|
Homepage
Archive
Letters
Editorials
Flight Info
Obituaries
Messages
Weather
Advertise
Hist
& Geog
Geography
Climate
Tourist
Essay Competition -Wining Essays
-Letter2
The essays clinching first and second position
in the recently held "Essay competition" are an interesting read. The
noteworthy features of both the essays are the maturity of thought, smooth
flow of ideas and perfect accomplishment in diction and style. One may
wonder as to how such refined ideas flowed out of young minds, but one thing
is for sure that effort must be made to bring out the inner capabilities of
the students by engaging them in similar competitions and that would
definitely be a positive step in the direction of improving the quality of
education in the backward district of Chitral.
As is evident the quality of education is on
the decline by the day due to malpractices in the examinations and the
persistent inclination of students towards using unfair means in the same.
It diminishes the prospects of hard work in students and induces in them the
wrong habits of dishonesty and insincerity. The winners of the essays may
serve as the torchbearers for the rest of the Chitrali students to
participate in such co-curricular activities to bring out the best of their
talent and shun the Machiavellian tactics of "end justifies the means".
Saira Ali,
Booni.
Essay Competition -Wining Essays
-Letter1
I am so happy to read the two essays written by
students of Pamir Booni and Garamchashma published in Chitralnews.com. The
articulation of ideas and justification of what they have said is just
remarkable. The quality of their work is the reflection of their mature
mind. I congratulate them on this marvelous achievement.
Since I am attached
with education development projects in Chitral, therefore, I would like to
meet such brilliant students personally at their schools in the presence of
their teachers and pay my tribute not only to them but also to their
teachers. I look forward to this meeting giving me new ideas on how to go
about education development in Chitral.
Riaz Hussain,
Village Madaklasht
Tehsil and District Chitral
Essay
Competition -Winning Essays
If you would change
one thing in Chitral, what would that be? Give examples and
illustrations.
Essay # 1
Since the time I have been able to observe, I have seen it in the same
condition. Today I am seventeen years old, and all I have observed is
people who were young have grown old and those who were old are not
alive today.
Neither the government nor its inhabitants are taking steps to develop
Chitral. Its people are waiting for a miracle to happen that will change
their lives. It’s high time to change their thinking and make them
realize their role to play in the development of Chitral.
If I will be allowed to change one thing in Chitral, it will be people’s
mind set. Because whatever we think good or bad comes to us. We, the
human beings are magnets attracting whatever we think of and we are
responsible to all that is happening to us. It is our mind set that
gives us confidence to look for new directions and became successful.
People of Chitral haven’t got that confidence. They do not look fro new
directions. They do what their forefather did in their times. If someone
will try to do some thing new either they will mock at him/her or
criticize the work rather than appreciating it. For example if some one
is trying to clean the environment, people will call him with different
names like sweeper etc. Here it is necessary to change their way of
thinking.
Education plays the first and foremost role in shaping and mapping the
mind set of the people and in turn, can contribute to the development of
the area. In Chitral there are many government and non government
institutions which are educating the younger generations of Chitral.
Institutions are known from the people who are running them or working
in them. In these educational institutions there are many teachers who
are supposed to change the fate of the nation and are responsible for
the future of our youth. You will be surprised to hear that more than 50
% of the teachers haven’t done their graduation. The other 50 % who have
degrees, you won’t be sure that they have done it on their own. In
Chitral it is common that those who are “good for nothing” will become
teachers and most of the teachers are found to be like that. I leave the
decision to you that “Can these fit for nothing teachers develop a
healthy youth? Again it is needed to change the mind set of people,
teachers and parents.
Man is a socio-cultural animal, they learn from each other and so are
children. They observe whatever is going on around them. Children living
among adults who are courteous to each other learn to be courteous to
each other and those living among people speaking in a certain way will
speak and behave that way. So it is the responsibility of the parents to
provide their children with an environment that tells them the
difference between good and bad or right and wrong. In Chitral people go
on giving birth to their off springs without planning and thinking how
to afford their health, education and other requirements. The children,
in turn, lack the basic necessities of life like balanced diet and
enough attention from their parents. Consequently they lack confidence-
the most important attribute of their success. The parent’s mind set is
needed to be changed.
Besides, gender disparity at household level, is a major problem here in
Chitral. Sons are considered to be signs of pride and girls are
neglected in every step and are considered as weak. Here it is again the
mind set that makes the people think that way and treating 50 % of the
population as weak. With this mind set development is not possible.
Leaders play an important role in the development of any society
provided they are elected on merit and based on their abilities and
leadership skills. In our region people vote for candidates who belong
to their creed and ethnicity, irrespective of the fact that they are
able to serve them or not.
A healthy society needs healthy and confident people with confident
mentality. Nations, with confident mentality, look for new directions,
new opportunities for their success. Such nations can make their own
universe as long as they go and sky is the limit for them.So we can say
that thinking differently or we should say thinking positively, affects
every aspect of our lives.
Apart from that people here are very talented. All that is needed to
change is to make them realize that only they can change their lives.
Nobody else can do it for them. Student should seek more and more
knowledge not just to pass examination but to compete with the world.
People should forget their disputes as the first step forward to improve
their quality of life. For this to happen we want people with positive
minds.
Saadia Sabir
D/O Sabir Wali Taj
Tek Lasht Booni
Student of F.Sc Pre Engineering Group Part II
Pamir Public School & College Booni Chitral
Phone 470118
Essay # 2
If I have to change one thing to put Chitral on the road to development, it
would be education. A study of world history reveals that meaningful
education has proved a catalyst to change for the better. Europe would never
have come out of the ‘Dark Age’ without renaissance or rebirth of learning.
The spirit of inquiry and adventure coupled with the questioning mind
unleashed the flood of knowledge and skill, to jump start the
multi-dimensional development of Europe. The same spirit can be seen in the
developed ancient civilizations of Egypt, China, Greece, Rome and the more
recent civilizations of Muslim Spain, Fatimids and the Mughals.
After partition, Pakistan inherited a developed education system from the
British. This system of education was geared to produce cheap clerical staff
to man the colonial administration of the British ‘Raj’ With change in
curricula to meet requirements of an independent Pakistan, the education
system could have been improved to comply with the dictates of a free
people. Unfortunately education was not made top priority of Pakistan and it
was allowed to drift to come to this pass when we find ourselves between the
rock and the hard place.
In Chitral the situation is much worse. Dishonesty and cheating have become
governing principles. All the stakeholders accept and demand cheating as a
matter of right. As a result ‘booty mafia’ rules the roost in the
examination system. Like police station, examination centres are also
auctioned. Heads of educational institutions, who dare to question the
present system, are victimized and driven out. Annual increments to teachers
in government schools have been linked to exam results, which has created
triggering effect for cheating. Most of the teacher’s lack professionalism
and commitment. For them teaching is just a job and only those people find
themselves in teaching jobs who could not get jobs elsewhere. Unlike C.S.S
and LSSB teachers are not given psychological tests to determine their
aptitude for teaching. The system of evaluation and monitoring is either non
existent or simply fails to functions.
The arrival of NGOs in Chitral, with easy money, has further compounded and
complicated the situation. Most of the part time workers of these NGOs
happen to be teachers. For them teaching has become part time job, while NGO
business claims bulk of their time. As a result they have little time for
teaching and the deficit is made up by cheating in exams. To gain cheap
popularity among students, they are kept in holiday and recreation mood. It
is therefore not surprising that teachers have become corrupt and students
incapable to qualify for good jobs. The resulting menace of joblessness
among the youth has created an explosive situation, breeding crimes and
restiveness. Chitralis can no more claim high moral ground.
This situation must now change. I will establish a Regularity Authority to
oversee the education system. All private institutions having pure
commercial interest and found exploiting teachers and students shall be
banned and genuine ones shall be given financial support. Examination and
testing system shall be outsourced to Aga Khan Board with a view to
eliminating cheating and improving the quality of education. However AKB
will be encouraged to reduce its facilitation fee, which is, at the moment
prohibitive. Govt. rules and procedures which disallow private jobs to
teachers without permission shall be enforced. Monitoring and inspection of
schools shall be strengthened by involving parents in the process. Corporal
punishment of students shall be made cognizable offence and students shall
be groomed through positive re-enforcements and interactive teaching. Only
those candidates shall be selected for teaching jobs, who pass a
psychological test to determine the candidate’s suitability for the teaching
job. Teaching shall be made attractive for right kind of people.
My education system shall produce thinking individuals not robots. Curricula
shall be value neutral as far as acquisition of knowledge is concerned but
it shall be value laden when it is put to use. It will not only focus on
knowledge but also on the skills to put the knowledge to socially compliant
beneficial use. Teachers shall enjoy high social status and good
remuneration. Honesty, openness and character building shall be encouraged.
Once this system is in place, sky is the limit for Chitral’s development.
Nazrul Islam
ICS (part 2)
Pamir Degree College
Garam Chashma Chitral.
(Pl note that the prize money of Rs 20000/- is
awarded to the First position essay only, as per the rules.)
|