Course: Education in Pakistan (6405) Semester: Autumn, 2022
Level: B.Ed. (4 Years)
ASSIGNMENT No. 1
Q. 1 Highlight the aims of education of Seventh British Period. Also briefly describe the examination system as perceived by Muslim philosophers of subcontinent.
Education policy of the British: In pre-British days, Hindus and Muslims were educated through Pathsala and Madrassa respectively, but their advent created a new place of learning i.e. Missionaries. So that, they can create a class of Indian who would be “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste” who would act as interpreters between the Government and the masses.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” -Benjamin Franklin
Education is a powerful tool to unlock the golden door of freedom that can change the world. With the advent of the British Rule in India, their policies and measures breached the legacies of traditional schools of learning which resulted in the need for creating a class of subordinates. To achieve this goal, they instituted a number of acts to create an Indian canvas of English colour through the education system.
Initially, the British East India Company was not concerned with the development of the education system because their prime motive was trading and profit-making. To rule in India, they planned to educate a small section of upper and middle classes to create a class “Indian in blood and colour but English in taste” who would act as interpreters between the Government and the masses. This was also called the “downward filtration theory”. The following steps and measures were taken by the British for the development of Education in India. The chronological development of Education during the British Period in India is discussed below:
Q. 2 Discuss the characteristics of Deob and Movement and compare it with aims and objectives of Aligarh Movement.
British colonialism in India was seen by a group of Indian scholars—consisting of Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Shah Rafi al-Din, Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Zulfiqar Ali, Fazlur Rahman Usmani and Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi—to be corrupting Islam. The group founded an Islamic seminary (madrassa) known as Darul Uloom Deoband, where the Islamic revivalist and anti-imperialist ideology of the Deobandis began to develop. In time, the Darul Uloom Deoband became the second largest focal point of Islamic teaching and research after the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Towards the time of the Indian independence movement and afterward in post-colonial India, the Deobandis advocated a notion of composite nationalism by which Hindus and Muslims were seen as one nation who were asked to be united in the struggle against the British rule.
In 1919, a large group of Deobandi scholars formed the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and opposed the partition of India. Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed Husain Ahmad Madani helped to spread these ideas through his text Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam. A group later dissented from this position and joined Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League, including Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Zafar Ahmad Usmani and Muhammad Shafi Deobandi, who formed the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945.
Through the organisations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Tablighi Jamaat, the Deobandi movement began to spread. Graduates of Darul Uloom Deoband in India from countries such as South Africa, China, and Malaysia opened thousands of madaaris throughout the world.
Q. 3 Briefly describe the provisions and strategies adopted by the Government of Pakistan in previous decades for improvement of school education.
The Government of Pakistan abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories, and one federal territory of a parliamentary democratic republic, constitutionally called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Effecting the Westminster system for governing the state, the government is mainly composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, in which all powers are vested by the Constitution in the Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts and amendments of the Parliament, including the creation of executive institutions, departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court. By constitutional powers, the President promulgates ordinances and passes bills.
The President acts as the ceremonial figurehead while the people-elected Prime Minister acts as the Chief Executive (of the executive branch) and is responsible for running the federal government. There is a bicameral Parliament with the National Assembly as a Lower house and the Senate as an upper house. The most influential officials in the Government of Pakistan are considered to be the Federal Secretaries, who are the highest ranking bureaucrats in the country and run cabinet-level ministries and divisions. The judicial branch systematically contains an apex Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court, High courts of five provinces, district, anti-terrorism, and the green courts; all inferior to the Supreme Court.
Q. 4 Write brief but comprehensive notes on the followings:
· Vocational Education in the 5th Five-Year Plan
Ever since the independence in India, developmental plans for a period of five years are being developed by the Planning Commission with the inputs received from the states all such plans from the very first to the the most recent one (Eleventh Plan: 2007-12).
In 2014, when new government took charge, it has scraped formulating Five Year Plans, Since then no plans, either annual or five year plans are being formulated. The NITI Aayog i.e. National Institution for Transforming India was established in 2015 by replacing Planning Commission which is a policy think tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach (adapted from Wikipedia). The staff of the then Planning Commission and host of institutions under it was retained in the newly created NITI Aayog.
Q. 5 Explain the Recommendation and their implications of National Educational Policy 1998 for provision of higher and teacher education in Pakistan.
The main features of the Education Policy (1998-2010) are as under;
- Every child of six to twelve year age group will be in a school within five years.
- Katchi class at primary level shall be introduced as part of the effort to improve the achievement of pupils.
- Access to elementary education shall be increased, through effective aid optimum utilization of existing facilities and services, as well as provision of new facilities and services.
- Improving the quality, access and efficiency of elementary education.
- Strengthening, governance, management/planning, supervision, monitoring & evaluation.
- Ensuring financial sustainability of elementary education and also to build institutional capacity.
Aims and objectives of Education and Islamic Education
Education and training should enable the citizens of Pakistan to lead their lives according to the teachings of Islam as laid down in the Qur’an and Sunnah and to educate and train them as a true practicing Muslim. To evolve an integrated system of national education by bringing Deeni Madaris and modern schools closer to each stream in curriculum and the contents of education. Nazira Qur’an will be introduced as a compulsory component from grade I-VIII while at secondary level translation of the selected verses from the Holy Qur’an will be offered.