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#11
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Setting syllabuses need more expertise

Ehsan-ur-Rehman

There have been serious controversies in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab provinces over
content of textbooks for ninth and tenth grades, lately. A campaign was launched in the Punjab
against a new Islamic Studies textbook for ninth and tenth grades by a religion party.

It was alleged that some Quranic verses had been removed from the new book. Various protest
demonstrations were held in Lahore and "Open Letters" were published. A delegation
comprising members of the party met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and demanded that
introduction of the new book should be stopped and the old book be continued, according to
official sources. Allegedly succumbing to the pressure, the chief minister ordered withholding of
the new book and providing the old one in schools after getting it printed.

However, the publisher of the new book moved the Lahore High Court against the chief
minister's orders, and sought directions for stopping printing of the old book.

The petitioner, through his counsel, told the court that he printed the textbook of Islamic Studies
for the 9th class in consultation with the Punjab Text-Book Board (PTBB). The book was
approved by a committee comprising educationists, experts on religious affairs and senior
professors. They discussed each and every chapter of the book in detail and then gave
approval for its printing after finding it completely fit for ninth grade students.

However, the Punjab government, after printing of the said books, decided to continue the old
books and ordered their printing. The publisher contended that the decision would cause loss to
the petitioner as well as the government. He requested the court to issue an order for stopping
printing of the Islamic Studies books based on the old syllabus.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court stayed printing of the old book till May 11,
2012.

In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the situation is not very different.

Various religious groups charged the provincial government with playing into the hands of anti-
Islam forces. They alleged that under a conspiracy against Islam, various Quranic verses had
been removed from the 9th class Islamic Studies textbook. However, the provincial government
has denied all these allegations.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board Chairman, Dr. Fazlur Rahim Marwat, told Cutting Edge
by telephone that the textbooks of Islamiat and English, being taught in secondary classes, had
not been changed. "The decision to bring changes in English and Islamiat courses has been
withdrawn after some religious groups expressed their reservations," he added. The KPTB
chairman said that the new curriculum had been set in a manner that it would discourage rote
learning while students would not be completely dependent on teachers, as the books had been
made interesting to engage the students.

Marwat said: "The new courses are designed in such a way that students will systematically
progress from simple to complex topics so as to keep their interest in study intact."

The official said that the new curriculum was focused on clearing concepts for the students, as it
was noted that most of the students had been appearing in the examinations without a clear
understanding of many topics. Such students were often found in trouble whenever the pattern
of papers was changed, he added.

The KPTB chairman told this writer that the new textbooks have been designed in the light of
the curriculum approved in 2006 and the initiative has been taken from grade-9 subjects and the
students have been provided new textbooks with the commencement of the academic year
2012. He announced that new textbooks for grade-10 would be introduced from the next year
i.e. 2013.

Marwat said that the need for changing syllabus had been felt for long.
Various educationists and intellectuals had been objecting to the contents being taught to the
secondary classes. According to their findings, some of the contents of textbooks taught in
schools and colleges in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, had been overemphasised in a way that could
undermine social peace and incite violence in society. The findings were shared with major
stakeholders and the media at a seminar recently. The reviewers noted that the contents,
inserted into the textbooks during the Afghan jihad era, were not in sync with the current socio-
political realities of the country because of their controversial, discriminatory and gender
insensitive nature.

According to officials concerned, the review of books for grade-1 to 10 was carried out in eight
months by subject specialists under the aegis of Peace Education and Development (PEAD), a
training and advocacy organisation. PEAD Foundation Executive Director Sameena Imtiaz
presented the findings in the presence of government officials, academicians and civil society
representatives last month. She said that some of the themes in the textbooks overemphasised
certain tenets of religion while discussing politics, history, literature and linguistic studies. She
believed that was detrimental to the growth of an enlightened, tolerant and inclusive mindset.

Sameena Imtiaz explained that the review took about eight months because the PEAD feels
that the curricula should be free of hatred against other religions, communities and gender bias.

She told this writer that our education system should promote positive things to change our
ethical and moral behaviour, something that developed countries have always treated on a
priority basis.

Her views were endorsed by Farid Khattak, deputy director of the Education Sector Reforms
Unit (E&SE), KPK, who admitted that the curricula needed to be reviewed in view of the grave
challenges that society was facing today.
Government official's admission that the old syllabus had some content which was not fit for
education of school students should be a matter of concern for all. Various educationists also
say that much of today's curriculum and teaching-learning methods in education are irrelevant,
at all levels, from primary school to university. We are often told "facts" in school that are not
facts, sometimes even lies, and many things that are not important at all!
We are told not to rock the boat but conform. We should think, but only within given parameters.

Mostly syllabuses are not set keeping in view the psychological aspects of students'
personalities. Students spend time learning facts and figures that are not important, and often
outdated.

Teachers are often not capable of instilling in the students curiosity and interest in learning or,
simply motivating them to work themselves, alone and in groups. Religious aspects aside,
mostly textbooks taught in schools do not serve the purpose of grooming students as
independent and responsible citizens.
Professor Johan Galtung, a peace researcher and activist, believes that at best a teacher could
help a student through lectures to learn 10 per cent of the curriculum; the rest was entirely up to
the student to learn alone. Therefore, the syllabuses should be set in such an interesting way
that textbooks capture the attention of students and force their readers to learn from them to the
maximum.

There is no denying the fact that setting syllabuses is a very laborious and sensitive matter. It is
not a one-time activity. We need a broad-based education debate in Pakistan, on a regular
basis.

Not only should the Federal Education Ministry keep active its curriculum wing, but also the
education department in all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK should continue giving their
input regularly. Also, all major political parties should also set up education wings, led by
experts to formulate their education policy and aims and objectives in this most important
sector.

The country could avoid controversies on syllabuses for schools and colleges and universities if
the government engages all stakeholders in the process of finalising contents for the textbooks.
Religion is a very sensitive matter in our part of the world. If religious scholars from all schools
of though are included in the board, which deliberates on the Islamic Studies contents,
controversies could be avoided and time and money could be saved.
More funds allocation is also very necessary for improving the working of all departments and
wings of the Education Ministry.

Dr. Sohail Naqvi, the Director General of the Higher Education Commission, told this writer at a
function in Islamabad that "we spend less than 2 per cent of the country's GDP on education,
and only about 0.2 per cent of GDP on higher education that, in turn, is about 10 per cent of the
education budget." This is miniscule when compared to UNESCO's recommendation: a country
should spend at least 4 per cent of its GDP on education. Dr. Naqvi said that if
Pakistan fulfilled its own laws and regulations, about 3 per cent of GDP would have to be
allocated to education. Increasing the budget for the sector would improve the situation in all its
sub-sectors, including the curriculum wing.

-Cuttingedge

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Education for peace and tolerance
May 3, 2012
Shabnam Baloch

The most critical mistake of recent times is to take peace for granted. No formal action is taken
to institutionalise peace in order to prevent wars, conflicts, violence and extremism. Education
perhaps can be the most powerful tool to inculcate deeper values of peace, harmony and
tolerance for diversity and differences in social fabric. Moreover, it can also help to revisit and
understand the multiple dynamics of conflicts and the triggering factors, stimulating violent
feelings and emotions among individuals and different ethnic and religious groups. This
unbiased and neutral understanding is the only way that can lead to more meaningful resolution
of the existing problems and prevent their existence in future.

The direct and formal role of education in promoting peace and the reconstitution of a tolerant
society is clearly neglected in our policies and practices. Both our future and present
generations have the fundamental human right to live in peace. All of us have an ethical
responsibility to hand down to future generations a culture of peace and tolerance. We need not
to overlook the key role of education in today’s globalised world, which should be more focused
on promoting understanding of multiculturalism and civilised and non-violent coexistence.

Tolerance is the most critical prerequisite for peace. It is a formula for the civilised coexistence
of all citizens of the world with their diverse range of perceptions, cultures and religio-ethnic
practices and beliefs. This is the key ingredient for nurturing a harmonious, stable, livable and
lasting existence of social life in its natural diversity.

It is estimated that there are around 7,000 various ethnic and national groups present in the
world today. Most of these groups aim at some form of autonomy or recognition as an
independent or sovereign state. All of them want to be mainstreamed in the global scenario.
Such aspirations can lead to intensification of conflicts, mass migrations, and wars. Tensions
between individuals, communities and states mostly stem from bias, intolerance and
manipulation of the rights of others, which can be a major threat to stability and peace. As per
the old words of wisdom, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ Education is the only means to
prevent violence on a mass scale.

As per UNESCO’s Declaration on the Responsibilities of present generations towards future

generations, “The present generation should ensure that both the present and future
generations learn to live together in peace, security, respect for international law, human rights
and fundamental freedoms.” Moreover, the same declaration further claims, “The present
generation should spare future generations the scourge of war. To that end, they should avoid
exposing future generations to the harmful consequences of armed conflicts as well as all other
forms of aggressions and use of weapons, contrary to humanitarian principles.” All this can be
materialised and sustained through predesigned and focused interventions of wide range
educational policies and programmes.

In most situations of conflict, where religion and history is often manipulated or exploited,
identity is enhanced to sustain the unity of the group. Education helps to explore multiple
identities of individuals and groups and enables them to identify a million ways to relate to each
other. It is especially meaningful in today’s modern world where ethnic, religious, social and
cultural diversity is everywhere and only 10 percent of states out of more than 200 states are
mono-ethnic.

Education though schools can be the most effective way to sensitise citizens for social and
religious harmony, multiculturalism and pluralism. The curriculum should be conceived and
designed in ways that help pupils internalise the values of respect for diversity, peace and
tolerance. Approaches regarding teaching of history and religion need to be especially revisited
to identify what message they are delivering to the young minds of learners and what can be the
consequences of such messages in the long run. What may appear as balanced, justified and
fair to one group may be perceived by another as a provocation and manipulation of facts and
realities.

All cultures around the globe are the result of our learning. A global culture of peace, tolerance
and respect for diversity can also be learned through planned educational interventions. The
current education system should be able to promote understanding of multiculturalism and the
philosophy of unity in diversity as a fundamental principle of civilisation. Unfortunately, since the
last couple of decades, our education system is focusing only on creating an economically and
technologically competitive citizenry. The world realised after the aftermath of 9/11 that global
citizens should be educated for peaceful coexistence rather than economic competitiveness.

Policy reforms, curriculum enhancement with the integration of peace and tolerance as key
components and teaching methodologies are the areas to be focused upon in order to unlock
the potential of education to reconstruct a more peaceful, tolerant and inclusive society. It is
therefore crucial to devise and implement preventive policies and educational programmes to
obtain the maximum benefits of this approach.
Such a landmark move of introducing peace education and mainstreaming it in our educational
policy and packages will be specifically beneficial in the context of Pakistan, where more than
50 percent of the population consists of youth who can play a significant role in redefining the
social fabric by demonstrating values of tolerance and respect for diversity. It will help in
discouraging extremism, discrimination and violence in any form and shape. This will also lead
to the realisation of the dreams of those who aspire for human rights and social justice for all
human beings irrespective of their caste or creed. Peace education should no longer be taken
for granted and it should be institutionalised.

The writer is the Provincial Manager of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO). She
can be reached at [email protected]
-Daily Times
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Whose responsibility is education, anyway?

Ehsan-ur-Rehman

You talk to any education minister of the federal or provincial government, any senior or junior
official, and he/she will deliver a long and comprehensive speech about the importance of
education for development of the country.
They will stress more budgetary allocations and call for long- and short-term policies for
promotion of education and enhancement of the literacy rate. But who should do it all, is a
million dollar question, and finding an answer to it is not easy at all.

After promulgation of the 18th Amendment and devolution of education to the provinces, the
Centre and provinces have found an opportunity to blame each other for non-development of
the sector in the country. However, this blame-game is not going to bring about any change in
the miserable status of education in Pakistan. There has never been any good news when
education was a federal subject, and there seems to be no good news in the near future when
the sector has been devolved to the federating units i.e. the provincial governments.

The facts and figures showing the state of education in the country have never changed.
According to official and unofficial (but authentic) statistics, the country spends only two per cent
of its budget on education, compared with the regional average of 4 per cent. Experts say that
country needs to spend at least 5 per cent of its budget to sustain the current level of population
growth! Also, 33 per cent of our children don't go to school, and if 100 students enter primary
school, only three are left by the time they reach high school. 25 per cent of government
teachers, some of the highest paid government servants on average, don't come to work on a
daily basis. On an average day, 25 per cent teachers in government schools remain absent.
According to official surveys, 60 per cent of government schools have no electricity and 40 per
cent have no water.

Also, Pakistan ranks 166th out of 173 countries in the UN Index of Education Systems
worldwide. At the rate our population is growing, 350 million people will live in Pakistan by 2050
and we will be the largest uneducated working population in the world by percentage.

In the field of education, Pakistan has its international obligations also. Being a signatory to
UNESCO's Education Programme, Pakistan is committed to achieving an 86 per cent literacy
rate by the year 2015, as envisaged in the Dakar Framework of Action for Education For All.

However, keeping in view the past record of successive governments, it would be extremely
difficult to even get anywhere near the target of 85 per cent literacy rate in the next three years.
Educationists say if we continue to spend almost 30 per cent of our annual budget on defence
and only around Rs. 30 billion on education, there is no way the nation could bring about any
significant improvement in the literacy rate. To achieve the goal, the government would have to
substantially increase its allocations for education in the federal and provincial budgets.

Recently, attending a talk show at a private TV channel, the representatives of the federal and
provincial government of the Punjab, stressed the need for giving top priority to education if we
want to stand among the comity of nations with respect. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which
is in the driving seat in the Punjab, the biggest province of Pakistan, was represented by Ahsan
Iqbal, one of the main leaders of the party. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, a Special Assistant to the Prime
Minister and the chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), spoke from the
federal government side.
Both of them spoke at length about the problems facing the education sector in the country. But
there was no clue as to why their respective governments were not implementing all those
suggestions they were presenting at the show. PM Adviser Shahnaz Wazir Ali shed light on how
the state had failed to give education: how so many things were wrong with the education
system, and how they were continually failing to address the core issues.

The other participant, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal also talked about the need to change the state
of education in the country, and how we had failed. The PML-N currently has nothing to boast
about except for laptops which the Punjab government is distributing among college and
university students. Ahsan Iqbal also mentioned IT laboratories, the provincial government has
established in schools to encourage science and technology. But he failed to mention that over
70 per cent of those labs are non-functional for various reasons, from non-availability of science
teachers to the experts to maintain those labs. He had no answer to a valid question as to why
the huge funds spent on purchasing laptops were not used to provide missing facilities in the
existing schools and colleges, which would have benefited a larger number of students.

A participant representing the youth asked why those funds were not utilised for making a
uniform curriculum in the province. The PML-N leader defended the act by arguing that
provinces making curriculums would mean that there would be separate curriculums across the
country, and that is why they were not doing it. However, the problem with that is equally crucial.
One may ask why they cannot lead a consensus and develop a model by themselves. Even if
accepted that different curriculums in different provinces are a problem, then was only a
dissenting note in the 18th Amendment, which devolved education, against this devolution,
enough? As leaders of the opposition, did not they have a bigger responsibility to ensure that
that did not happen? It becomes obvious that there is a priority to attain political benefits and
education obviously doesn't make the cut when time comes.

Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali, former federal minister for education, believes that minimum national
standards in curriculum and textbooks were essential for building national identity. Speaking at
a seminar recently, he welcomed devolution of the education sector to the provinces, but
stressed the need for a federal role in the education policy and curriculum to foster national
unity. He said that there had always been lack of funds and political will for education and asked
the provincial governments to allocate enough money in the provincial budgets to the sector. He
said that the provinces' share in the National Finance Commission Award had considerably
gone up. And the provinces should also try to expand their resources to meet the growing
financial demand of the education sector.

Other speakers at the function said that devolution of educational responsibilities to provinces
may create short-term difficulties, but it would have far reaching positive impacts in improving
standards and delivery of education.

Famous scholar and educationist Dr. Rasul Bakhsh Rais termed the 18th Amendment an
expression of broad-based national consensus and said that it would strengthen Pakistan as a
democratic federal country. "We should not be afraid of change; instead, we need to get lessons
from similar experiences of other federations regarding distribution of powers and
responsibilities," he added.

Despite all these wishes and high hopes, the question remains as to who would take practical
steps to strengthen the education sector in the country?

There is no denying the fact that education is not an issue which will ever be solved by one
party or government alone. It needs a multi-partisan consensus and consistency in
implementation to be solved. Experts also say our education system is divided on lines of
geography, class, income/wealth, medium of instruction, cost, syllabi, curricula and gender and
these differences manifest themselves in differentials in access, dropouts and in the quality of
education that is imparted. And existing differences in educational provision will, inevitably,
create even bigger differences in future.

Until and unless the federal and provincial governments join hands, own this vital sector, and
also engage private sector positively, the problem of education cannot not be solved on
permanent basis.

-Cuttingeedge
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Higher education in India
Dr Atta-ur-Rahman
Saturday, May 05, 2012

Over the next five years India will establish 200 new universities and 40 new high-level
institutes. Nine additional IITs will also be established, bringing the total number of IITs to 16.
This was stated by Indian human resource development minister Kapil Sibal in the Lok Sabha
recently. A sum of Rs800 billion, the biggest-ever allocation, is being set aside in the 12th five-
year-plan of India (2012-2017) to propel it into a strong knowledge-based economy.

India has presently 17 percent of its youth between the ages of 17 of 23 enrolled in the higher
education sector (as opposed to Pakistan’s 7.6 percent). It plans to increase this enrolment to
30 percent of the same age group by the year 2030 (Chetan Chauhan, The Hindustan Times,
April 25). India decided to replace its University Grants Commission with a stronger federally
funded organisation, National Commission of Higher Education and Research. This was
approved by the Indian Cabinet in December 2011.

The recent steps taken by India are the result of a detailed presentation made to the Indian
prime minister in July 2006 by Prof C N R Rao about the threat posed by the remarkable
transformation underway in higher education in Pakistan. In an article entitled “Pak threat to
Indian science,” Neha Mehta wrote: “Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious
competition in science.” (The Hindustan Times on July 23, 2006.)

This presentation to the Indian prime minister set in motion a whole set of reforms in the higher
education sector in India with a sharp increase in the salary structures of academics and a
manifold increase in the budget for higher education. India had been giving the highest priority
to higher education, science and technology for decades. The first prime minister, Jawaharlal
Nehru, had already laid the foundations of modern India in the 1950s and 1960s. The prime
minister of India himself headed what he considered to be the most important ministry in India –
science and technology.

The progress made by the higher education sector in Pakistan in the last decade is reflected
from the increase in enrolment from 276,000 students in 2003 to 803,000 in 2011, increase in
number of universities and degree-awarding institutes from 59 in the year 2000 to 137 by 2011,
and an increase in international research publications from only 636 in 2000 to 6,200 in 2011.
The PhD output too underwent an explosive growth. During the 55-year period from 1947 to
2002, only 3,281 PhDs had been granted by all our universities (a shocking average of about 3-
4 PhDs per university per year)! During the subsequent eight-year period from 2003 to 2010,
this number was exceeded and 3,658 PhDs were granted. There was maximum emphasis on
quality, as all PhD theses were evaluated by at least two top experts in technologically
advanced countries before approval.

The silent revolution that occurred in the higher education sector in Pakistan was lauded by
neutral international experts and agencies and numerous reports published on it. In a book
published by the Royal Society (London) entitled A New Golden Age the example of Pakistan
was cited as the best model to be followed by other developing countries. Nature, the world’s
leading science journal, published four editorials and several articles on the transformation that
was occurring in Pakistan and advised the new government in 2008 not to go back to the “stone
age” that existed prior to the reforms introduced after 2002 in higher education.

The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education announced it as “Pakistan’s

golden period in higher education” and called for my reappointment after I had resigned in
protest against the suspension of scholarships of HEC scholars sent abroad. I was conferred a
high civil award by the Austrian government and the TWAS (Italy) Prize for institution building
for leading these changes.

After the remarkable progress achieved in Pakistan in the higher education during 2003-2008,
we have been systematically trying to destroy the one sector that had raised a gleam of hope
among the masses. First, the development budget of the higher education sector was slashed
by about 50 percent in 2009. Then, the scholarships of the several thousand Pakistani students
studying in foreign universities were withheld, forcing them to go literally begging for funds on
the streets of countries where they had gone to brighten their future. This was followed by the
status of the executive director of the HEC of a federal secretary being withdrawn, thereby
preventing the HEC from holding Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) meetings
and approving projects for Pakistani universities. The projects to establish foreign engineering
universities in major cities of Pakistan were closed down. This would have saved Rs50 billion
annually and provided Pakistani students with the opportunity of getting quality education with
foreign degrees without going abroad.

The HEC had found that 51 of our “honourable” parliamentarians had forged degrees and those
of another 250 parliamentarians were suspect. In any other country such persons would have
had to go to jail for cheating and forgery. However the Election Commission, instead of
declaring their elections null and void, became a party to the game, in clear defiance of the
orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Why the Supreme Court has chosen to look the other
way in this matter of enormous national importance is beyond understanding. A group of these
“honourable” parliamentarians with forged degrees plotted to shred the HEC into pieces, and
under their pressure a government notification was issued on 30th November 2010 shredding
the HEC into pieces.

On my appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan this was overturned and the Supreme Court
declared the move as unconstitutional. The greedy and evil designs continue. Another Bill
moved in parliament recently is directed to take away the Rs44 billion budget of the HEC from
the 17-member commission and give the funds to a secretary in the federal government to
distribute. This will open the doors to corruption. At present the powers to allocate funds are
vested with a 17-member commission that included four provincial secretaries, two federal
secretaries, vice chancellors and eminent citizens.
So, while India progresses in leaps and bounds to strengthen its higher education, science and
technology sectors, Pakistan sinks deeper into a quagmire created by incompetent and crooked
parliamentarians. Following the spectacular successes of the HEC in Pakistan, India is in the
process of closing down its UGC, to establish the National Commission of Higher Education and
Research on the pattern of the HEC. Pakistan is however systematically destroying its HEC.

Clearly it is not India that is our enemy – we ourselves are!

The writer is former federal minister for science and technology and former chairman of the
Higher Education Commission. Email: [email protected]

-The News
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Destroying higher education systematically!

Ehsan-ur-Rehman

Education, and especially higher education, is an important indicator of any country's

development. However, our motherland, Pakistan, is among those unlucky nations who have
never given due importance to this vital sector during the past 65 years.
We are even far behind our neighbouring country India, which got independence a day after
Pakistan, as far as the literacy rate is concerned. Successive governments in the country have
ignored the education sector, especially higher education, during the past six decades. Even
democratic setups failed to give education priority. However, during the previous dictatorial rule
of General Pervez Musharraf, at least higher education got some boost.

In response to the growing concerns about the nation lagging in higher education achievement,
the country launched Higher Education Reform, led by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, adviser to then
President Pervez Musharraf in 2002. The initiative resulted in over fivefold increase in public
funding for universities, with a special emphasis on science, technology and engineering.

Various unprecedented plans were made part of the reform, supporting initiatives such as a free
national digital library and high-speed Internet access for universities as well as new
scholarships enabling more than 2,000 students to study abroad for Ph. Ds - with incentives to
return to Pakistan afterward.

The years of reform coincided with increases in the number of Pakistani authors publishing in
research journals, especially in mathematics and engineering, as well as boosting the impact of
their research outside Pakistan.

The progress made by the higher education sector in the country in the last decade is reflected
from the increase in enrolment from 276,000 students in 2003 to 803,000 in 2011; increase in
number of universities and degree-awarding institutes from 59 in the year 2000 to 137 by 2011,
and an increase in international research publications from only 636 in 2000 to 6,200 in 2011.
The Ph.D output too underwent an explosive growth. During the 55-year period from 1947 to
2002, only 3,281 Ph.Ds had been granted by all our universities (a shocking average of about 3-
4 Ph.Ds per university per year)! During the subsequent eight-year period from 2003 to 2010,
this number was exceeded and 3,658 Ph.Ds were granted. There was maximum emphasis on
quality, as all Ph.D theses were evaluated by at least two top experts in technologically
advanced countries before approval.

Talking to Cutting Edge, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the silent revolution that occurred in the
higher education sector in Pakistan was lauded by neutral international experts and agencies
and numerous reports published on it. In a book published by the Royal Society (London)
entitled A New Golden Age, the example of Pakistan was cited as the best model to be followed
by other developing countries. Nature, the world's leading science journal, published four
editorials and several articles on the transformation that was occurring in Pakistan and advised
the new government in 2008 not to go back to the "stone age" that existed prior to the reforms
introduced after 2002 in higher education.

The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education declared it as "Pakistan's

golden period in higher education" and called for Dr. Atta's reappointment after he had resigned
in protest against the suspension of scholarships of the HEC scholars sent abroad. This
scientist was conferred a high civil award by the Austrian government and the TWAS (Italy)
Prize for institution-building, for leading these changes.

However, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman regretted that after the remarkable progress achieved in higher
education during 2003-2008, we have been systematically trying to destroy the one sector that
had raised a gleam of hope among the masses. He said that first the development budget of the
higher education sector was slashed by about 50 per cent in 2009. Then, the scholarships of the
several thousand Pakistani students studying in foreign universities were withheld, forcing them
to go literally begging for funds on the streets of countries where they had gone to brighten their
future. This was followed by the status of the executive director of the HEC as a federal
secretary being withdrawn, thereby preventing the HEC from holding Departmental
Development Working Party (DDWP) meetings and approving projects for Pakistani universities.
The projects to establish foreign engineering universities in major cities of Pakistan were closed
down.

This would have saved Rs. 50 billion annually and provided Pakistani students with the
opportunity of getting quality education with foreign degrees without going abroad, Dr. Atta
added.

The former chairman of the HEC said that the Commission was, in fact, victimised by authorities
for pointing out frauds committed by the parliamentarians to get their degrees. The HEC had
found that 51 of our "honourable" parliamentarians had forged degrees and those of another
250 parliamentarians were doubtful. In any other country, such persons would have had to go to
jail for cheating and forgery. However, the Election Commission, instead of declaring their
elections null and void, became a party to the game, in clear defiance of the orders of the
Supreme Court of Pakistan, regretted Dr. Atta. "Why the Supreme Court has chosen to look the
other way in this matter of enormous national importance is beyond understanding."
Dr. Atta said that a group of these "honourable" parliamentarians with forged degrees plotted to
destroy the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, and under their pressure a government
notification was issued on November 30, 2010, shredding the HEC into pieces.

The former chief of HEC said that on his appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the
government notification was overturned and the apex court declared the move as
unconstitutional. But greedy and evil designs continue, he said. Another bill moved in parliament
recently was directed to take away the Rs. 44 billion budget of the HEC from the 17-member
commission and give the funds to a secretary in the federal government to distribute. This would
open the doors to corruption, he believes. At present, the powers to allocate funds are vested
with a 17-member commission that included four provincial secretaries, two federal secretaries,
vice chancellors and eminent citizens. But after a secretary becomes a custodian of the huge
funds, it would be very easy for the corrupt government authorities to manipulate things, he
expressed his fears.

Dr. Atta believes that India is far ahead of Pakistan in the higher education sector. Appreciating
the neighbouring country's efforts in the sector, Dr. Atta said that over the next five years India
would establish 200 new universities and 40 new high-level institutes. Nine additional IITs would
also be established, bringing the total number of IITs to 16. A sum of Rs. 800 billion, the
biggest-ever allocation, is being set aside in the 12th five-year-plan of India (2012-2017) to
propel it into a strong knowledge-based economy, Dr. Atta said referring to a speech made by a
minister in the Indian parliament.

He said that India has presently 17 per cent of its youth between the ages of 17 of 23 enrolled in
the higher education sector (as opposed to Pakistan's 7.6 per cent). According to a report
published in The Hindustan Times on April 25, India plans to increase this enrolment to 30 per
cent of the same age group by the year 2030. India has decided to replace its University Grants
Commission with a stronger federally funded organisation, National Commission of Higher
Education and Research. This was approved by the Indian Cabinet in December 2011. But in
Pakistan, it is regretable to see the dissolution of the HEC and devolving it to the provinces, as a
weaker entity.

Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman said that the recent steps taken by India are the result of a detailed
presentation made to the Indian prime minister in July 2006, by Prof. CNR Rao about the threat
posed by the remarkable transformation underway in higher education in Pakistan. In an article
entitled "Pak threat to Indian science," Neha Mehta wrote in The Hindustan Times on July 23,
2006: "Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science."
This presentation to the Indian prime minister set in motion a whole set of reforms in the higher
education sector in India with a sharp increase in the salary structures of academics and a
manifold increase in the budget for higher education.

India had been giving the highest priority to higher education, science and
technology for decades.

Dr. Atta said that while India was progressing in leaps and bounds to strengthen its higher
education, science and technology sectors, Pakistan was fast sinking deeper into a quagmire,
created by incompetent and crooked parliamentarians.

-Cuttingedge
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An opportunity lost

The single most important discipline that impacts the growth of national self-reliance is
engineering. Expertise in engineering leads to a country to develop key products and processes
that include special alloys, engineering goods, industrial machinery, automobiles, electronics,
household appliances, computers, polymers, and even novel textiles, chemicals and
pharmaceuticals. It is for this reason that while developing basic and applied sciences as well as
social sciences in a well-rounded fashion, I decided to give special emphasis to the engineering
sector when I was the federal minister of science & technology and later the chairman of the
Higher Education Commission.

India decided to strengthen its engineering sector back in the 1950s under the visionary policies
of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and as a result seven world class Indian institutes of
technology were established over the last several decades. This emphasis on strengthening
education in general, and engineering universities in particular has resulted in the emergence of
a strong middle class in India that accounts for about 32 percent of its population and is growing
at a pace of about 1 percent per year. It has also impacted the rapid development of the mega
industries (steel, automobiles, software etc.) in India as it has the critical mass of highly qualified
manpower that is able to serve as the engine of growth.

Recently India has decided to make massive investments in higher education. Indian HRD
Minister Kapil Sibal recently announced that India will invest Rs80,000 crores in the next five
year plan (till 2017) in higher education. These funds will be used for increasing the number of
IITs from the present seven to sixteen, and setting up 200 new universities and 40 centres of
excellence. This will allow India to increase its access to higher education from 17 percent of
youth aged between 17-23 to over 30 percent. In Pakistan we increased this access from 2.6
percent to 7.6 percent during 2003-2010 but we are now sliding backwards.

India will also replace its University Grants Commission by a much more powerful body to be
called the National Commission for Higher Education and Research. This was decided recently
by the Indian cabinet. Realising the importance of engineering education and research in the
year 2000 we decided to strengthen the existing engineering universities by creating significant
endowments of Rs100-200 million for every engineering university in order to promote research.
Later when I became chairman HEC about 5,000 PhD level scholarships were awarded to the
brightest students of Pakistan after a competitive national test, over 2,000 of which were in the
fields of engineering and computer sciences. The efforts to strengthen engineering led to
dramatic progress in Pakistan with several of our universities being ranked in the top 300, 400
and 500 of the world.

However, the most important step to strengthen engineering education and research in Pakistan
was to establish a network of several world class foreign engineering universities. The model
chosen was a very visionary one by all accounts. The students in Pakistan would have been
enrolled into courses offered by the top engineering universities in Germany, France, Italy,
Sweden, Austria, China and other countries. Students would have studied exactly the same
curriculum as offered by the foreign universities, they would have been taught by highly qualified
foreign faculty and they would have received degrees from reputable foreign universities without
ever going abroad. This would have brought world class engineering education at a very
affordable cost to Pakistani students and created the needed momentum for our engineering
industry to start massive investments in engineering industries.

At present Pakistani parents spend about Rs100 billion annually in sending their children abroad
for studies. Much of this money would have been saved. The model involved partnership with
consortia of top universities (rather than with any single foreign university) so that quality faculty
could become available in sufficient numbers. Thus nine top German engineering universities
formed a strong consortium to establish a world class engineering university in Lahore. Similar
consortia were formed by Italy, Austria and China. Lands for all the universities were generously
provided by the provincial governments and the PM of Pakistan laid the foundation stone of the
Pakistan-French University. Classes of the German, Austrian, Italian and Chinese were planned
to commence in October 2008.

The new technical universities were based on the novel concept that education and employment
are strongly and permanently linked and that it was important to ensure this. Each university
would therefore have had a technology park within its premises. The university/technology park
complex was envisaged to produce qualified and trained engineers who would have serviced
local industry, carried out R&D work, become entrepreneurs and, most importantly, brought
inward investment into Pakistan because highly trained manpower would have been available to
foreign investors.

The high tech R & D centres in technology parks would have focused on developing
commercially viable products or services, developing prototypes and undertaking small scale
production in order to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the products of services realised
in the R & D centres. In cases where further development into a large-scale business was
justified, a separate business enterprise would have been established on an industrial or
commercial site outside the tech park. The tech park was to encourage start-ups operating in
specially designed incubator units. Entrepreneurs within the university in all categories,
students, faculty and technicians were to be encouraged to develop worthwhile ideas,
inventions and know-how into commercial products and services. Start-up companies would
have been encouraged to apply for venture funds from a central fund operated by the owners of
the tech parks and given help with the preparation of business plans and company operation
and management methods.

The projects for four of these university in collaboration with Germany, Italy, Austria and China
were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 at a cost of about Rs160 billion over a 10 year
period. The projects were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 and were again presented to
the present prime minister on May 12, 2008. The prime minister had approved the
implementation of this programme. Then disaster struck. On May 19, 2008, just three months
after ECNEC had granted approval for the projects, the cabinet froze the programme and
decided to form a four member committee. The programme was strongly supported by the
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi at various cabinet meetings and later by the new
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the cabinet meeting held in Lahore. However all this was to no
avail. The foreign countries with whom the negotiations had been carried out over several years
for the establishment of these universities just could not believe what had happened. Pakistan
had lost all credibility as a nation in their eyes.

In Pakistan we have strangled education to serve the interests of the ruling feudal classes and
we are today in the shameful position of being ranked among the bottom seven countries of the
world in terms of expenditure on education, that is a lowly 1.8 percent of the GDP. This is a
national tragedy for a nuclear power.

A wonderful opportunity to bring world class engineering education to Pakistan has been lost.

The writer is former federal minister for science & technology and former chairman of the Higher
Education Commission. Email: [email protected]

Source: An opportunity lost

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Why parents prefer private schools for their children

Ehsan-ur-Rehman

Samina Bibi (name changed to protect identity) does not want her children to go to a
government school any longer. The two, studying in class 4 and 6, performed very poorly in
their annual exams, recently. Both were promoted to the next grade by giving them 'grace
marks' by their class in-charge.
However, her youngest son, a grade-2 student at a private school in the same locality, not only
passed his examination on his own, but also secured third position in his class. And that's why
Samina decided to withdraw her elder children from the government school and put them into
the private school.

Reaching a decision in this regard was very tough for Samina for financial reasons. Her
husband earns a meagre amount of Rs. 7,500 a month, as a security guard at a private firm.
She also helps her husband supplement his income by stitching ladies clothes at her single-
room rented house in a Bund Road slum. Her monthly earnings from sewing range from Rs.
1,500 to Rs. 2,500. She had to face stiff resistance from her husband, who does not want to pull
his kids from the government school. He argued that it would be almost impossible for him to
pay the tuition fee for all three at the private school, though he is convinced they should get
education at a better school.

Coming from a far-off village in southern Punjab, both husband and wife are semi-literate.
Samina left school after passing her grade five exam, as there was no school in her village for
further education. Her husband, however, attempted twice to pass his matriculation
examination, but couldn't, and left education for good. Both are convinced their children should
be educated to the highest level. But the high cost and their low incomes are proving to be a big
hurdle in the realisation of their dream of making their children highly educated members of
society.
To a question as to why she wants to shift her children from a government school to a private
school, Samina offers a very valid reason. "Private schools give a better education to students,"
she tells Cutting Edge. "The administration of a private school, its owner, its principal, know very
well how to get getter results from their teachers," she explains.

"There is an accountability system in private schools. If students do not perform well, if they fail
their exams, the principal takes the class in-charge to task. "Even I go to the school of my eldest
son and ask his class teacher why he failed to get good marks in his monthly test when he is
regularly coming to school," adds Samina Bibi. "And they are bound to answer my queries,
because I pay a Rs. 350 fee for him."

And then Samina compares the private school of her youngest child with the government school
of the other two. "And in the government school, where my elder son and daughter are provided
free-of-cost education, along with free books, nobody is ready to listen to me," complains
Samina. "When I went to their school after they failed their annual exams, their class in-charges
threatened me with striking off their names," alleged Samina. "They were not ready to even
listen to me and they put all the blame on me."

“But, according to your own account, you also received your education from a government
school up to grade five in your village and never failed any exam. Then why could not your
children get a good education in a government school now and pass their exams,” Samina was
asked.

"Those were good days; teachers, though less in number - only one in the primary school, were
selfless in that village school. They would take great pains to impart education to their students,"
recalls Samina. "Now government teachers do not come to schools to teach students, but only
to pass their time there. I have myself seen them knitting sweaters, or chit-chatting among
themselves," claims Samina.

Amir Basra, the owner-cum-principal of a private school, endorses a major part of Samina Bibi's
assertions. He says that most of the government schools have a better infrastructure, better
buildings, more qualified and more trained teachers, but still their performance is poor. A
primary teacher for a government school, according to the new criterion, must be a science
graduate, along with a professional teacher training diploma or degree. But why do they fail to
deliver? The major difference between a government and a private school is lack of
responsibility and lack of an accountability system in public sector schools, he believes.

On the other hand, private schools hire teachers for less than one-fourth of the salaries being
paid to the public sector schoolteachers. These teachers are usually untrained; their
qualifications mostly range from simple Matriculation to BA and, in rare cases, Masters. But their
results are far better, compared with the government school teachers, adds Mr. Basra. It is only
because of better management and a better accountability system in private schools that
parents rely on them and like to send their children to such private schools, even if they are in
small buildings, he added. In fact, it's a school's management, teacher commitment, teaching
aids and quest for improvement that make a difference.

There is no denying the fact that schools that pay teachers higher salaries usually employ better
teachers. Professional development opportunities for teachers and their working conditions,
other than salaries, result in increased retention of good teachers, he added. Due to the
undeniable fact that private schools are performing well, more than 56,000-odd schools are
already functioning in the country and more are opening with each passing month and year, he
added.

Amir Basra said that the government also recognises the services being rendered by the private
sector in the field of education. That is why various projects have been launched in public-
private partnership. And recently, the government announced its plans to launch "Own a
School" program involving private parties to own public sector schools of Islamabad to uplift the
education level in the federal capital.

Amir Basra said that the Prime Minister's Task Force on Islamabad has initiated extensive work
on transformation of the education system beginning with three primary schools of the rural
areas of Islamabad in collaboration with the private sector. It is recognition of the standard of
education in the private sector at the highest level, he said.

An official attached to the Punjab Education Department admitted that there were some major
problems with the school education in the public sector. Seeking anonymity, he said that the
government-run schools, which educate the vast majority of children, need significant reforms
and an increase in resources. He pointed out that a few initiatives that could be taken to
improve the plight of the education system in Pakistan are: implementation of a comprehensive
literacy programme, expansion of primary elementary education, improving the quality of
education through teacher training, higher education sector reforms, and fostering the public-
private partnership. These initiatives if undertaken efficiently and in good faith, could revamp our
education system.

The official admitted that lack of funds was not only the major hurdle in increasing the literacy
rate in the country but there were various other factors also. He stated that in some good private
educational institutions, teachers’ salaries are linked to the good results of their students.
Teachers' minimum wages are fixed, but if any teacher showed good results in the form of
better grades of his/her students, he/she is given additional benefits and increment in salary on
a monthly basis. In some schools, deductions are even made from salaries of teachers on poor
performance, and those amounts are added to the salaries of those teachers whose students
produce better results in the form of good grades. He said if such a system was introduced in
public sector schools, it may help impart better education to the new generation.

-Cuttingedge
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Do we need a warped education system?
May 24, 2012
Kamila Hyat

Here is a question. Should we close down all our schools – or almost all of them, at least those
in the public sector?

At first this may seem like a totally insane suggestion. There can be no doubt that we need
more education and a higher literacy rate, with the right to learning available to each and every
child in our country.

But are we doing more harm than good through the education we are providing? Are we closing
or opening minds? Are we in some ways inflicting the worst kind of torture on children?

We need to think hard about these matters. Merely tinkering with systems will not work. We
need a radical haul of our entire education structure and the foundation it stands on if we are to
get anywhere at all.

Just think of the examples we have before us. In the city of Lahore there are hundreds of eighth-
graders barely able to write a paragraph on their own because they are so enmeshed in a state
of affairs which promotes only learning by rote.

Then there are others who are taught intolerance as a part of even mainstream curricula, with
changes suggested recently in textbooks put aside apparently because of objections from the
religious right which has come to decide so much of what we do and how we think.
There are worse scenarios. A few days ago a sixth-grader at a Faisalabad government school
doused himself with petrol, set it alight and committed suicide after being beaten up by a
teacher. Muhammad Umar was only 11 years old.

No effort has so far been made to look into the reasons for his truancy which led to the incident
with the teacher. The investigation into the matter is focusing on actions rather than the deep-
lying causes which stand behind them.

There are hundreds of cases of children running away from schools; many fall victim to criminal
gangs as they land up on streets. And for those who stay in schools, we should ask what
meaning their lessons have to their lives. The clichéd books taught in the classroom add little
value to the world in which most children dwell.

In most cases the pattern is a predictable one; with the books offering little that is exciting or
creative. The aim essentially appears to be to kill the human capacity to think creatively and
critically and to reason.

Perhaps this is what our educators and government want in the first place anyway. People who
think can after all be dangerous, and may as they grow up begin to raise issues about the kind
of social order we have created and where it is leading us today.

It must be said this holds true not only of government schools but many private ones as well.
The environment in which children study might be slightly improved. But the principles of
learning are in many cases hardly better.

Teachers do not know how to build a natural ability and believe the child is a kind of object into
which things must be drilled through endless repetition and at least occasional rebuke. This is
insane Schools should be building people who can lead our country into the future and not take
it backwards hundreds of years; and this is not happening.

Even parents who pay high fees for elite schools are often disappointed at what is happening in
the classroom. They of course have no power at all to change matters. The lack of teacher-
training and the failure to promote teaching as a desirable profession has added to the problems
we face.

Schools such as the ‘Danish’ schools set up by the Punjab government, or schemes such as the
giving away of laptop computers are simply not going to help. We need much more than this.
Merely cosmetic change, achieved by setting up a few good schools or handing out ‘gifts’ to a
selected few will lead nowhere at all.

What we need is something far more dramatic given that we need to find the time to pull
ourselves out of the mess we have landed in and wash away the debris. The entire system of
education needs to be overhauled at all levels and in all sectors.
This is a Herculean task. First of all it needs an acceptance that we have failed completely as
far as education is concerned. In today’s world degrees issued to most Pakistani students are
simply not recognised. The standards, beginning at the primary level and moving through to
higher education are appalling.

PhD students produce thesis based on cutting and pasting passages from the Internet. So too
do their teachers in their research work. This is surely not what we aspire towards. The fact that
students earnestly believe this is the only way to produce a piece of work that is meant to be
‘original’ simply demonstrates the extent to which we have failed them.

To amend this situation perhaps we need to consider closing down all schools for a period of
time and consider how to restructure them. This has happened even in the USA where a re-
organisation of schools is taking place, mainly for monitory reasons but also to improve
standards.

It may be more worthwhile for children to be removed from the mind-crippling environment of
most classrooms, and for time to be found to re-write curricula and re-design exams so that they
demand originality and thinking rather than rote.

An entire panel of educationists is required to work on an emergency plan. They must be

assigned to begin this task immediately. Unless this happens, all talk of setting up an ‘equal’
system of education or enhancing a literacy rate that is among the lowest in the world is
meaningless.

We must accept that we have fallen into a very deep pit. Getting out of it and saving our children
will require an extremely long ladder which must be built rung by rung so that it can be lowered
down the pit and the pupils encouraged to climb up it and out into the open light of day.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: [email protected]
-The News
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Need to focus on early childhood education syllabus

Ehsan-ur-Rehman

Ahmad Saeed Khan (not his real name), the principal of a private school, is sitting in his office
with a number of books on his table. Rate lists and details of commissions offered by different
publishing houses are spread out in front of him.

He is carefully comparing the rates and commissions, so that publishers could be awarded
contracts for providing books for early childhood education in all branches of his school system.
He has already given a cursory glance at all books provided by the publishers. Of course, his
main consideration is not the content of the books, but the commission offered on each book by
the publishers. Finally, he reaches a decision and selects some publishers, who have offered
the highest commission.

Textbooks for all early childhood education at all six branches of Ahmad Saeed's school system
have been selected. He will now release an office order for the administrators of his school
branches to cooperate with the selected publishers and send details of the books sold on daily
basis, so that the commission could be deducted from the total amount.

This is a typical way adopted by the majority of private schools, or school systems, to select
textbooks for early childhood education all over the country. But is it so simple? Is it the right
way to select textbooks for the new generation? Who sets the syllabus for the children of 4-8
years age group? Who writes these books? What impact will these books have on the kids?
Nobody knows. No study has ever been conducted in the country to analyse the content of
these books. No research has ever been launched to check suitability of the textbooks for the
children of this age group.
Setting the syllabus for early childhood and writing textbooks for children of the age group of 4-8
years are considered to be the most important and crucial tasks universally. The first eight years
in the life of an individual is referred to as early childhood. This phase determines the future of a
child, not just in terms of his education, but also his abilities, personality, individuality and
success.
An Indian educationist says that if a child lacks education in its first eight years, it can spell
doom for his future. It is very important to provide a child proper early childhood education so
that he can develop properly. During this phase, a child's mind rapidly develops and as they
say, "the wiring of the brain is laid down". The mental, emotional, social and educational growth
of a child is determined by his educational experiences and relationships received and built
during his first eight years. Quality early childhood education programmes can help his brain
develop in healthy ways, and if he is deprived of good education then his growth is also
hampered.

What these children are taught in schools is also most important. In this phase, a child is not
capable enough to absorb heavy theoretical subjects. But if fun activities, educational games
etc., have been incorporated in his basic education, a child develops better learning power.

Experts believe that early childhood curriculum builds the foundation of a child's future. A well
developed and designed kindergarten curriculum proves instrumental in the growth of a child's
mental abilities. There is dire a need that a syllabus is set for this age group by educationists,
with the help of psychologists, keeping in view a country's religious, moral and social norms.

A report recently published in the national print media shows that there is a realisation among
the authorities concerned for setting a special syllabus for early childhood education. The early
childhood education syllabus was launched in May 2012, which would be piloted in 101 of the
total 390 government schools, reconstructed in flood-hit areas of southern Punjab, by Plan
International Pakistan. The Punjab education minister, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, told the
function that the provincial government with 59,053 schools, 377,481 teachers and 10,679,244
students in government schools was leading the next generation to a prosperous and literate
Punjab. Not only was the budget being increased for the sector, but also important issues,
including the syllabus for early childhood education were being given special attention, he
added.

School Education Department, Punjab, Secretary Muhammad Aslam Kamboh told the function
that a budget of Rs. 200 million would be spent on expanding early childhood education in 2,000
schools. He said that since early childhood education was material-based learning and needed
educational toys and space, appropriate budgetary allocations were necessary. He promised to
issue a notification, which would make early childhood education classrooms and playgroup
areas a valid charge under the 'Farogh-i-Taleem' budget ensuring that it becomes an integral
part of schooling activity.

After the function, Plan International Pakistan country director, Rashid Javed, told Cutting Edge
that the early childhood education syllabus emphasised provision of quality education in order to
produce knowledgeable and confident leaders for tomorrow. He said that the syllabus had been
developed after a year's research, and it focused on six 'learning areas'. In reply to a question,
Mr. Javed said that lessons about personal and social development, language, creative arts,
health and hygiene, basic mathematical concepts and general knowledge regarding the world
around the child have been included in the textbooks for the kids in the age group of 4 to 8
years.

The syllabus called "Barhtay Huay Qadam" has been prepared by Nasira Habib, the founder
and director of Khoj, an NGO that focuses on education. Lessons include "Aao Kuch Banain"
(Let's Make Something), "Khel Ka Waqt" (Play Time), "Ghar Ghar Khailain" (Playing House) and
"Kahani Ka Waqt (Story Time).
Nasira Habib told Cutting Edge that each learning area had a list of expected outcomes, which
could be measured with the help of a list of competencies. She said that after the final draft was
submitted in October 2011, pilot