and gentle nudges that spurs learning. For me, an inexpensive and perhaps the simplest education intervention in Pakistan, would be an information campaign to encourage parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts to show interest in children's learning and offer encouragement.

Something that I am considering to try is to get a few computers, connected them to the internet, try and get urdu dubbed lectures of Khan Academy videos and open it up to whoever wants to have a go. I personally think that such an approach of offering access, and then encouraging self learning, is an effective way to narrow the gap between poor students who may not be able to afford extra classes or tutoring and their more affluent peers. 

Play is good, boredom is bad

Its a shame that play doesn't get as much importance as it should. In a 5 or 6 hour school day, a 20 minutes "break" in a day is supposed to be enough time for a child to have a snack and play. Break Time or play is never enough, but for many teachers and parents its considered a waste of time. 

Toys also figure as an obvious distraction. "Put your toys away and come here and study". Now only if we appreciated play as much as the forced "study" a lot of creativity and curiosity that will later reinforce educational ability, would not be wasted. 

Arvind Gupta shows a few examples of very simple, some familiar toys that highlight the importance of both play and toys in facilitating learning. Again, a very simple intervention that can inspire.

But wheres the policy stuff?

I will go into specifics in another post. But here I wanted to highlight some areas towards which I believe attitudes must change. The recognition or certain forms of education and certain age groups as key stakeholders in educational processes will help approve enrollment and attainment for all students.

So in short, if you ever have to lobby for educational reform, remember to:

1) highlight the importance of early years and basic education

2) play is education

3) children can learn on their own, education policy should not dull their curiosity or creativity

4) children teach each other, social interaction is important

5) encouragement, especially for young children is extremely important. Encourage, support and let kids thrive

What is the Pakistani rupee worth?

Above is a quick chart for you showing the value of the Pakistani rupee versus Sterling from December 2012 to the 21st of February 2013.

On the 19th of December 2012 £1 bought Rs. 159.11, while on the 2y 1st of February £1 bought only Rs 149.72. So over a period of a couple of months, the Pakistani Rupee has gained 6% against Sterling.

Wow! Something must really have changed in the Pakistani economy over the past couple of months to justify the Rupees rise? Right? Well not really, actually not at all. The fall in the value of Sterling has more to do with expectations of the UK loosing its AAA rating, improvements in the outlook of the Eurozone and the US, and the appointment of Mark Carney as the new Governor of the Bank of England, who has suggested that rather than inflation targeting, the UK should switch to targeting nominal GDP. In short, while the "market" spent the last year or so focusing on the troubles in the Eurozone, they are now looking to the UK and realised that Sterling is overvalued.

So why do I bring this up?

Perhaps one of the most frustrating and irritating line of economic argument one may come across is how the fall in the value of the Rupee against the US dollar is somehow a barometer for economic success/failure.Social media is littered with lists highlighting how in Musharaf's time $1 was "only" Rs. 60. So what was so amazing about a dollar for 60 rupees? And why does the dollar hitting a hundred to so much panic?

Now, this is not to excuse the shortcomings of economic policy-makers that have allowed for vast fluctuations in the exchange rate. The fall in the value of the dollar in some respects is self inflicted  but also, the relative strength of the US dollar is also influenced by what is going on in the US itself and the wider global economy.

But the issue for me is the desirability argument. Why are we so obsessed with the value of the dollar as a benchmark for economic success?

This is just like pointing to the Karachi Stock Exchange and claiming that the rising index is big thumbs up for the Pakistani economy and policy makers.

Perhaps one of the most ridiculous statements regarding the value of the Pakistani rupee that I cam across recently was in the "I dream of a day, Pakistan"video when one of the dreams were that "I dream of a day when a Pakistani rupee equals a hundred dollars".

Well, I am sure that the affluent consumerist middle class would be very happy with such an exchange rate as the relative price of imports plummets, an overvalued exchange rate would make Pakistani exporters uncompetitive.

And this is exactly the point: Regardless of which way the Pakistani rupee moves, there will always be winners and losers. The falling rupee has allowed Pakistani exporters to remain competitive and blunt some of the effects of higher costs of running businesses in Pakistan in the face of power cuts, infrastructure shortages and perhaps most importantly terrorism and violence.

The other side of the coin is that a falling rupee makes imports more expensive. More rupees are required to purchase goods and services from abroad, and makes our foreign debt more expensive in rupee terms. As we import a large chunk of our energy such a crude oil from abroad, a falling rupee adds to inflationary pressure in the shape of higher import prices.

Now the fact that we have a wide gap between our exports and imports of goods and services, which is plugged mostly by remittances has more to do with imbalances within our economy and poor policy making.

However, with so much emphasis on the value of the rupee, looking back 5 or 10 years and dreaming about an ever appreciating currency allows both politicians and policy makers to ignore underlying problems and then declare success or failure based on whether the rupee has gained or lost value.

Japan most notably, after the election of their new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has nudged the Bank of Japan to loosen its inflation target and become more aggressive when it comes to monetary policy. The Yen has lost 16% of its value since he took office. The incoming Governor of the Bank of England has also suggested that Sterling needs to loose even more value to rebalance the economy.

The point here is that national pride should not be invested in the value of the Rupee itself. It makes for great headlines, talking points and rhetoric, but our obsession with the value of the Pakistani rupee only helps us to cover up our failure to deal with our economy as a whole.

Given the massive trade deficit, many would argue that the Pakistani rupee needs to loose even more value. And it probably will in the coming months.

Rs. 120 to $1? That's just the price at a particular time of the day for a currency. Treat it as such.

Rs. 60 to $1 was no magical benchmark that we should aspire towards, just because it neatly fits into the anti-incumbency narrative that we are encouraged to jump on. 

The Rs. 28 trillion loot in Swiss Bank's fallacy

If something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t. I am not referring to the fantastical $45 Billion, Abu Dhabi group investment, plus tallest building in the world in Karachi news from a few days ago, will come to that some other time.

Really? Perhaps Google to fact check?

Today, once again, reading through the Political Economy section of the TNS, I came across another sermon on corrupt politicians and ill-gotten wealth, ending predictably with references to Jinnah and Iqbal.

Alauddin Masood couples some facts from some recent reports with the ubiquitous and sensational statement that:

The amount is so huge that it prompted a Swiss banker, recently retired, to say: “Pakistan is a poor country but Pakistanis are not” because they have “28 trillion (28,000,000,000,000) of Pakistan rupees deposited in Swiss Banks.”

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/Feb2013-weekly/nos-17-02-2013/pol1.htm#2

Now this so called “Swiss Banker” has alteast retired now. Over the last couple of years we have been inundated with email forwards, and Facebook shares about this mysterious Swiss Banker and the Rs. 28 trillion figure.

In September 2011, it wasn’t a retired Swiss Banker, but a director Swiss Bank who stated that:

Director Swiss Bank said ‘Pakistanis are poor but Pakistan isn’t a poor country.’ He added that 97 billion dollars of Pakistan is deposited in respective bank and if this money would be utilized for the welfare of Pakistan and its people then Pakistan can make tax less budget for 30 years, can create 60 million jobs, can carpet four lanes road from any village to Islamabad, endless power supply to five hundred social projects, every citizen can get 20000 rupees salary for the next 60 years and there is no need to see IMF and any World Bank for loans.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/09/18/news/national/pakistan-has-97-billion-dollars-in-swiss-banks-director-swiss-bank/

What the?

A few problems are obvious with these assertions.

First, there is no such thing as a “Director Swiss Bank”.

Second, there is no such thing as a Swiss Bank.

Third, why would any Swiss financial official compromise on Switzerland’s reputation for privacy by making such statements?

Fourth, according the Swiss law, financial privacy in Switzerland is akin to attorney client privilege. Why would some Director/Retired Swiss Banker break Swiss laws to make such statements?

Fifth, even if this Swiss Banker is genuine, how would he possibly know the names, source and nationality of all deposit holders in every Swiss Bank?

Sixth, why would he make such normative statement, about whether Pakistan is a poor country or not, and how many years of salary each Pakistani would receive and that to calculated in Rupees?

Alauddin Masood’s article is titled:

If our rulers bring back the money stashed in accounts abroad and invest it in Pakistan, we can have tax free budgets for almost 30 years

What the......

Now many things are wrong with such statements.

First of all repatriating money back into Pakistan doesn’t equate into investment. Second, the assumption that all monies held abroad is ill-gotten, is not necessarily true. Third, what is the relationship between investing the money in Pakistan and thirty years of tax free budgets?

It is one thing to have such commentary shared in social media and online forums, but it’s quite different when it is used as a tool for shaping or justifying economic policy.

But these statements are such an incredible farce that they are also used in India, where articles were published with the title, Indians are poor but not India: Swiss Bank:

"Indians are poor, but India is not a poor country," says one of the Swiss Bank directors. He says that "280 lakh crore (280,00,000,000,0000) of Indian rupees is deposited in Swiss banks which can be used for “taxless” budget for 30 years. It can give 60 crore jobs to Indians. The other uses of the money: From any village to Delhi 4-lane roads. Forever free supply to more than 500 social projects. Every citizen can get monthly 2000 for 60 years. No need of world bank and IMF loan.

http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5058:indians-are-poor-but-not-india-swiss-bank&catid=119:business&Itemid=493

Shocking surprise! Looks like this Swiss Bank director likes to say exactly the same thing to every developing country!

I find such rhetoric frustrating and exhausting.

Economic policy making is difficult enough, but once public opinion is shaped by such rhetoric it is very difficult to design and implement policy with politicians and media personalities harping on with such ludicrous accusations.

Now, you may retort that hold on, while these statements might not be true, the fact remains that politicians are corrupt and they have probably stashed away large sums of money in Switzerland. That is true, and no one is denying that. However, things are bad enough that we don’t and shouldn’t need to rely on made up stuff.

Why do we need to share pictures of atrocities in other countries and pass them off as pictures of victims of terrorism in Pakistan or other Islamic states? Were the victims of atrocities that we are passionate about not photogenic enough?

Are our corruption estimates not sexy enough that we need to come up with Rs. 28 trillion?

So spare the rhetoric and stick to facts. At least one would expect that from writers offering sermons on corruption and budget policy in national publications. 

The Pakistani people, they matter!

In May 1968 a young Iraqi geologist, Farouk al-Kasim, arrived in Oslo, Norway. Al-Kasim’s youngest son, born with cerebral palsy, could not receive the case he required in Iraq. Along with his Norwegian wife, who het met while studying in the United Kingdom, Al-Kasim arrived in Oslo, with little idea of what lay ahead.

While waiting for a train to his wife’s hometown, Al-Kasim made his way to the Ministry of Industry to ask for a list of oil companies operating in Norway. Instead, his unannounced visit turned into a job interview! At the time, Norways oil administration comprised of just three officials. Foreign petroleum companies were pouring money into North Sea oil exploration, but as yet had not discovered any oil. The Norwegian government was looking for a skilled and experienced individual to give some insight into the massive amount of information pouring into the oil administrator’s office.

A decade earlier the Geological Survey of Norway had declared that there was little chance any oil would ever be discovered. However, while analysing the information available, al-Kasim concluded that the discovery of oil was just a matter of time.

By 1969, several exploration companies had left Norway after failing to make any significant discoveries. However, in December 1969, Philips Petroleum, the last remaining explorer discovered one of the world’s largest oil reserves, the Ekofisk field.

The Norwegian government however, was completely unprepared. They were no plans, policies, regulations and neither a vision for the Norwegian oil industry. It came down to al-Kasim, to prepare a blue print for the future of the Norwegian oil industry. What has followed since is the development of some of the world’s largest oil fields, innovation in oil exploration and extraction technology and the creation of world beating ancillary industries that has allowed Norway to make the most of its oil reserves.

Perhaps most importantly, Norway managed to avoid the infamous “ Dutch disease”, that booming commodity exporters experience. The rest as they say is history.

The knowledge, expertise and skill of an individual and the dedicated support he was offered by his colleagues, allowed Norway to leverage its comparative advantage in the petroleum industry. The mere presence of oil was not the secret behind Norway’s success in building an affluent economy. Instead it was the presence of expertise that allowed it to harness their discoveries true potential.

This is a lesson that we in Pakistan must realise sooner rather than later; that our strength lies in our people, who at present are largely ignored as a useful resource in Pakistan’s development. We risk wasting the advantages of our demographic dividend by failing to make adequate and necessary investments in young people, to support their learning and helping them achieve their individual aspirations.

While we celebrate the presence of the yet unexplored Thar Coal reserves and the possible mineral wealth across Baluchistan etc, the inability to efficiently exploit and commercialise these resources insures our continued underdevelopment. Whether there exploitation is desirable as proposed is also debatable. 

As our population expands, water stress, climate change, the depletion of domestic gas production, desertification etc, will pose challenges that we are unprepared to face. Its only our ability to manage such challenges which will determine whether we are able to leverage a challenge into an opportunity.

The use of what we have, in the best possible way, will allow Pakistan to develop in a manner which is sustainable and does not repeat the mistakes of the past. Anyone following the smog that chokes Beijing at the moment would appreciate the short-sightedness of unplanned electricity generation using coal.

The only resource that we possess in abundance is the expanding numbers of our young people. Investments in education, in schools and colleges, in playgrounds and in teachers must take place now. For only the can deal with many challenges that Pakistan faces. Otherwise at best, the demographic dividend of a young population will be squandered or at worst, the finite natural resources we have will be wasted due to poor decision making.

I have said so before, but it must be repeated. More attention must be given to basic education, especially 

for girls. Investments in good teachers and raising the status of teaching must go hand and hand. The social benefits of basic and primary education are much higher than higher education. While giving importance to Higher Education is all well and good, however unlike the example of Norway above, we in Pakistan don’t only need to make sure we make good decisions at the macro level, but we also must enable individuals to make better decisions. Vocational training must be encouraged on the one hand, but at the same time efforts must be made to insure that it is not considered second tier to academic pursuits.

Without al-Kasim, Norway may have taken a totally different path. Likewise, despite our geographic advantages, natural resources and expertise, without an educated, skilled and aspirational young population, Pakistan too will continue to pay the price for poor decision making. 

Education is not just about how many As you score

The following blog was originally published in Tribune Blogs, 4th Feb, 2013.

Education is not just about how many As you score

Recently, the British Education Secretary announced that students starting their A’ levels in England from fall 2015, will return to the previous system of an “all or nothing” exam at the end of two years of study.

Eventually, these changes will not only impact exams in England, but will also trickle into tweaks to the manner in which Cambridge International Examinations and EdExcel International exams are organised. It is still not clear whether Wales and Northern Ireland will adopt these changes; Scotland has a separate system.

The current system of units or modules has been criticised for allowing examination retakes and grade inflation. Policy makers hope that a return to the two-year exam cycle will help make A’ levels more rigorous and help prepare students for higher education. Universities have criticised the quality of GCSE and A levels in the UK, rather than preparing students for higher education or vocational training; A’ levels train students to succeed in exams.

This is a criticism that may sound familiar in Pakistan.

Over the past fifteen years, the mushroom growth of tutoring and a proliferation of schools and colleges that judge their reputation and success on exam results, a vicious cycle has been created where students seem to appear in exams perpetually during their O’ and A’ levels. A perverted mix of peer pressure, aggressive advertising and devaluing education to a series of grades, ensures that each year students are nudging more and more towards sitting exams in a wider array of subjects.

Whether it is in the UK or Pakistan, tinkering with syllabuses and changing exam timetables is a swift and neat way to “reform education”.

Politicians love such interventions as these are easily implementable and success can be declared once the changes are made. However, the outcome of these changes is someone else’s headache.

Over the past couple of years, a lot has been made of abolishing foreign qualifications and implementing a uniform curriculum across the country. Such rhetoric means well, but like the changes to A’ levels announced in England today, such measures don’t reform – they just tinker with the status quo. Across the globe, the best educational systems cater for a devolved curriculum and provide greater focus on pre-school and primary education.

An example would be that of Finland, where the system caters on fewer exams, recommends little or no homework, and recruits teachers from amongst the best candidates. In Pakistan sadly, debate on the curriculum revolves around how much importance the chapter on jihad should have, whether illustrations of boys and girls playing together is Islamic or not, or whether the chief minister’s message to students should appear at the front or the back of the textbook

Adopting the Finnish system of education or any other “model” is still a very far off goal. A massive number of school age children do not attend school and our first goal should be to ensure that no child is deprived of education. However, for education to be “fixed” we require a change of attitude towards what we mean by an “education”.

This will have to start amongst the affluent, partly because education providers for lower income groups aim to emulate their affluent peers. If the schools at the top consider exam success as the gold standard of a quality education, the same attitude trickles down, shaping the attitudes of both schools and parents.

While examination success is indeed important, the appropriateness of what we are taught and how we are taught is also important. Some imperfect albeit illustrative examples include students who complete O’ and A’ levels, but then struggle to appear in Central Superior Services (CSS) exams due to the perception that they favour the pedagogy of matriculation and Faculty of Science (FSc) students. Students hoping to attend state-run medical schools are encouraged to complete FSc rather than A’ levels as it is believed that it provides better preparation for competitive admission tests.

It is here where an examination focused approach towards education fails us. Education should aim to widen choice and facilitate flexibility.

Students should not have to bear the costs of short-sighted educational reform choices; their choices from five years ago should not impact their higher education pursuits in the present.

We must appreciate that education reforms take a long time to implement, and that changes to exams schedules or efforts to unify curricula (as favoured by politicians) will have limited impact. Instead, investing in teachers, focusing on basic and primary education, and recognising that the learning requirements of each and every child is unique, will truly usher in a much needed reform.

Utopian idealism? Perhaps. But the first important step must be the recognition by policymakers, education providers and parents, that such concerns are worthy of consideration.