By Zubeida Mustafa
A FEW months ago, I attended a seminar on education where the Sindh education minister was the chief guest. When he rose to speak, a mob of demonstrators gatecrashed the premises to register their protest. The government had conducted a test to fill teacher vacancies in schools. Very few had passed the test and been recruited. Those who failed to qualify were demanding a job as their entitlement. In the melee, the right of the child did not figure even once.
By Zubeida Mustafa
A STORY that went viral recently was of a little boy whose teacher marked his face with a black dot. The other children were then asked to shame him. Where did the child go wrong? He had spoken in Urdu in a supposedly English-medium school. It was shocking and I felt the pain the child must have felt when he was so humiliated. This was no less than a cardinal sin that was committed against the child, against our national language and against all those children who were made to participate in this hate game.
ON Feb 9, 1984, Gen Ziaul Haq dealt an existential blow to Pakistan when he banned student unions. They were never truly restored though several civilian governments followed him and each promised to remove the ban.
By Zubeida Mustafa
POETS have mourned their unsung heroes. We have our own celebrated poet Mirza Ghalib saying,
(“Not all manifest themselves as lilies and roses/ What faces must lie buried in the dust.”)
Continue reading A beautiful mindBy Zubeida Mustafa
UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report, launched recently, points to a basic flaw in the education systems of South Asia. It is the inequity that the fast-growing private sector in education has spawned. The GEM report does not say it in so many words but the fact is that inequity is stratifying society itself.
Continue reading Society stratified