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If you ask me how to make the best use of running water of rivers in the plain areas of Pakistan I will say that remove the embankment from rivers and build walls outside cities and populated areas. Let the new silt spread across overgrazed and excessively used soils across the country. Let the water stay in highs and lows across the cities so that water would find its way into the aquifers to replenish excessively pumped groundwater. Let the nutrients flow into the farms and stay there for some time so that soil would get enough strength to produce high-yielding crops without much use of the fertilizers. I will go to every extent for the restoration of natural systems.
First, we lived in caves and when we got an education through the span of thousands of years we cut rocks to make safe houses or ourselves into the farmlands and plain areas. We got educated ourselves wrongly. As human beings, we thought that the whole world’s resources and all other living organisms are born to service a single community of human beings. We thought that we have the permanent license of depleting and discriminating the earth. It was necessary to speed up the time through innovation and technology but the idea of permanent settlement and permanent destruction of earth’s resources has ended threatening our existence.
The idea of permanent settlement was necessary for one reason that is the ease of access to facilities and collective development of human society. It was necessary to build towns and big cities to centralize human activities. But in that process of permanent settlement, we have derailed natural systems. The rivers got embankments and water irrigated lands through canals. Large flood plains were converted into vast farmlands that watered through canals and tubewells only. There are two major implications connected with this trend of settlement. Flood plains got old by the time and embankments stopped flooding preventing the fresh alluvium to spread. Secondly, the groundwater that was regularly replenished by draining away through natural drainage patterns stopped. Although, the canal system has a profound impact on the agrarian economy of Pakistan. It enabled many barren lands to transform into productive farms but the aforementioned concerns remain to be unaddressed.
Since making great changes as such requires infinite resources of manpower and money; a complete turnaround of the culture, therefore we need to adopt smart changes at household and community levels. It is quite different from the way states deal with the issue. The states establish reservoirs, national parks, sanctuaries, etc. to protect the biodiversity of certain areas with a great variety of Fauna and Flora like Yosemite National Park in the US and Khirthar National Park in Pakistan. But much more can be achieved by introducing the smart way like engaging communities into this business.
The only way to make people love the biodiversity and help nature restore, apart from one’s love for nature and biodiversity (that is another level of attachment to the Earth and awareness about emerging concerns), is to merge economic security with conservation activities. It starts with respecting indigenous people and their primate economic activities.
For centuries indigenous people in all parts of the world have fought for their rights and their lands. The fight continues. It is only changing climate the driving force that has worked out the transformation of the global-scale policy after scientists and scholars made them believe that the time finally has arrived to let the biodiversity flourish because it is the only way a human can flourish themselves. It is now time for the world leaders to give their rights back for which they have rightfully fought for centuries.
In today’s environment, pragmatism has had a profound effect on education. It is a utilitarian and pragmatic philosophy. It establishes activity as the central tenet of all teaching and learning. It is the focal point of an educational process. According to pragmatism, education is not the dynamic component of philosophy that idealists propose. It is an educational philosophy that comes from classroom practice. Thus, pragmatism improves a person’s social efficiency. Pragmatism was developed in the early twentieth century in the United States. It underlines the importance of putting our ideas to the test through action. Charles S. Peirce (1863 – 1914), William James (1842 – 1910), George Herbert Mead (1863 – 1931), and John Dewey (1859 – 1952) were among the founders of pragmatism. It is not a philosophical theory; rather, it places a premium on the practical application of concepts through human experience. As Plato asserted, ideas are not unchangeable universal conceptions resting in some metaphysical reality. Nor do they transcend human experience. Rather than that, ideas serve as tools – theories, conjectures, and plans – for resolving life’s difficulties. Ideas are social in origin and significance because they are formed in the context of shared experience within the human association. Pierce, a mathematician who became a philosopher, coined the term pragmatism. His idea held that we can act on our best hypotheses or beliefs about something while being aware that we might probably change these estimates in the process of acting. He contended that it is possible to make sense of our uncertain, ever-changing reality. A probability theory helps us make sense of continual flux. Given that some acts result in predictable reactions, it is likely that such reactions will occur in the future. However, it is vital to recognize that acts and reactions seldom occur identically. He highlighted the importance of using the scientific process to objectively validate ideas; he replaced probability for certainty. We can construct an informed – but not certain – hypothesis about what is likely to happen is based on data. James, a psychologist who later became a philosopher, applied pragmatic philosophy to the fields of psychology, religion, and education. He saw ideas as being sparked by the human desire to select between alternative courses of action in a particular scenario. James reasoned that when we chose and think, our findings can lead our actions, but they are also provisional and subject to revision. Our beliefs provide us with guidelines that we may refer to as good and true, right or wrong, while also acknowledging that we may, and most likely will, revise the principles as we experience new situations throughout life. Mead highlighted the importance of children developing and learning via their environmental experiences.
Due to Dewey’s huge influence on education, the majority of our discussion will center on his contributions and the version of Pragmatism known as Experimentalism of Instrumentalism. Dewey extended his pragmatist philosophy to education. According to Experimentalism, we think most properly and thoroughly when we utilize the experimental, or scientific, a method to test an idea to determine whether it works, and a person with a moving thumb and forefinger is a toolmaker. These devices, which are a part of material culture, can be utilized to boost human capacity for harnessing the environment and resolving a variety of problems. Dewy brought the terms organism and environment to education, influenced by Charles Darwin’s notion of evolutionary change. Dewey viewed humans as biological, social, and verbal organisms that channel their life-sustaining impulses toward growth and development. Every organism, including humans, requires a habitat or environment to survive. Individuals have encountered as they engage with their environments. They develop a useable network of experienced episodes from these events.
It’s worth mentioning that John Dewey established his ground-breaking Experimentalist philosophy of education against the backdrop of the United States’ social, political, scientific, and technical upheavals in the first half of the twentieth century. Dewey’s thought was influenced by progressive social change, Darwinian evolution, and Einsteinian relativity. Dewey, who thought that cooperative group activities increase social intelligence, criticized Spencer’s emphasis on individual competitiveness. Envisioning education as a tool for social advancement, he saw schools as inextricably linked to society. Dewey viewed knowledge as a tool for problem-solving, not as inert information to be imparted by the instructor to students. Dewey tested his early ideas regarding the experimental method’s application to education at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, which he supervised from 1896 to 1904. The school served as a testing ground for Dewey’s educational philosophy, particularly the “unity of knowledge.” Dewey’s use of the term “unity of knowledge” did not imply that all knowledge is contained inside and derived from a single grand overarching idea of form in the Platonic sense. Rather than that, the unity of knowledge indicated that knowledge is inextricably linked to and dependent on action. Knowing entails encountering the consequences of acting on a notion, which is itself a plan of action. According to Dewey, education’s objective is to foster situations conducive to optimal human progress. Unlike idealist and realist educators who place a premium on subject-matter disciplines, Dewey views thinking and learning as problem-solving activities. In his experimental epistemology, the learner, whether individually or as a member of a community, employs the scientific method to validate experience through the resolution of personal and social problems.
Unlike idealist and realist philosophies, which postulate a metaphysical underpinning for a constant and universal reality, pragmatism regards metaphysics as empirically unverifiable conjecture. While pragmatists reject metaphysics, they place a premium on epistemology, or how humans generate knowledge in a continually changing environment. Experience, defined as a person’s contact with their environment, is a critical pragmatic term. The process of living, growing, and developing is defined by a person’s interaction with his or her social, cultural, and natural contexts. This contact has the potential to transform or change both the individual and the environment. Understanding occurs as a result of a transaction, a process, between the learner and the environment.
Dewey opposes both idealist and realist claims that reality exists a priori or prior to human interaction with the world. Rather than that, he is more interested in how humans interact with their surroundings and develop tentative and adaptable perceptions of changing reality. These shaky assumptions about reality are always subject to additional examination and validation, which may result in the formation of new ones. As idealists say, ideas do not exist in their purest form. To be validated, ideas must be tested in practice, which includes acting on them and observing the effects. Dewey emphasized that we cannot rely on tradition in education; rather, we must examine educational methods to determine whether they truly provide the desired effects.
Education, for pragmatists, is an experimental process – a way of resolving difficulties that confront individuals as they engage with their environment. Pragmatists advocate for interdisciplinary over a departmentalized curriculum. When confronted with an issue, pragmatists assert, one obtains the information necessary to address it from a variety of sources, not just one academic field. For instance, in order to characterize the problem of environmental contamination and provide solutions, we must consult historical, political, sociological, scientific, technological, and worldwide sources of knowledge. A pragmatically educated individual understands how to conduct research and apply data from numerous sources to an issue. Pragmatists such as Dewey view the school as a small community of students and instructors who are inextricably linked to the greater society. The three primary functions of the school are to simplify, purify, and balance the cultural legacy.
In a multicultural society, the pragmatic school provides experiences that teach children from one culture to accept and understand people of other cultures. While cultural variety benefits the entire society, pragmatists believe that all children should be taught how to use the scientific method. They believe that schools should foster social consensus by stressing shared challenges and resolving them via collaborative approaches. Schools, as truly integrated and democratic learning communities, should be inclusive of all students and promote the broadest possible sharing of resources among people of different cultures.
In light of the preceding discussion, we can confidently state that the pragmatic educational technique provides students with a variety of opportunities to participate in an increasing number of activities and experiments. This empirical setting teaches kids how to be capable in real-world situations. We believe that this ideology of modern educational pragmatism has successfully impressed and aspired for unaccounted educational institutions, scholars, teachers, and educationalists worldwide.
[Shoukat Ali Lohar is Assistant Professor at English Language Development Centre Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro.]
In my opinion, language is the highest achievement of human beings which is also a marker of human dignity. It is the language that separates humans from animals. Though animals do have a language theirs is very limited and lacks creativity. American Linguist, Noam Chomsky says that a child can utter an infinite number of novel sentences out of finite rules of the language. This is what Chomsky believes that every human being is biologically endowed with the linguistic abilities which get triggered when s/he comes into contact with the environment. This type of novelty lacks in animals. Language for a human is the source of communication, information, and recreation. It enables us to share our unrests, feelings, emotions with our fellow men and to understand their miseries. A world without language is colorless, indeed.
It is widely accepted that one’s mother tongue is a blessing to him/her. Chomsky believes that a child learns best when s/he is educated in the first language. A child’s first language is a convenient source of information, expression, and exchange of thoughts and feelings with others. If a child is not taught the mother tongue from the very beginning, s/he may not be able to acquire the native-like competence at a later stage. The Critical Period Hypothesis proposed by Noam Chomsky suggests that a child can learn his/her mother tongue till a certain age, later on, s/he begins to lose the ability to learn the language. According to UNESCO Report, every child has the right to acquire primary education in his/her mother tongue.
The sociolinguistic reality of Pakistan is very complex in terms of language policies. Pakistan is one of the diverse linguistic and cultural areas in South Asia. There are over 69 languages spoken in Pakistan. This diversity of languages is reflected in Schools. A child is exposed to several languages in school. S/he has to learn English as an international language, Urdu as a national language, Arabic as a religious language, Sindhi or another local language as a mother tongue. Besides, National Anthem is recited in Persian in Morning Assembly. Dr. Tariq Raham—a well-known linguist in Pakistan maintains that Pakistan is a multilingual country. However, the languages used in the domains of Power are English and Urdu. The state’s policies are favored these two languages at the expense of others. This unequal status to the languages in the country has marginalized the indigenous languages and is considered to be the marker of lower status.
The state policy towards the indigenous languages, Sindhi in our context, has placed its status at the bottom. The Sindhi language is very rich and it has a history of thousand years. There are several literary and non-literary books available in Sindhi. The scholars have highly contributed to the development of the Sindhi language. In simple, the Sindhi language has all that any language say English or Urdu does. There are numerous poetry books published in the Sindhi language and others are being published. The great Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif composed his Risalo in the Sindhi language which contains thirty sure. Not only Shah Latif but also Sami, Sachal, Sheikh Ayaz have remained the central figures who contributed to the Sindhi language. The Sindhi language is equally good in prose writing. The names of MirzaQaleechBaig, Mohammed Usman Deploy, Saeen G.M Syed, RasoolBuxPaleejo, Abdul Wahid Aresar, Tariq Ashraf, Amar Jaleel, GhulamNabi Mogul are few to mention who gave Sindhi literature a new progressive trend. The Sindhi language has the credit of being the first regional language having a huge number of dailies & periodicals. The Sindhi Language has media power, too. It has a good number of TV channels.
Despite such a magnificent sociolinguistic reality of the Sindhi Language, it has not yet been recognized as a national language. Not to mention the status of the national language, it has stopped being taught in some of the private schools in Sindh where English is the predominant language. The children are instructed in English and are trained to speak English and Urdu from the very beginning. In a city like Karachi, the Sindhi language is not taught as a subject in most schools. What apathy! The school atmosphere is not congenial for Sindhi as their mother tongue.
Languages have rights. Their rights are as precious as humans’. Robert Phillipson, an Australian Applied linguist rightly mentions that language rights run parallel with other civil rights. If civil rights are ensured, linguistic rights are also ensured, and vice versa. In our country, it is very much open to all enlightened people that civil rights are on top priority to be violated. Pakistani citizens sometimes think it to be hard to survive in the country due to the issues of poverty, hunger, unemployment, terrorism, pick-pocketing, snatching, or robbery. In such a society, language rights are just imagined to exist. The attitudes of the government are not less hostile toward the indigenous languages. Their words show that they really care for Sindhi culture and language but indeed, they don’t.
ToveSkuttnabl-Kangas and Robert Phillipson have written a comprehensive book on Linguistic Human Rights. In this comprehensive book, they have noted the linguistic discrimination among many nations of the world and suggest that linguistic rights be maintained. Linguistic diversity, according to them is co-related with culture and biodiversity. All children should be taught the first language. The international and national/official language should not act as a hurdle for the children to acquire their mother tongue. Education and mother tongue should go in hand. Otherwise, children will lose their true understanding of things.
The constitution of Pakistan mentions that without prejudice to the national language, the provincial governments can take measures for their provincial languages according to Law (153, Clause: 3). But no measure has been taken so far. The cries of civil society and many individuals have remained unheard. Apart from the government’s non-serious attitude towards local languages, the people themselves are also responsible for the degradation of the language. for instance, we being Sindhi do continue Speaking the Sindhi language when we visit markets or other places. We start communicating in Urdu or English. Our children are following us. Their school is training them to speak Urdu and English and we practically teach them to do so. All such factors need to be discouraged if we want local languages to acquire good status in Education and other domains of power. February 21 is consolidated in the name of the students who were killed in Dhaka university riots in 1951 when Bangladesh the then East Pakistandemanded the restoration of their Bengali language that it be the medium of instruction. It should be used in postal stamps, railway platforms, and the education sector. But their cry remained unanswered. The riots maximized and were changed into a movement that made Bangladesh in 1971.
We hope and demand that the Sindhi language should be given the status of national language along with all designated indigenous languages and it should be encouraged in schools, colleges, and Universities in the province of Sindh. The Sindhi language authority & Sindhi Adabi board and other chairs must play their parts in this regard. If our language lives we will live happily. The past glory and honor of our language will be realized all around.
The situation in Afghanistan and the future of the Holy Land
On 9/11, when the New York City Tower was destroyed in an al-Qaeda offensive, the United States of America felt as if terrorists had hit their heartstrings. Of superpower
The impatience turned into anger. He invaded Afghanistan in October 2001. The Northern Alliance, along with other Taliban enemy forces in Afghanistan, ended the Taliban regime, which was accused of sheltering international terrorist forces and human rights abuses. The first row of al-Qaeda leaders was abolished, and Osama bin Laden was killed. The new setup of Afghanistan, which was directly assisted by the United States and its troops were present in Afghanistan with their latest war technology and weapons. As well as the armies of NATO countries that participated in the war. The United States also financed Afghanistan a lot, but still, they could not eliminate the Taliban’s power, They again emerged as a fighter force demanding that they were the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan and that they still have the right to share in power. Afghanistan was a neutral, liberal, and developing country under Zahir Shah’s rule for the last years of the seventeenth century of the last century. It became an unlucky country due to the exhaustion of world powers. Which has also had a positive effect on our country and Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism for the last forty years under the influence of the situation in Afghanistan and the migration of the Afghan population due to war. He is facing terrorism and other atomic issues.
When former US President Donald Trump decided to oust US troops in the run-up to the Pentagon, the Pentagon opposed the idea of US security, But Trump stood by his decision, and the newly elected president, Boyd, remained on the same policy. As a result, US and NATO troops will leave the region by September 11. The United States has its interests and reasons for leaving the region: 3586 foreign troops were killed in that war, of which 2442 were US troops. In addition, 3900 Americans died
Which were defined on other services. The loss of local population is in the millions, proving that the US and NATO forces that were deployed to Afghanistan caused more bloodshed, As it happens in wars, women, and children are easy targets, with thousands killed or injured. There were welfare workers and journalists women and millions of people were displaced or had to leave the country in a country of three million people and they were taken to different countries. The irony is that the United States failed to fight a long war in its history, with NATO even at a time when the number of its troops had reached one hundred and forty thousand, Despite all this, the US and NATO can still be counted on Afghanistan. One of the major reasons for the defeat is that the United States spent a large sum of money on the war, The US spent $ 2.26 billion in 20 years on that war, which is a huge amount, simply because spending it could not bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. The United States had good talks with the Taliban led by Zalmay Khalilzad in the dialogue, the key point being that US troops would leave the United States this year and the Taliban American and NATO allies. Do not attack at all. Surprisingly, the US sought bail from the Taliban and the Taliban acted on them, But they continued their advance in Afghanistan. They occupied several Afghan districts and later occupied Kabul.
The Afghan National Army seems to be backing up, Many of them have taken refuge in Tashkent. Recently, US President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah,
who heads the Afghanistan National Security Council, visited the United States. The visit also seems to be thatThe region’s rapidly changing conditions will not bring any results. The country’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has recently refused to be a military soldier of the United States and has also said he will not fight the Taliban. That is, Afghan parties must handle their affairs. The US CIA Chief has also visited Pakistan for assistance. Look at what the result of such a good movie is, as Pakistan is an important country in the region and its geographical value is even more important. The price of the homeland on the world map There are also opportunities for us to take risks. After the withdrawal of US and coalition forces, will Afghanistan face new bloodshed in the shadow of power as it did before Ahmed Shah Massoud? The Northern Alliance and the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami were fighting for the victory of Kabul. There has always been a war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, even when there was a Taliban government in Afghanistan. Conditions show that from now on, the Taliban have superiority over their rival forces. It seems that the Taliban’s re-occupation of Kabul is imminent. Amid the Afghan situation, we have a direct impact The country is facing down because of which issues of terrorism and Afghan refugees are becoming important. As such, Pakistan’s leadership assumes that it is new to the situation in the region. Care for good strategies such as the dream of a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan that is free from terrorism.
Editorial of Humsari Magazine Translated into English. Thanks to Humsari Magazine
Jokhio tribe is famous for its educational achievements in the vicinity of Southern hilly areas of Sindh. This is because of the inspiration of their classical leader Jam Murad Ali Khan Jokhio in the past who was a close friend of the famous Baloch nationalist Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. Jokhio and Bugti’s friendship started approximately more than half a century ago. Sons of Jam Murad Ali Khan continued the same spirit of providing instructions of gaining education to their belongings. Jam Bijar Khan and Jam Abdul Hafeez Jokhio are well known because of their inspirational personalities who are his sons. The successor leaders among their family are Jam Abdul Karim Jokhio (MNA) and Jam Awais Bijar Jokhio (MPA) both are sons of Jam Bijar Khan Jokhio while as their cousin whom I am writing on, is Prince Jam Ahsaan Jokhio has been the leader of youth and right hand to Jam Awais Bijar Jokhio in Thatta. The present leader of Malir Jam Abdul Karim Bijar Jokhio is his elder cousin.
Jam Ahsaan Jokhio son of Jam Abdul Hafeez Jokhio is the youngest and emerging leader from the historical Jam Family of Malir. He loves education, knowledge, wisdom, betterment for poor people, and the acquisition of various skills to learn and live a beautiful life. He was born in Malir on 15th April 2000 and started education there. He completed his basic and secondary school education from Army Public School Karachi where he shined his existence with the love of learning various subjects on the special directions of his father. As he is the grandson of Jam Murad Ali Khan who was a humble personality with elite class significant attractions in character, so he has inherited the same genetics from his parents and has a dynamic presence. Whoever meets him once gets inspired by his loving and charismatic personality.
The maternal grandfather of Jam Ahsaan Jokhio is Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti who is well known as the first CSS Pass Officer of Pakistan. So there is a clear vision in the mind of Jam Ahsaan as per the instructions of his father Jam Abdul Hafeez Jokhio who is sending him to achieve a Bachelor’s Degree from one of the top universities of the foreign country. His goal in life is to get a good education and to serve the common people of Malir and Thatta who lack the basic facilities.
Jam Ahsaan Jokhio lives sometimes in the mighty mountains of Thatta which are called “Kohistan” where he and his cousins Jam Abdul Karim Jokhio and Jam Awais Bijar Jokhio inherit parental land where they are living and as guardians to the whole region. They help the common farmers by loving and resolving their problems and trying to maintain the atmosphere of love and closeness in the mighty mountains. Their “Otaq” is the center of community gatherings and looks like the sun in the darkness where they live sometimes to serve their region. They have traditional folklore people around and they do not feel any kind of hesitation while eating traditional dishes even sitting with them on earth in the “Katcha kitchen”. This is their simple life and hence the people of the region believe that the presence of Jam Ahsaan Jokhio in the mighty mountains is a matter of blessing for them!
Narratives bring new thinking patterns among the societies and prove to be a fortress to defend the anti-narratives. GM Sayed of Sindh and his like-minded when founded the Bazam -e-Sofiya(Circle of Mystics) Sindh, he gave narrative that “Sindh island of peace beyond the religions, we are mystics, we are peaceful,” G.M Sayed was aware that mysticism is the fabric that weaves all ethnoreligious diversities of Sindh. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, and others can be bonded in the name of peace and mysticism. This narrative is a figurative fortress against extremism and it worked very well, when other parts of the land are engulfed in the fire of extremism and hatred, Sindh is a comparatively better place. Even when holy places of the minorities are desecrated, large sections of society condemns the acts and raise vociferous voices. Sometimes it comes as a welcoming gesture when the clergy of the majority religion comes in support of the minorities.
Unfortunately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comes at much loss, when extremism plays its ugly role. This region has remained the fertile land for the exploiters to serve their designs. Afghan Jihad against USSR is a good example to recount, thousands of jihadists were recruited from here to wage the holy wars. This episode instilled the dangerous mindset for larger times to come. The land of Bacha khan turned into the nursery of the holy worriers, ready to spill the blood of anyone in the name of religion. This is an unfortunate part of history. It is also ironic that our sitting Prime Minister, connecting himself with Pakhtun’s lineage, addressed United Nations General Assembly last month. PM tried to sell a selective story based on two naive themes: first, he played the victim card at the expense of the Pakhtuns; second, he shifted the blame onto the Pakhtuns, depicting them as holy warriors by choice to achieve larger policy ends.
He counted, that 80,000 Pakistanis are killed,$150 billion were lost,3.5 million people emerged as internally displaced people(IDPs) in the war on terror. It’s unfair with the victims to de-particularize them. If we count IDPs, all are Pashtuns.
Data show that from 2007 to 2009 KP and Former Federally Administrated Tribal Areas experienced two suicide attacks per month on average. South Asia Terrorism portal counts, the death toll rose from 98 in 2006 to 507 in 2007; 670 in 2008, and 1,221 in 2009. These are frightening facts.
The prime minister blends Pakhtun nationalism with religious extremism., he said in UNGA, “Pakhtuns had affinity and sympathy with the Afghan Taliban not because of their religious ideology but because of Pakhtun nationalism, which is very strong”. The theme was repeated in his article for The Washington Post.
Mixing together extremism and any ethnic nationalism is a poisonous story with real consequences. For years Pakhtuns are branded are holy worriers and used on different fronts, but unfortunately, secular political parties failed to provide them new narratives to safeguard Pakthuns against the extremism. It’s time that political parties with an inclination towards the left in KP should come forward with strong anti-extremist narratives.
This is true for all the provinces of Pakistan, either mildly or severely whole Pakistan is a victim of this monster-The extremism.
In the real sense of the world and from a global scale, Pakistan has none of its 50+ public universities that have the ability to being considered a university of academic standards. If we compare our universities to our neighboring countries like India and Iran, the quality is far poorer regarding teaching and research. According to a study by Hoodbhoy, P in 2009, Most of the “teaching” that takes place in our universities amount to a dictation of notes which the lecturer themselves had copied down from the time when they were students in the department. Examinations at our universities are a test of memory, students are rampant with indiscipline and a large number of teachers are preparators of academic fraud without any punishment. In our universities, the actual number of days during teaching takes place, add up to less than half of the officially required number. Hoodbhoy, P (2009) highlighted that we have some university campuses that are run by gangs of thugs that tend to harbour well-known criminals, whilst other campuses have had continuous patrolling by Rangers with guns for years. There have been some common wisdom that if funding for such higher education institutions is increased, it would solve all or most of the systematic problems that have darkened the higher education system of Pakistan. However, a many-fold increase in the funding of such universities from 2002 has only resulted in marginal improvements at best and in only a few parts of higher education, thus offering an instructive counterexample of such wisdom within the country. When such common sense is violated, it points to the need for some new ideas. There is a dire need to consider our higher education system divided into consideration of the required backgrounds, understanding of quality higher education in Pakistan, and exploring the possible solutions for it.
Enrolment in Higher Education
According to Hoodbhoy, P (2009), the circumstances, however, that surround the bitter truth regarding our current state-run far deeper than they appear. Muslims of the Indian subcontinent during the early 20th century was comparatively less educated against Hindus, mainly due to the British Empire’s prejudice against the Muslims and the resistance by orthodox Muslims to embrace modern ideas, scientific academia, and the English Language. Such poor education lead to challenges in getting job opportunities within the government of that time. Hence, the areas that currently constitute our nation of Pakistan were educationally backward compared to India. Initially, we started with only a Punjab University in Lahore with 664 students enrolled and a great loss of important faculty which was mainly Hindus as a result of the partition. We had a few more universities adding to the list in the next few years such as Sindh University and Karachi University followed by an expansion of over 114 public and private universities in 70 years. According to the latest statistics by the World Bank Report in 2006, there were still 806,000 enrolments accounting for only 3.8 percent of the eligible population. This means that we now have universities but not enough students wanting to enroll in them. However, the factors to blame include the lack of formally qualified lecturers, students, and funding. Not every teacher at a university level holds a Ph.D. as they should be teaching at a higher education level. Not all students have the ability to pass the entry exams into a university; only 2 in 10 students pass the HSC exams and only one makes it into the university. According to a paper published by the Indian Higher Education Reform through Harvard University, Pakistan spends approximately $2100 per student on its higher education funding and investment, which is substantially larger than the investment made by India on its students in higher education. Therefore, the problem here still continues to persist; Our enrolment numbers have increased over the past decades tremendously, we don’t have enough qualified teachers, provincial disparities are significant, access to university education is limited to only a portion of the population, the funding for universities has increased greatly and yet we cannot see improvements anywhere in the near future.
Academic Quality
Every developed and powerful nation such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, China, Japan, France, and major western nations is built on the foundation of education that becomes the engine to drive the progress of its economy during globalization. Quality education has become the stem root of scientific and technological developments across the world-changing the way we live our lives at a pace more rapid than ever in the past fifty years. However, unlike for our public universities, higher education and its growth require more than building structure and calling universities. Our nation and its educational progress have very little to gain from its English department where the department head cannot speak or write grammatically correct English sentences, or a physics department where its head is cannot comprehend the operation of a halogen light bulb, a maths department where its team struggles with simple concepts of surds and roots or a biology department where parts of the curriculum are omitted on the grounds that they may be unnecessary. In addition, our universities advertising themselves with signboards and brochures calling themselves “center of excellence” doesn’t make them one either. On the other hand, we do have a few selective higher education institutes that would qualify as providers of world-class education in different fields of academia. What differentiates the two types of universities and their ability to provide a quality standard of education revolves around factors such as the faculty’s research prospects and research contributions, the proposition of theories and principles, making discoveries and inventions, documenting theories and experiments, and deciphering linguistics from different eras. Most importantly, what makes a university be able to provide quality standard education is its professors that are regularly cited and known for their discoveries and contributions to the world of academia. Their fame attracts more talented researchers/lecturers and students from across the world. A university with such talent possesses the ability to produce exceptional talent that has enormous potential for growth and returns. Universities of high standing such as Harvard, Cambridge, MIT, and Oxford have this in common amongst them. Hoodbhoy, P (2009) proposed a research strategy to assess the quality of teaching in any university, which are based on factors such as quality of teaching and teachers, students, adequacy of basic physical and governance structures at university campuses, government ethics, and the general ambiance on the campus.
The way forward
Given our consistent failures over a span of seven decades regarding our inability to create a viable higher education system have forced us to explore reasons that go beyond the issues of fiscal and administrative nature. This requires us to go beyond the usual blame game that persists within our political parties. We have had governments of different agendas come and go without successfully setting the country on a clear way forward. Pakistan’s education system is shaped by deeply rooted values for our society and culture that are conservative in nature, and in addition, discourage us to question it and instead obey it. In order to embrace modern education, we need to encourage individual liberty, acceptance of change out of the will, promote honesty in an intellectual capacity, and encourage rebellion in a constructive manner. These factors are critical in nature and are likely to allow our youth to make a revolutionary impact by inventing the future. Otherwise, we will fund ourselves stuck with students repeating the dysfunctions of the past by relying on memorization of textbook definitions and calling it “academic” quality. However, it is important to note that to build such a critical mindset, progress and initiative start at the school level. The students at school need to be encouraged to ask questions that are critical in nature so that they can work towards finding answers.
On a practical capacity, the nation needs to set its priority straight by considering an improvement in academic planning and management at a national scale using the solutions below:
Revisit their priorities on spending: There needs to be a revisit on the spending of funds to balance the resources on colleges where the resources for education are either poorly managed, damaged, or non-existent as compared to universities where the funds are spent on fancy tech equipment, air-conditioners etc. but nothing to show for in improvement of education quality.
Focus on faculty development: There is a dire need to improvement the competency and qualification requirement that allows anyone to teach at a university level in our universities if we are to produce exceptional talent. This requires further training of our existing and upcoming faculty as well as importing foreign faculty members with better qualifications.
Mandate Qualifying tests for university faculty: Our system has been broken for so long that it requires us to mandate written entrance tests for junior faculty, just like they do in Italy.
Mandate audits to avoid academic fraud and corruption: Academic crimes in Pakistan’s universities have gone unpunished for too long and require scrutinising internal and external audit committees to shed light on the matter and provide justice.
Implement credible, transparent, and accountable recruitment policies for university chancellors and senior management: Our country’s patronage system tends to appoint unqualified and unsuitable vice-chancellors that come from a background of bureaucrats or military men. These “leaders” further get to exercise their power and hire university staff with administrators that are either corrupt or incompetent or both. There needs to be an increase in credible search committees for such positions of power.
Create pathways for all prospective students through national level entry examinations: Not every student can benefit from a higher education. Some would have better prospects with vocational education and training that is based on developing practical skill sets for certain occupations such as trades of carpentry, plumbing, gardening, electrician, builder etc. These tests can help establish alternate pathway for such students without compromising on their ability to receive some sort of education such as certifications and diplomas instead of degrees.
References
Hoodbhoy P. Pakistan’s higher education system—What went wrong and how to fix it. The Pakistan Development Review. 2009 Dec 1;48(4):581-94.
World Bank Report No. 37247, Higher Education Policy Note. Pakistan: An Assessment of the Medium-term Development Framework. June 28, 2006. Human Development Sector, South Asia Region, The World Bank.
Indian Higher Education Reform: From Half-Baked Socialism to Half-Baked Capitalism. Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Menta. СID Working Paper No. 108, Harvard University, September 2004.
World-class universities: a new holy grail, Pervez Hoodbhoy, 6 June 2007, SciDev.Net, http:// www.scidev.net/opinions/index.cfm7f useaction=printarticle&itemid=6 1 7&language
“Towards Measuring University Quality”, by Pervez Hoodbhoy, S APANA report 2010, edited by Abbas Rashid and Muzzafar Iqbal
Assistant professor in English at Mehran University of engineering and technology Jamshoro.
Overview
Bertrand Russell is a renowned name among the Western Philosophers of England (a British Philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic & political activist). He is a fine example of a humanistic and pragmatic approach. He is a great supporter of world peace. His wisdom is well established in the Indian terminology of respectability. Bertrand Russell is hailed as one of the founders of modern analytic philosophy. Russell was not only known for his work in philosophy and logic but wrote many popular books in various subject areas. He was also an ardent political activist throughout his life. . He is considered as one of the founders of analytical philosophy along with his other colleagues. Bertrand Russell was the recipient of countless awards for excellence during his long lifetime (1872-1970) including the Nobel Prize for literature, which he won in 1950. The range of his critical inquiry is without parallel in contemporary Western culture. In addition, he engaged in a lifelong battle with the forces of injustice — emphasizing the importance of practice as well as theory.
Life
Russell was born in Trellech, Monmouthshire, and Wales. Wales. His folks were individuals from the British honorability. They were free-masterminds and even made companions with the radicals in Boston at the time. Tragically, Russell’s folks passed on when he was youthful, and Russell was sent to live with his grandparents. There, he was given a religious childhood (something his folks had needed to maintain a strategic distance from no matter what). His grandma was exceptionally strict in all issues of profound quality. Amid puberty, he was for the most part self-taught by private mentors. Russell composed a collection of memoirs in three sections, spreading over his life from 1872– 1967 (Russell, 1967, 1968, 1969).
Russell’s impudence in diagnostic theory, and particularly rationale, is enormous. He contemplated science and theory at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was influenced by the mathematician and thinker Alfred North Whitehead. In 1910, Russell and Whitehead distributed the first volume of Principia Mathematica, where they advocated the view that science is reducible to rationale. He proceeded to distribute many books, expositions, and political leaflets. In 1950, he won the Nobel Prize for writing. Russell’s was profoundly dug into legislative issues and social activism. Amid World War I, he was captured and sent to jail for a half year due to pacifist exercises and challenges. While in jail, he could compose and read, and claims to have discovered the experience “very pleasant.” He remained a pacifist for a mind-blowing duration and was again detained for going to an atomic demilitarization rally in 1961. He likewise survived a plane accident in 1948, where the main survivors were those sitting in the smoking area. In that capacity, Russell asserted that he owed his life to smoking. Russell was hitched four times, however had a notoriety for carrying on additional conjugal affairs. He kicked the bucket on February 2, 1970, at 97 years old in Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales.
Russell’s Philosophical Career:
Bertrand Russell has a long philosophical vocation where a slow advancement is discovered clear in three progressive stages. These three stages are connected with the distribution of his three books, “The Problems of Philosophy”, “Our Information of the External World” and “The Analysis of Mind”. 1. Principles of Mathematics (1903) 2. Principles of Social Reconstruction (1916) 3. The Political Ideals (1917) 4. Roads to Freedom (1918) 5. Introduction of Mathematical Philosophy (1920) 6. The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920) 7. The A.B.C. of Atoms (1923) 8. The A.B.C. of Relativity (1925) 9. On Education (1926) 10. The Analysis of Matter (1926) 11. Principia Mathematics (1927) 12. Why I Am Not A Christian (1927) 13. The Outline of Philosophy (1928) 14. Skeptical Essay (1928) 15. Marriage and Morals (1929) 16. The Conquest of Happiness (1930) 17. The Scientific Outlook (1931) 18. Education and the Social Order (1932) 19. In Praise of Idleness (1932) 20. Freedom and Organisation (1934) 21. Power: A New Social Analysis (1938) 22. And His philosophical vocation grows constantly through killing the unessential components and decreasing the universe to a consistently lessening number of principal constituents Russell is a Neo-pragmatist which is obvious in his later works. “The Problems of Rationality” communicates such a logic which shares little practically speaking with his later advancements, yet it leaves a hint to Neo-authenticity. Russell here starts by assaulting the customary Idealist position of Berkeley. Berkeley holds that the main elements that can be known are thoughts in the psyche and in this manner, all learning ends up mental, even the items of learning. In Berkeley’s view accordingly, for instance, information of a tree is an arrangement of impressions or thoughts which are engraved upon our faculties by the purported tree, and the tree does in truth comprises of the thoughts which are in the Russell brings up that when a man is talked about as having at the top of the priority list, the importance isn’t that the individual is in the brain rather than an idea of the individual is in the brain. In any case, the contemplation is unique in relation to the individual, and we can, indeed, as it were consider the individual since he is an option that is other than we pondered him. That the demonstration of thought and the protest of the demonstration are distinctive is of fundamental significance. Berkeley disregarded this qualification and therefore touched base at solipsism. As indicated by Russell, the best approach to leave solipsism is to characterize the brain to start with like that which has the normal for getting to be familiar with things
Other than itself. It suggests that information of articles comprises in a connection between psyche and additional psychological element, which in other way sets up the likelihood of the presence of the outside world. There are two types of this relationship – ‘learning by associate’ and ‘learning by portrayal’, as indicated by Russell. Information by the associate is the immediate familiarity with items. There remains no go-between procedure of induction or learning of realities. If there should be an occurrence of physical items like a table, whatever is known by a colleague isn’t simply the table however various sense information
Seen by different faculties, for example, hardness, brownness et cetera. ‘Information by portrayal’ includes some learning of truth and information of truth includes in its turn ‘learning by associate’ of specific things basically not the same as sensitive information in nature. These are the things Russell calls universals which are elements. “Every one of them from the earlier learning arrangements solely with the relations of universals.” The universals are elements, for example, whiteness, equity, and so on. Which are ideas or theoretical Ideas? The universals are free. “This hypothesis is partially got from Plato, who kept up the unceasing and autonomous being of Structures, for example, the Forms of goodness, truth, and excellence, which are imagined in a way not altogether different from Mr. Russell’s universal.” In the second period of his philosophical vocation, Russell did an endeavor to take care of the issues emerging out of his stance in ‘The Problems of Rationality’. In his book ‘Our insight into the External World’ the second period of improvement of his rationality has been spoken to well. Russell’s acknowledgment of physical questions in his initial rationality included genuine trouble. The question presents diverse appearances to changed individuals in the meantime or to the same individual on various occasions. Therefore there emerges the question of whether an outer reality, other than the psyche, can exist by any stretch of the imagination, or regardless of whether such a reality exists, it can never be known. The third period of Russell’s reasoning is communicated in “The Analysis Of Mind”. The considerations communicated in this book share much practically speaking with what is called Neo-Realism. Russell tries to accommodate the study of brain or brain research and the art of issue or material science by setting up the presence of a typical subject- matter for both the sciences. The researchers and logicians attempted to determine this clear duality of brain and matter into one basic solidarity. The conventional state of mind towards this issue was with the end goal that the researchers had attempted to dispense with the mind whereas the savants endeavored to take out the issue. Be that as it may, the late advancements have influenced such mentalities. Matter, impaired or modem physical science, has been becoming less material while the mind affected by modem brain science has turned out to be dynamically less mental. However, it doesn’t imply that one can be converged with the other. Or maybe both might be considered, as Russell did, as getting from more basic stuff of which the universe is formed. Russell gives the name ‘unbiased particulars’ or ‘nonpartisan element’ to this stuff, the word impartial being planned to pass on the key characteristics of the particulars, and that they are in themselves neither mental nor material. By the presentation of unbiased elements, Russell involves the position that sensations and sensitive information, rather than being discrete what’s more, particular, are extremely indistinguishable elements. Russell holds, “sensations are what is normal to the psychological and the physical universes; they might be characterized as the purpose of the Crossing point of brain and matter.
Epistemological Status:
Bertrand Russell is a British neo-pragmatist whose logic thrived in the mid-twentieth century. The impact of G.E. Moore and Meinong is plainly found in the logic of Russell. He is well known for “Principia Mathematica” or, in other words, works with A.N. Whitehead. In this work, they endeavored to build up the consistent establishment of arithmetic. Authenticity created in the twentieth century is productive of which highlight is not found in conventional or modem authenticity. In the meantime, it is a more vivacious and unique kind of authenticity. The advancement in rationale and arithmetic gives adequate ground for the consistency of authenticity in the twentieth century. Bertrand Russell creates legitimate authenticity in which the truth is treated as a coherent element. This coherent substance is truth or nuclear actuality for which Russell’s authenticity is otherwise called legitimate atomism or legitimate authenticity. Russell advocates epistemological authenticity in the “Issues of Logic.” He acknowledged physical authenticity notwithstanding conceding that physical protest can’t be ended up being existent behind sense-data. In “The Problems of Philosophy” he goes to universals past physical articles. This epistemological authenticity has been altered by Russell himself in his later work “Our Knowledge of the External World”. Here he communicates that perceptual learning has three components – awareness, sensitive information, and the perceptual protest is known through sense information. Sense data are those, which are given to the faculties. They are not the physical articles like a ‘table’. The shading, measure, and so forth by which we can know the table are sense information of the table. He along these lines holds that physical items cannot be viewed as existing freely; whatever can be said is that sensitive information is there which in truth develops the apparent protest. Seen objects are in this manner, only intelligent development dependent on various sensitive information.
Theory of Meaning:
Bertrand Russell dismissed Frege’s tenet of the refinement between sense and reference. The central refinement among Frege and Russell lays on the issue of character proclamation. As per Frege, a personality explanation can be useful yet Russell does not concede that a personality proclamation can ever be enlightening. Russell’s primary protest against the sense – reference – the refinement of Frege is that it would offer ascent to a few ambiguities as it holds that the equivalent articulation is to be related with things having a place with two to a great degree inverse domain of presence; one has a place with the universe of thought, and the other to the physical world. Thusly, as per Russell, the connection between sense and reference progresses toward becoming completely ambiguous. Russell holds, “the connection of the importance to the indication includes certain fairly inquisitive troubles, which appear in themselves adequate to 40 demonstrate that the hypothesis which prompts such troubles must not be right.” The connection is consistent when the feeling of an alluding articulation alludes to its referent. The connection of significance and meaning isn’t only etymological through the expression. He has stressed the importance of recognizing language relations other than merely that of subject-predicate and the sharp distinction between the ‘is’ of predication and the ‘is’ of identity. He has been a pioneer in analyzing the meaning of meaning. As such whatever he has added to the philosophy of language has been of great moment. a) Metaphysics (Reality)-Parental Branch of Knowledge 🙁 quest for truth or reality) and b) Epistemology (Knowledge) – Heart & Centre of Philosophy: – (knowledge, awareness, the reality). There are two sorts of knowledge: knowledge of things, and knowledge of truths. According to Russell, we shall be concerned exclusively with knowledge of things, of which in turn we shall have to distinguish two kinds. Knowledge of things, when it is of the kind we call knowledge by acquaintance, is essentially simpler than any knowledge of truths, and logically independent of knowledge of truths, though it would be rash to assume that human beings ever, in fact, have acquaintance with things without at the same time knowing some truth about them. Knowledge of things by description, on the contrary, always involves, as we shall find in the course of the present chapter, some knowledge of truths as its source and ground. But first of all, we must make clear what we mean by ‘acquaintance’ and what we mean by ‘description’. We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference or any knowledge of truths. Theory of knowledge is rendered difficult by the fact that it involves psychology, logic, and the physical sciences, with the result that confusions between different points of view are a constant danger. Man is a part of Nature, not something contrasted with Nature. His thoughts and his bodily movements follow the same laws that describe the motions of stars and atoms. The physical world is large compared with Man—larger than it was thought to be in Dante’s time, but not as large as it seemed a hundred years ago. Both upward and downward, both in the large and in the small, science seem to be reaching limits
According to Russell, the aim of education is to develop the individuality of the child in such a way that he may adapt himself to human society. Education should be according to the interest and aptitude of students. His aims of education relate to the duties of a teacher. The teacher should strive for inculcating four fundamental qualities as the basis of the formation of character. The inculcation of these following qualities is the fundamental aim of education.
References
1. C.E.M. Joad, Introduction to Modem Philosophy, P.21
2. Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, P. 162
3. C.E.M. Joad, Introduction to Modem Philosophy, P. 24
The topic of this article revolves around the digital era that we live in and the role that parents and teachers play in the lives of the students being brought up in this era. I’m sure you are all well aware of the pandemic that has been going on for almost the past two years now, while this pandemic has brought along many changes that people might think are difficult to adopt, there are some changes that have had a positive impact on our lives. One of these changes being the digitalization of various aspects of our lives, such as education.
The internet has made it possible to access the information of any imaginable subject with the press of a button yet we continued to teach our younger generation via the same methods used centuries ago. The pandemic finally pushed us to explore all the exciting new possibilities of using the internet to transmit education to students while maintaining the position of teachers who are to guide their students. Now, I do realize that these online classes have been a huge change, not only for students but also for teachers who were accustomed to the usual methods of teaching, and parents who had no idea how to maintain an environment appropriate for their children’s learning as they usually sent their kids to school for that. However, we must realize that if we are to educate the new generation of doctors, engineers, and people who are to take over the leading roles in our society someday then we must learn to embrace the digitalized future that they will grow up in. And I know that it will take time but with enough dedication and effort we can bring about the changes necessary for the advancement of our society.
The issues that arise in a students life regarding their education are all subjective and unique to their personalities, which is why they cannot be solved simply by giving them a source of information, such as the internet, and the presence of teachers is crucial in helping them overcome said issues. That is to say, no matter how much education progresses with digitalization, teachers will always have a role that is irreplaceable in the lives of students, the same can be said about parents who are the first mentors a child has since birth. Parents have a pivotal role in the upbringing of their child, they have to ensure that their child grows up to be a functioning member of society. Many parents do this by monitoring their child’s behavior and activities and rebuking them on actions they disapprove of, and by ensuring that they are not exposed to things that are inappropriate for their age, however, this has become difficult with the constant exposure that kids today have to the internet. That is why parents must familiarize themselves with the internet if they are to protect their children from the harmful aspects of it. Learning more about the internet may also prove beneficial for their personal growth which will, in turn, have positive effects on their relationship with their kids.
Now to talk about the secondary upbringing of a child, which is a task for teachers. A teacher is not only responsible for transmitting information that is a part of the student’s curriculum but also to provide extracurricular education. This includes things such as teaching them the importance of punctuality by emphasizing the importance of being on time for classes or teaching them how to make collaborative efforts by making them work with other students or teaching them the importance of obeying their authorities by ensuring they follow all the rules
set by the school. I understand that this can be tricky over online classes, but by making the lectures more interactive, having inclusive discussions, and having video lectures with more practical demonstrations of the topics under study, these issues can be resolved.
The digital world is not as scary as some people may think, we are just unfamiliar with it. Like H.P Lovecraft said, and I quote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. So by overcoming this fear or hesitation that we might have of the digital world by familiarizing ourselves with it, we can contribute to the constant progression of mankind and give our students the best experience of education.
