Pakistani educational system needs to be reformed

by Dr.Mehwish Ghazanfer
May 14, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/720/pakistani-educational-system-needs-to-be-reformed

In Pakistan, there is no university at all with an international reputation. Because of this, brilliant students in Pakistan are obliged to search admission at foreign universities. American universities attract great number of Pakistani nationals and many of those students depend on the deep pockets of these universities for their expenses. According to United States Education Foundation (USEF) almost 7000 students from Pakistan are currently studying at American universities. Many of those students return back home to Pakistan after getting a valued sheepskin and acquiring world-level skills. These returnees work for the benefit of their country. Some Pakistani students, on the other hand, stay in the US and hence are a source of foreign exchange for there native country. So in either ways they respectively serve directly or indirectly their country. These USA educated students have a better grasp of liberalism because they got their fair shake of breathing in a society with a great cultural and religious diversity, where freedom of speech is available for everyone. In that way they are lifelines for our crippled Pakistan.

The despicable Times Square incident in New York City has not only polluted the image of Pakistani students studying in the U.S.A, but it has also placed a big question mark on the future of future prospective students. This will not only make the American visa policy for Pakistani students even more stringent, but will also traumatize the recently improved Pak-America relations.

Unfortunately, the name of Pakistan seems always to be associated with incidences of terrorism. For so long, people of Pakistan have been as lambs to the slaughter by the hands of terrorists. All thanks to the military dictator Zia Ul Haq who coddled religious zealots and provided a favorable medium for their growth, dragging the future of Pakistan into the danger zone. America has always made
the mistake to support military regimes in Pakistan. The Talibans, who were once the darlings of Uncle Sam, went out of control after the end of the Soviet Union, and raised arms against their sire.

Pakistani universities were once famous for their vibrant political culture, but Zia put an end to the healthy political debates during his process of so-called 'Islamization'. By populating their dreams of heaven with willing virgins, these religious fanatics emotionally abuse naive minds, just to satisfy their heinous hidden agendas. Faisal Shahzad , a Pakistani M.B.A student from an American university, planted the Times Square bomb that luckily did not fully explode. Had the bomb properly detonated, many innocent lives would have been lost. America has helped Pakistan in so many fields and is still providing a substantial aid for the development of this country. In all honesty, those Pakistanis responsible for beastly terror activities are blackening the name of Pakistan, because they don't show any regards for the real interests of the nation they pretend to love. These religious fanatics are trying to establish their brand of autocratic government in our land. But only penalizing the Shahzads of this world is not enough, there is a need to destroy the very factories grinding out more Shazad clones.

The reasons for these violent tendencies of some of our Pakistani students are the execrable text books that were introduced during the Zia military rule to adulterate the minds of students. The educational academies of Pakistan present a totally false picture of sensitive issues like 'jihad', 'parda' and 'relations with non-Muslims'. Troublemakers and invaders are taught as being Muslim heroes. Whenever abatement of these violent topics has been discussed, the Mullahs become as mad as hatters, and don't allow the government to succeed in this.

There is clearly a need to use a scientific approach, rather than a religious approach, for teaching in Pakistani academies. Ethics must be introduced as a subject in our educational institutes, all the way from elementary school to higher education. So that instead of just teaching relations between Muslims and Non Muslims, they would enlighten the relations between all human beings, and would assist in building the character of our Pakistani students in a more agreeable way.

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