Archive for the ‘Educational Attainment’ Category

International Women’s Day 2009: celebrated in style and grandeur with an impressive panelist of 12 leading women from all walks of life. A special heartfelt prayer for all our sisters in F.A.T.A: the fate of whom are in the hands of misguided miscreants. Answers to questions such as, who is a woman of substance and what should be the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day etc. are sought by an enlightened audience of young women. 

Let us all come together on one platform and strive to become compassionate and strong women, who can not only hold their own but can in fact contribute towards ensuring a healthy, balanced and peaceful society. 

Pakistani Masrassahs have long been at the receiving end of suspicion, criticism and distrust. Although this system of education is the oldest in the subcontinent, it gained the interest and attention of the national and international community post 9/11. Today when Pakistan is considered to be “the most dangerous place on earth” the nature and role of madrassah’s, including the cirriculum and training given therein is considered both crucial and conducive to world peace. That being said, there are those who beg to differ and hold steadfast in their view of madrassahs as traditional schools extending balanced religious education and only that. This show attempts to address and overcome misunderstandings and ill found biases which most of us are consciously and unconsciously prey to.   

The recent headlines in newspapers, “Taliban ban to keep 40,000 girls from school in Swat” whereby locals confessed to be helpless and having no other option but to accede to Taliban pressure caused a huge uproar, only to simmer down to a confused gasp as the statement was denied a few days later. The fact remains, as our attention is diverted to east the west is persistently being bombed back into the dark ages. Who decides what is the best form of education, who decides what is morally right or wrong in Islam, who permits the futures of innocent girls being up for debate , where is the writ of the state when we most need it, what do the Taliban really want, why is the army using schools for their hideouts and what are we looking at if we don’t take action soon?

These are all questions which were addressed in two consecutive shows, including a live beeper of spokesperson Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat, Haji Muslim Khan.

The guests included

1. Peshawar: Education Minister of NWFP, Sardar Hussain Babak

2. Islamabad: Dr. Arifa Syeda, intellectual/academician

3. Lahore: Anwar Mahmood Khan, Air Vice Marshal (R)

On Air: Thursday, November 13^th 2008   {10am, 4pm, 3am (PST)}

Universally speaking, almost all social ills seem to boil down to one source eventually, literacy, or the lack thereof. Education not only empowers the individual but there is much advocacy of the notion that educating a woman means educating an entire family, especially in nations where female literacy rates are deplorable. Pakistan’s most eccentric and well endowed province, Balochistan, is a place where even male literacy rates cut a sorry figure, educational attainment of it’s women is thus another story altogether (according to a World Bank Report only 15% of the women of Balochistan have attended school). There exist out of 22,000 settlements i.e. killis of the province, only 11,000 primary educational institutions; that is more than 50% of these areas have no schools altogether. Resources are meager and mismanaged. Funds are scarce and misallocated. Supervision is conducted by ghost authorities. Accountability is rare and the government misguided in reallocating the crucial programs like the Adult Literacy Program under the social welfare department - which is neither well-equipped nor well-informed in comparison to the ministry of education.  A reasonable argument offered by many explaining the indifference of the Nawabs, Sardars and authorities to the educational empowerment of the people of Balochistan is that it shall threaten the very roots and stronghold of the Sardari Nizaam - a characteristic identity of the province. Yet others raise an accusing finger towards the discriminatory policies and behavior of the central government in allocating funds (”Gross enrolment rates in primary education in Balochistan have improved from 62% in 2001-2 to 67% in 2004-05 as against an average of 72% and 86% respectively in the country”)

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