NEED TO ENSURE PURPOSEFUL EDUCATION

Business Recorder, March 20, 2005

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN: Addressing the prize distribution ceremony of the Government Postgraduate Women's Degree College, Rawalpindi, on March 16, Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, stressed the need of vigorous promotion of education, saying it was necessary for eradication of poverty and unemployment too.

His observation about students, particularly female students, being the assets of any nation, seems to have been prompted by the occasion that had brought him to an institution he had himself helped establish.

From his assertion that if we are sincere about eradication of poverty we must give our womenfolk proper education and allow them to play their effective role in the society, it was evident that he was impressed by the performance of the students of the college.

Reference, in this regard, may be also be made to the briefing the Principal of the college, Professor Munezza Rahman, gave to the minister on the performance of the college, in which she also pointed out that, despite shortage of staff, as could be gauged from availability of 140 faculty members for more than 5,000 students, the college was serving the nation in a befitting manner.

It will also be noted that the minister announced a donation of Rs 2 million for construction of a block in the college, and Rs 500,000 for renovation of the central hall. Moreover, he gave Rs 2000 each to 15 students, who had bagged gold medals for their outstanding performance.

In the situation now obtaining in the country, there can be no disputing the reference the minister made to the critical role of education in poverty reduction and creation of more and more job opportunities. The twin task being uppermost in the mind of the government, understandable should be its articulation by everybody who matters in the governmental set-up, more so the cabinet members themselves.

It is, however, another matter that parrot like repetition of the importance of the theme, both in and out of season, may often sound like mere propaganda, thereby tending to make it tedious to public taste. This is not to suggest that the minister's assertions formed part of a bombast aimed at winning public support, to which people in governments over long past have been found inclined to indulge in, or so it will appear.

For in so far as the Information and Broadcasting Minister is concerned, his passion for education, particularly in Rawalpindi, his home constituency, should make sense. Moreover, as he recalled on the occasion, he had put in a great deal of personal effort in the past for the establishment of educational institutions in Rawalpindi to make it a model city.

Needless to point out, the sense of pride he expressed over the establishment of as many as 43 colleges in Rawalpindi, will be seen as credible enough to inspire people's confidence. As for his contribution to the cause of education as a member of the present government, he sounded apologetic, saying he could help build only two colleges, while adding that the first women university of the country had been set up in Rawalpindi.

It will, however, be noted that he attributed the slackness in that direction also to the handicaps of the education department, saying it was ridden by problems, from which it would be difficult to extricate it.

Nevertheless, he gave the happy tidings of the setting up of a modern science university, while also giving vent to fond expectations that as a sequel to the government's revolutionary measures in education sector, it would be possible to achieve 100 percent literacy rate.

All this is quite pleasing in the overall context of the importance of education in Pakistan, which has lagged far too behind in this vital sector. However, now that vigorous, multi-directional efforts are being made to compensate for the past indifference to its need, unfortunately, reference has to be made to Sheikh Rashid's lament that the least qualified and undeserving people were getting jobs while qualified, capable and deserving people were being ignored.

Saying that such trends have damaged the social and economic fabric of the country, he reiterated the present government's commitment establish supremacy of merit. Needless to point out in the absence of due recognition of merit, efforts for meaningful development of the education sector will continue to defeat the very purpose.