The dawn of new age brings to the
classroom new techniques, technology and resources. However, those stuck in
medieval times continue to make use of the age old ways of rote (Rata) learning and theoretical knowledge
instead of practical. In Pakistan, there is a pertinent question that all
educationists and those in the education “industry” should ask themselves –
what plans do we have for the children of 21st century?
The answer is probably the tried
and tested ‘Mr. Chips’ approach, which basically means that we keep teaching
what we learned and the way we learned, as it is, to our children. So there’s no
room for something like “generation gap” in our classrooms. No doubt, teachers find it easier to simply teach what they were taught instead of learning new
things and then teaching them to students. After all, we’re all defendants
of the status-quo. As I was once told by my teacher in a reproachful tone,
“Remember the Chinese proverb, ‘the nail that strikes out – gets
hammered!’”. I sure did never forget that but in hand with it I also learnt a
proverb from the less conservative Americans that says, ‘the squeaky wheel gets the
grease’. So well our team at Taleem Portal is more than just squeaking for
change!
We’re talking about making
schools COOL for kids. We say do away with the boring classroom where to ask a
question is to invite hell on yourself or more appropriately ‘the hammer’ on
you. We say make the classroom interactive, bring in tools that help interaction
between students and teachers – Interactive Whiteboards and
Classroom Response System. So that the lesson INVOLVES students. Make use of the internet for promoting e-learning at
schools as well as at homes. Get world renowned Britannica’s Online tools –
Britannica Online Encyclopædia, SmartMath, Pathways: Science & Image Quest!
Do away with those science diagrams that students have to copy in to their
journals just to show they are "learning" and bring in to your labs 3D science animations from Genome!
The goal is to enhance student’s
learning and not only their performance in final exams. Teach what is relevant
in a manner that the student would WANT to learn and you have a school that is
COOL!
So each year, we come across our
Finance Minister delivering his budget speech amidst loud protest, only this
time there were punches being thrown instead of bangles. The Prime Minister had
said it loud and clear way back before the announcement of budget that his
priorities for this year are going to be:
i.Electricity
(finally he realizes its significance)
ii.Employment
iii.Agriculture
iv.No
new taxes (is this even classified as a priority?)
Sadly, as done by previous
governments, there was no mention of Education. The PM has been conveniently
hiding education under the mat by putting its responsibility under provinces
after PPP’s glorious 18th amendment. This goes without saying that there
are provinces in Pakistan that barely manage to spend their budgeted allocation (Education Emergency Report 2011).
With our government spending 1-2% of GDP on education on average, what good can
be said about the state of education in Pakistan?
In any case, this time our
government has earmarked Rs. 47.874 billion, against the recommended sum of Rs.
100 billion (by EER 2011) to meet the Millenniums Development
Goal 2015 of Universal Primary Education. This is a meager 1.03% of our budget
(Dawn) and goes to show the world how serious we are in playing our part in
eradicating illiteracy. Compared to last year’s budget, Education has witnessed
a 21.16% increase which is 18% less than the increase seen in PM House’s garden
maintenance expenditure.
Just across the border, India has
taken a revolutionary step by passing ‘Right to Education’ (RTO) bill and its
Supreme Court has directed private schools to maintain a 25% quota for giving
free education to deserving children. Indian government in its budget 2012 has
set aside Rs. 255.55 billion for such projects (Times of India). It has since long
realized the need for educating its posterity in order for it to set its mark
around the world and currently has a 74% literacy rate.
Our government lacks the
leadership needed to think long term and has always gone for short term
solutions. Budgets have come and gone without any marked improvement being seen
by the eyes of an average Pakistani. Even the provinces cannot be excused for
completely politicizing education with schemes such as the ‘Youth Laptop’ in
Punjab. Emphasis needs to be given to proper planning and policy making so that a long term strategy can be put to place that gives everyone a clear direction and goal. Whereas, more spending is the need of the hour, one can not ignore effective utilization of public money at the same time.
In order for the remnants of this nation to survive and build this
country, it is necessary that we all raise a voice in support of education! Our government will not realize its significance until we amplify it. In
the words of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan:
“It is the
categorical verdict of all the nations and great seers of the world that
national progress depends on education and training (of the people).”.
Much
has been said, argued and politicized about the initiative of the Punjab
government for the distribution of laptops. There has been controversy
regarding the whole procedure from procurement to distribution. The question
about such a huge amount being spent on something like laptops has been a
favorite discussion topic of concerned citizens and unconcerned politicians
alike. However, Taleem Portal has felt that the fundamental link of laptops and
education, though has been argued, has not quite been debated fairly.
Therefore, this piece aims to do just that.
By,
M. Mobeen
The positive case of the whole laptop scheme is definitely something worth considering. Our
government has given away laptops free of cost to students based upon their
merit and level of education. Students have gotten hold of a resource which is
the key to a whole new realm of knowledge, discovery and learning, i.e. the
internet. Through these laptops they have been shown a way which does not
require learning by rote or studying for the sake of scoring numbers.
Furthermore, in today’s job market there is absolutely no chance of survival
for the computer illiterate and therefore, these students can now enter the job
market far more confident and skilled. Last but not the least, in a system that
rarely gives recognition to people who work hard, we have come across students
who have been instilled with a sense of achievement through the whole scheme
and its distribution ceremony.
The Punjab Govt. has distributed these laptops based upon the following criteria:
http://www.youth.punjab.gov.pk/freelaptops.aspx
Now the criteria clearly focuses on the higher level students and makes sure
that merit is given its due share. It is a fact that students in universities need
this resource the most, since their work is research oriented and they have to
prepare assignments and reports on computers time to time.
Furthermore, globally, IT is bringing a complete revolution in education. One
can simply not ignore how important it is to bring our students on board as
well. Research has suggested that the use of laptops in education promotes
active learning, class interaction and encourages a better student-teacher
relationship (Fitch, 2004). Also, in Britain, the Gordon Brown government executed
an almost similar initiative in 2010, where they provided poor students free
laptops along with an internet connection in order to bridge the rich and poor
divide, and ensure that the poor students too can make the most of this useful resource
(BBC). The Punjab Govt. have set up an IT department that is working quite hard
in providing schools with the required infrastructure and the laptop initiative
is simply a part of a bigger picture.
Coming
to our job market point, we are all aware what a dismal picture it presents. Our
youth is unemployed, without skills and ill equipped to take on the challenges
of the future.
“Computer literacy is highly important when any good company is hiring. If
given a rating, a computer illiterate stands between 30-60% and a literate starts
at 80%!” says Mr. A. Rehman, our HR manager. Therefore, these laptops can truly
empower employment seekers. Think of a home without a computer and all those opportunities
it is missing on. Now that home has a computer and the young individual who has
gotten it can surely learn a lot from it; if nothing else, he or she would at
least learn how to use it.
Can
you imagine that there are students who have written ‘winner of Youth Laptop’
on their CV’s ‘achievement’ section? It is indeed true. In our government
colleges and universities there are not many opportunities for students to
shine and achieve something worth talking about. The emphasis on merit and the
distribution ceremony that included parents and the Chief Minister himself
handing over the laptops to students has certainly instilled a sense of achievement
in many of the students.
Lastly, the negative perception of the whole scheme is to be blamed entirely on the way the media has portrayed it. One look at the following videos is enough to judge how sensational and irresponsible our media is:
And then came the Punjab Govt. response:
Such videos clearly show how biased reporting is in our news channels and how much they themselves are politically motivated.
Moving on, let's look at the other side of the laptop scheme. The cry of
spending so much of tax payer’s money on laptops, when your overall education
spending is a menial 2.3% of GDP (World Bank), can be heard loud and clear
out on the streets. Not to mention the politicization of the whole scheme, where
beneath the veneer of selfless service to masses and label of education, lay a
calculated move to tackle the increasing opposition and win the hearts of the
ever vulnerable youth. The question of whether laptops truly promote education lies
right in the middle of all this. The cost of the distribution ceremonies and
the related wastage of resources also leave the common man wondering if indeed
it was worth it all. Then of course the final blow of finding those same
laptops and achievement certificates on sale in Hafeez Centre, reduces the
whole exercise to a complete joke.
What good are laptops when in Pakistan 9% of
primary schools do not have a blackboard, 24% do not have textbooks available
for the children and 46% do not have desks for the students (UNESCO).
Furthermore, only 30% of Pakistani children manage to receive secondary
education and 22% of female complete primary education against 47% male (World Bank). Coming
to educational reforms in Punjab specifically, 30% schools in Rawalpindi district
are without science/IT teachers for more than a year now (Dawn). When there are
so many areas in education that have been neglected by our government, why
spend so much on a fancy laptop? All this puts a big question mark on the sincerity
of our government towards the Millennium development goal of achieving
universal primary education.
This whole activity is the result of adding politics to something as pure as
education. We all know how the opposition has been using social media to create
a substantial standing among the youth and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif could
no longer ignore the comments of Facebook users ever in favor of the opposition
and against his government. The whole laptop scheme was a strategically planned
move in order to strike the opposition on its tech base and build some standing
among the computer literate (which by the way were previously an ignored
segment in election campaigns). The huge marketing campaign and the glorious
distribution ceremonies are all a proof of our CM making some noise for the
public to notice.
True, research has supported the use of laptops in
class rooms however only in those classrooms and lectures that are designed to
utilize such a technology. Otherwise, there is recent research that calls them a
source of distraction for students and nuisance for the teacher (Fried, 2006). Furthermore, international schools such as Harvard have actually made efforts to control
their use in classrooms (Boston Globe).
Lastly, the procurement and distribution was managed so poorly that these
laptops have flooded Hafeez Centre and the ‘achievement’ of the students, like
their degrees, now carries a price tag. The whole purpose of the exercise is
reduced to a sham and the educative aspect is nothing but a political gimmick
that now stands exposed.
In conclusion, having debated both sides of the
arguments one has to answer the question of whether indeed laptops have
promoted education’s cause in Pakistan. We conducted a small survey on our
Facebook page and the following are the results:
It is obvious what the masses have to say about this.
But one has to keep in mind that the news media has played a huge role in
shaping the opinion of the masses. Still, when we asked our audience if media was unbiased in reporting this scheme, the result came out to be:
These laptops do have certain positives and
are indeed a resource that every student desires. It would not be justice to
call it all political and simply ignore what the students have gained through
this whole exercise. Mr. Zulfiqar, an administrator in the IT department of a leading school put it quite well,
“The laptop scheme is a good step in the right
direction but unfortunately highly politicized. In the end, the result of this
move depends solely on how the students make use of these laptops.”
There is tremendous amount of work to be done in the education sector and it
all starts from the political leadership having a vision. They need to realize
the importance of education and in the end not only ensure each Pakistani gets
an education but in fact quality education. Once they have developed the
infrastructure, increased the quality and capacity of institutions and ensured
that the education is relevant and useful, today’s students will tomorrow
themselves manage to earn enough to purchase a laptop!
References:
Fitch, J. L. (2004). Student feedback in
the college classroom: a technology solution. Educational Technology
Research and Development,52, 171–181.
Fried,
B. Carrie (2006). Computers and Education. In
Class Use & its Effects On Student Learning
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