Sunday, March 26, 2006

Education in Sindh-- Need for market oriented education

Well said Sain Sajjad Abro Saheb

Those Sindhi students who are really bright, hardworking and have financial backing, will succeed. These lucky ones are still getting a chance to go abroad for higher education and getting good jobs.But what happens to 90% who do not fall in that catagory? They have to be provided quality education which will prepare them for market based economy within Sindh and Pakistan. Yes, there is discrimination in Karachi and in rest of Pakistan. For that reason, our kids have to be even better than average kids from other communities.

Unless, we take some concrete steps to upgrade their education, these 90% are economically doomed. The future in this case is clearly visible. Only miracle can save these 90%.
Example of other minorities (e.g. Jews, Hindus in Sindh) shows that small business rather than jobs, is the answer. It took time, but these minorities have succeeded. I have feeling that Sindhi Muslims will have to follow that path too. Vocational training in needed areas, rather than paper degrees based on outdated text books in unwanted fields, will save a larger number of Sindhi students.

Regardless of what path we are planning to follow, MARKET ORIENTED EDUCATION (i.e. development of skills which are needed in the market) needes to be emphasized. I am afraid that there are not many jobs waiting for degree holders in Sindhi literature or comparable fields.Your input and help towards development of Sindh is always welcome.

Ali Nawaz Memon
Sindh Development Institute
7204 Antares Drive
Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA 20879
http://sindhdevelopmentinstitute.blogspot.com/
sindhhouse@hotmail.com

Education in Sindh: Points to Ponder

From: "sajjad.abro@gmail.com" Reply-To: educatesindh@googlegroups.comTo: "EducateSindh" Subject: [EducateSindh] some points to ponderDate: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 05:46:08 -0800

Dear All

Now that we know Low standards and poor education is the root cause ofbackwardness of Sindh, what next? I have been hearing this since mychildhood, n so far no sincere efforts have been put forward to betterthe education system. Who is to be blamed? 1: Pujanb? can u see anyhand of Punjab in deteriorating the education system of university ofSindh or schools of interior SIndh? 2: Muhajirs? do u think that it isAltaf who has forbidden sindhi teachers from going to and runningschools in sindh? 3: our sindhi intellectuals? it is sad to say thatuniversity of Sindh, which was once considered hallmark of sindhiintellect, has no standard Sindhi Text Book for all the departments ithas. though there are a few text books on sindhi, economics,mathematics etc but these are all outdated. Is it the duty ofnon-sindhis to write text books in sindhi? if you have a look on urduliterature, you won't find anything missing. there are text books inurdu for every descipline.

one can, and i think one must, ask what the hell our sindhiintellectuals (adeeb) have done? there is ample literature on thehistory of sindh, sindhi language, bhittai, and sindhi poetry? but whatabout natural sciences, social sciences, computer sciences, medicalsciences, philosophy? we are still a century backward. there are manypersons who claim to be scholars but they are in fact pseudo-scholars,or pseudo-intellectuals. I know of no scholar (except two or three) whohave ever written a research paper in an INTERNATIONAL, INDEXED,RESEARCH JOURNAL.
Though i appreciate the efforts of this group, but the question is,WHAT CAN WE DO USING INTERNET WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING PRATICAL? WHATPOLITICAL DECISIONS CAN WE AFFECT, CHANGE OR MODIFY? are we using theappropriate channel to getting ourselves heard? who the hell amonggovernment policy makers is paying heed to our forum?
I think it is high time we materialized our efforts and put a solidfoundation, on the basis of which we should do something such as createan organization, write to goverment and non-government organizations aswell as international agencies to help us.

Moen-jo-Daro is our bright past. but our present is bleak. WE SHOULDNOT BE PROUD OF WHAT OUR ANCESTORS DID. BUT WE SHOULD BE PROUD OF WHAT"WE" DO.

Regards
M. Sajjad Abro
Social Sciences Research OfficerAga Khan University, Karachi