Back
28 November

What Should be the Purpose of Education? In words of Sister Zeph

At my school, our purpose is to restore the childhood of a traumatized child…we transform their fears into love…we welcome our children with music, flowers and our teachers embrace them with reassuring warmth. At my school, we never discourage our children from asking questions and we help them seek their answers. We are against corporal punishments because in my view, use of a stick means failure of a teacher. A teacher’s primary role is to develop in their child an interest for learning and this is exactly what we should aim to achieve

Read More
16 November

Is the State violating the Fundamental Right to Education? An opinion on sealing of schools in Chiniot

Religion is being excessively used as a cover to hide many holes in our system, and it is major public distraction aimed at  keeping the conversations at bay from making the Right to Education a possibility. Pakistan needs to appropriate more budget and resources towards it if it is serious enough in securing its future. There is no other way.

Read More
10 November

Imparting empathy and civic-sense in children (observations and learnings from an informal school-setting)

The main philosophy adapted by this informal school is to bring a meaningful learning opportunity for the children coming from the alienated groups, so the education and the related values they receive from is appealing to them and their community, and the learners of this group develop confidence in availing opportunities in life which they are aiming for.        

Read More
27 October

Education Policies in Pakistan

Education is subordinated to the class interests of the urban, professional, English-using elite in Pakistan. For its political interests this elite has been using the name of Islam, and has strengthened the religious lobby, in the process. It has also strengthened the hold of capitalist entrepreneurs on education making for its commodification, importing corporate governance into education and devaluing the state system of education further.

Read More
19 October

Are SNC-based textbooks also promoting discrimination against Religious Minorities?

There is a need for them to realize that a child should not be inculcated with a sense of superiority over non-Muslim peers. In fact, it would have been better if non-Muslim children were also able to read about their religious roots and practices with dignity and appreciation, instead of feeling powerless and humiliated while taking their compulsory lessons at school.

Read More
13 October

The Technical Flaws of the Single National Curriculum (as identified by Zulfiqar Ali)

the activities given against the SLOs are not related to their corresponding Blooms levels. For example, in this particular case, the SLO requires a low level of remembering or understanding, but the suggested activity rather belongs to creating the higher order thinking level of the Blooms Taxonomy. There are many other instances like this where activities are not aligned or rationalized with the demand of SLOs.

Read More
11 October

Forced Conversions and the Barriers to Education for Minority Girls

It is not a “western agenda” when the people of Pakistan call for a local solution to inspire more solidarity with our  persecuted fellow citizens. The least that Pakistan could do here was make the age of the girl-child uniform across all the boards and implement existing laws against “forced marriages” more realistically. At present, a girl aged 16 is legally treated as an adult whereas a boy under 18 is still a child. The parallel Shariah law further complicates the matter where it states that a girl becomes of marriageable age as soon as she hits her puberty.

Read More
08 October

Dr. Nadia Chaudhri and her Struggle for the Marginalized in STEM Education

Dr. Chaudhri  strongly believed in the importance of education-inclusiveness and understood well the the systematic barriers that people from underprivileged groups suffer from. The barriers to education come in all shapes and forms, whether in Pakistan or  a developed country, which fail to acknowledge, include and encourage those having a genuine potential for research, science or arts.

Read More