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/

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

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.

Making the most of online education

Various organizations are scrambling to add courses that can be followed, viewed, consumed and practised by students across the globe, using the internet as medium to share content.

Distance education itself is nothing new. We are all familiar with the Open University or The University of London International Programme.

Internet entrepreneurs however hope to widen access, and this provides us with yet another medium to access education and offer learners another way to learn.

Several US universities began sharing their course contents, notes, lectures and podcasts a few years ago. But the difference now is that the latest providers aim to make online lessons more interactive and structured. 

This offers several opportunities for learners of all ages in Pakistan

One, it allows the curious and those interested to follow a course of a particular area at their pace and convenience. Two and perhaps more importantly, it gives an idea to high school students of what exactly to expect once they enter university. As a volunteer for Possibilities Pakistan, I give advice and feedback to students on their admission essays and personal statements. Most candidates have little or no idea of what higher education study in their chosen areas actually involves. These online courses could offer students an insight, and save them the time and frustration of being stuck in a programme for which they have little interest.

Third, such ventures allow truly exceptional students to move beyond the classroom and their peers. One of the problems of lecture style teaching is that it is a blunt instrument. While some students may struggle in a particular course, others may be frustrated by slow progress. Online courses allow for the weak to revise at their own pace, and for the more motivated to move ahead.

First off, we have Udacity. Udacity offers a range of science, maths and computer science courses, available for free online. Students who complete whole modules receive a certification of completion. Udcacity is developing its own course material and setting its own final exams.

Next we have Coursera. Unlike Udacity, Coursera has formed partnerships with 34 universities who together are putting up online courses. Courses cover a range of disciplines from pure science, math, economics, film and literature. However, courses on Coursera start and finish on fixed dates, so look up upcoming programmes and when they start.

edX is similar to Coursera that it offers a varied range of subjects across various disciplines. However, edX offers students the option of sitting an invigilated exam via Pearson VUE across the globe. Students will then have an official, examined and certified document that accredits their studies. For one of its inaugural courses, an edX course final exam came across a Mongolian high school student who scored a perfect score.  

Perhaps the most well-known portal is not even focused on higher education. The Khan Academy offers learners the opportunity to not only view lectures, but complete practise exercises that focus on repetitive excellence rather than  just completing topics and moving on. A wide range of secondary and high school maths, science and social sciences is covered along with test preparation such as SAT and GMAT. Though several teachers have been critical of some of the content that Khan has uploaded and the methodology of teaching them.

The guys at the Marginal Revolution blog have now setup the Marginal Revolution University. Right now they are offering a course in Economic Development. They will add more courses related to Economics at a later date.

Moving on to something slightly different, sing at the moment myself is Memrise. It uses meme’s to help you remember information. It is particularly relevant if you are looking to build your vocabulary of a foreign language, but courses are also offered in a wide range of other subjects.

Now you may argue that this is all well and good but not really relevant to Pakistan.  They are some impediments. Most striking of which is the obvious problem that all these platforms tend to use Youtube and that of course is banned at the moment!

However, the thing is that in Pakistan where educational opportunities are extremely limited, for those who have access to the internet and the requisite motivation, information regarding alternatives to traditional schooling must be made available.

 I don’t see such programmes as complete substitutes for secondary school or higher education. At best they can complement learning that takes place in traditional brick and mortar schools. I do see such programmes as possible substitutes for say private tutoring. Imagine if many of these lectures could be translated or dubbed over in Urdu, Pushto, Sindhi etc. The Khan Academy is already in the process of dubbing over lectures into various languages of the developing world.

Youtube, ITunes, platforms such as those listed above are helping to transform online learning. There will be many naysayers; however, at the minimum educational institutions in Pakistan should at the very least make students aware of such opportunities. If nothing else, you can go ahead and try something new.

With an estimated 25 million Pakistanis online, even a very very small uptake would translate to quite a large uptake.

Links to the organizations listed above:

Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/

edX - https://www.edx.org/

Khan Academy - http://www.khanacademy.org

Memrise - http://www.memrise.com/

Marginal Revolution University - http://mruniversity.com/

Udacity - http://www.udacity.com/

Perhaps you know of other free online courses or resources? Do share in the comments below.

Refund policy: The end of university looting (IHC rules in favour of university students)

The following blog was originally posted on Tribune Blogs.

There was some speculation regarding who this judgement applies to. According to the lawyer involved in this case, Bilal Mirza, this applies to both public and private institutions. Essentially no educational organization can demand non-refundable deposits, at least that's how I have interpreted the order.

Read the detailed verdict here: 

Detailed Judgement: ISB HC ruling on University Fees

Largely unreported, Pakistani students earned a well-deserved victory in the Islamabad High Court last week. The High Court ruled the current policy adopted by several public and private universities to demand non-refundable deposits at the time of offering admission ‘illegal’.

This is a problem that many students are familiar with. When the admission season starts, they apply to a range of institutions and even start hearing back from a lot of them. However, they are still in waiting for their first choice to respond.

In the meantime, unsure whether they will get into their most preferred university or not, they start making deposits at other institutions; only to later gain admission where they originally wanted and losing out on the sums deposited at all the other universities.

Recently, a student named Muhammad Usman Syed filed a petition at the Islamabad High Court, holding Comsats Institute of Information Technology and the High Education Commission (HEC) as respondents. His legal representatives, Bilal Mirza and Omer Farooq of Farooq Khan & Mirza argued that the policy of holding deposits and deeming them non-refundable is against international practises, where many institutions employed a pro-rata rate of refund.

The court was found in favour of the plaintiff and the HEC has been directed to implement a fee-refund policy in universities.

The findings of the case have a major impact on students across the country, especially at this time of the year. Over the summer holidays, a large number of students will submit admission applications in local universities. While the HEC may still take some time to implement the new policy, aspiring students in local institutions should be aware of their rights during the admission process.

Now that the precedent has been set, perhaps it’s also time for private schools to look into their admission practices and the hefty deposits that they charge?

I had the chance to briefly chat with Bilal Mirza, Advocate High Court, on the details of this case. Here is the transcribed interview:

1) Could you give a brief background of what policies the universities had adopted and why the plaintiff considered them to be unfair? 

There has been a prevalent practice adopted by many universities to announce their results well in advance of top tier universities in any given field. It requires the applicant students to deposit a hefty amount, which the prospectus ambiguously refers to as security deposit and the amount is stated as ‘non-refundable’, to be paid before a deadline deliberately set just prior to announcement of admission results by top tier universities.

Therefore, a student who wishes to secure his academic future and applies to several universities, is coerced into paying this amount in order to have a back-up option in the event he/she does not qualify for the top tier university. Many students, who do eventually get admission in top tier universities, are not returned this amount on a arbitrary ground that the applicant paid this amount with full knowledge of the fact that it is non-refundable and therefore now ‘estopped’ from claiming it.

The petition was filed to challenge:

• The practice of announcing results early with a deliberately short deadline
• The non-refundable policy of universities where students are forced to forfeit a sum paid to the universities without any legitimate reason – as the universities have provided no services as consideration.

Federation of Pakistan, through the Ministry of Education and the HEC were made parties to the proceedings. This was done so that appropriate directions may be issued for formulation and implementation of rules and regulations on this matter which was previously not being regulated by the HEC.

2) When was the case filed? What was the respondent’s response to the courts proceedings?

The case was filed in early 2011 at the Islamabad High Court not long after it was re-constituted. The respondent university’s main submission was that every university is empowered to formulate, approve and promulgate its own policies. It said that the present no-refund policy has been posited in pursuance of the same. Furthermore, as the amount is stated as non-refundable in the prospectus, therefore doctrine of estoppel was attracted and applicant students are not at the liberty to claim a refund.

3) What does the verdict mean? What can universities do and not do?

The judgement passed by the Honourable Islamabad High Court has declared that there is no estoppel against law. Even if an applicant was aware of the terms of the prospectus, it is not possible for one to contract out of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

The no-refund policy of the universities has been declared to be against principles of natural justice. As it is exploitative, therefore it is in contravention of the tenets of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The Honourable judge also stated that is against the dictates of Islam and moral values to make claim to an amount against which no service, labour or product is given.

Furthermore, it has been emphasised that the educational institutes are expected to demonstrate parental conduct and approach towards students instead that of businessmen.

Educational institutes cannot be allowed to operate purely on commercial considerations rather main object should be to impart education with purpose of building nations.

It was also observed that the brunt of such policies is borne by the lower and middle classes, which is blatant discrimination as the right to education is not reserved only to the rich, influential and mighty ones. Also, entire families suffer due to these policies and brilliant students are deprived of education due to lack of resources to pay non-refundable security deposits.

 4) Is there any scope for this verdict to be applied retrospectively? If I was in a similar situation a year or two ago, can I claim money back?

Directions have been issued to the Ministry of Education and HEC to conform their policies with the observations made. The HEC has already adopted the dictum of the judgement by announcing that it will issue detailed regulations in compliance of the judgement and will eliminate the no-refund policies. Only expenses actually incurred by universities in processing applications etc. may be retained and the remaining amounts are to be refunded to the applicants. The judgement, unfortunately, does not have retrospective application but will benefit all students who henceforth apply for admissions in Pakistan.

5) Can this verdict be applied to other institutions such as private schools and colleges?

Yes, it applies to all public and private sector institutes.

Arsalan Bilal on Hunger Strike - UPDATED

Words are mightier than the sword.

Ask the administrators of Bahria University Islamabad who have expelled Arsalan Bilal from the University for threatening staff members by forwarding a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. It appears irrelevant to the administrators that the same email was forwarded to his friends, class fellows, and family members, yet Faiz’s poetry is a reason good enough to warrant expulsion if a teacher is added to the mailing list.

Bahria University has also declared Arsalan Bilal “psychologically unstable”, even though they are no experts in psychiatry. If so, the university appears to have set aside its responsibility towards student welfare and supporting vulnerable members of its community and gone about adding to his mental stress by deciding to expel him.

This should all sound very familiar. In April 2011, Professor Qamar Riaz Mahmitkhel was dismissed from Bahria University for questioning the role of retired military officials and whether creativity could flourish in a military style setup. The question was asked in a packed auditorium and the response of the university’s administrators was for the Director Campus Commodore (retired) Mohammad Ali and security personnel to grab him by the collar and assault him. A 100 or so students subsequently protested against his dismissal at which point Naval Intelligence officials harassed the protestors and the administration threatened them with expulsion.

Mr Bilal who also runs Insight News – Bahria University, a Facebook page dedicated to news related to the institution, had also questioned the role of ex-Naval officials and certain faculty members policies in the university. He has been discouraged in pursuing his undergraduate research in ‘Politicization of religion in Pakistan’ and faced discrimination as he belongs to a minority sect.

As a result, Arsalan Bilal has gone on an indefinite hunger strike before Bahria University Islamabad from the 6^th of April.

When challenged, administrators usually explain their actions by pointing to the greater good. For example, the case of women being raped in International Islamic University Islamabad was hushed up, as the administration wanted to protect the reputation of the institution.

Universities in Pakistan, especially those of the Bahria University variety have reduced higher education to an extension of secondary school. The emphasis is on discipline, uniform, fines for poor attendance etc. What is ignored, is the quality of teaching and the content of the curriculum, emphasising rote learning and propaganda over thoughtful analysis and evaluation. The incident involving a retired Brigadier who assaulted a lecturer in NUML University for “daring” to “say something about the Army” comes to mind.

The fact is that HEC regulations are not enforced and individuals without the prerequisite qualifications are appointed in universities based on their affiliation with either the military or the civilian bureaucracy is not only HEC’s failure to enforce the law, our collective silence fails those students who study in these institutions.

The fact is that despite HEC’s efforts, the quality of Higher Education in Pakistan remains dismal. We are not producing mature, analytical and creative individuals ready to take on the world. Some universities are nothing more than over glorified finishing schools where 20 year olds are treated like children. The same administrators may send their own children to foreign universities where they are no uniforms, no attendance and the environment lacking any “discipline” of the variety they enforce on others.

Public universities cannot and must not be used as the post retirement, cushy appointment for retired bureaucrats, whether military or civil. I am sure there are many ex-military officials who can make excellent contributions to learning in education, however, the variety that expels students for raising questions and assaults teaching stuff have little to offer apart from their massive egos.

Education is far too important to be left to individuals. The key and most important stakeholders are and should be the students themselves. The HEC has developed elaborate structures and layers of bureaucracy that serves everyone but the students. Administrators are all powerful whether in the private or the public sector. Teaching staff have little or no job security and are subservient to the whims of administrators, most of whom have no background in education.  

If you believe that education is more than wearing uniforms and wearing your tie correctly then it’s important to support Arsalan Bilal in his protest. If he is silenced then the status quo will remain unchanged and it will silence anyone else who hopes to question the powers that be. Thousands upon thousands of students will receive a poor education, undeserving for an individual in the 21^st century.

A university student is old enough to join the military, marry, drive, carry a weapon, yet university administrators seem hell bent on treating them as children. Things must not continue as they are! 

Update: Arsalan Bilal on Saach TV: http://saach.tv/2012/04/12/strike-for-justice-or-self-promotion/

Follow Arsalan Bilal on Twitter: @arsalanbilal 

This post was originally published in the ET Blogs: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/11033/bahria-university-arsalan-bilals-hunger-for-justice/

A related post on Bahria University: http://liberalfacist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/misplaced-priorities-in-higher.html

The Teach a Child School; standardize opportunity not exams

The Teach a Child School, Lahore, video was being shared around yesterday.

Much like the 1 Rupee school profiled in Karachi last year, this school also aims to empower its students, charging an honorific Rs 5 a month, so that students claim ownership over their experiences.

A more detailed profile of the school from its website:

Support:TAC: Teach A Child School System, Lahore, Pakistan (low-res version)

A lot of the points that come up in these sort of interventions and efforts has a lot to do with motivating students, building aspirations, involving teachers and parents in learning and developing an enabling environment. It really pulls the rug from beneath the single point agenda of all political debate on education; the now ubiquitous goal to "standardize" education.

One comment that is notable from the profile is above is about giving students from vulnerable backgrounds, similar opportunities as those from affluent backgrounds.

Now, we should do what we can to support such organizations. The students that come out of these schools will definitely have advantages amongst their peers who attend public schools. However, when we talk about doing our best to help students from poorer backgrounds in general, standardizing education and exams is the last of what should be our concern. This school may be offering better opportunities within its four walls, but what happens once they leave the school?

Whenever one profiles successful interventions in education, you see children accommodated, their needs analysed and provided for and their unique circumstances considered. If we had a standardized curriculum, that would ignore individual circumstances which would do more harm than good.

Supporting campaigns and NGOs is well and good. Granted these help, but actual change of any nature wont come until the children profiled above are not only able to access the same education as their affluent peers, but are able to access support such as tutoring, admission test preparation, work placements and internships, guidance for university application etc.

Its the inequality in opportunity that needs to be reduced, and access to opportunity "standardised". 

In the mean time, we should all support the Teach a Child School and similar initiatives. But also remember that putting kids in brick and mortar schools, and giving them uniforms to wear will help, however, wider society is very unequal; while these kids make their way through school, those at the top are increasing the gap at an accelerating rate.

And just to be clear dumbing everyone down in the name of equality is not the solution either! 

Getting excited about tomorrow

Perhaps some of you had a chance to watch Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Daily Show a couple of days ago.

The reason I am posting the video below is to share his enthusiasm and his, what I feel are completely valid arguments regarding the era of space exploration in the 1960s where the US was spurred on by scientific achievement. A nation or indeed the world needs to inspire the young to aim beyond the present.

The past decade has however reduce inspiration to mere survival in Pakistan. Children don't aspire to do greats things as they are not exposed to anything beyond surviving the next crisis, or whatever issue the television demands they divert their attention towards.

On the other end of the spectrum, millions upon millions of children, who have never seen the inside of a school, and have grown up too fast, are preoccupied with surviving as they help support their families. For them, inspiration is too distant, yet that should not absolve us, as a society from encouraging your people for having dreams and at least have a fair shot at achieving them.

Whilst we talk about curriculum changes and getting children in a school, I strongly believe that it is very important to get them excited about opportunities, their talents, creativity and most importantly the future. May it be in science, the arts or social sciences is irrelevant, what we require is a national attitude that encourages everyone to be what they may be at their best and nothing else.

All these notions of discipline, order, straight lines, crisp uniforms and the lack of aspiration are hangovers from the colonial world which administered education as a system of control. We perpetuate that today.

We must get people, who are excited and passionate about what they do and get them face to face with children...you never know how many writers, scientists, poets or artists never get to express their passion amongst the millions who are all together ignored by the state, society and their communities.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson
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