by Hafsa Tauseer
It does not matter where you belong to. If you have been through student life or you are presently going through it, some days that can never be forgotten are the long tiring days of exams. The November/October of Cambridge examination has started. Many students are suffering from this fever all over the world. But here in Pakistan when students received their schedules, there was a wave of shock that passed them. They are dismayed to see that the examination dates are even interfering with their Eid days.
Eid is a blessing, specially when its a religious festive occasion. But to students’ disappointment, exams will continue even on the expected Eid days. Sad as they are that they will have to start their Bakra Eid with stress in breakfast and little spirit of celebration due to exams they also have the thoughts wriggling in their brains that while some spend time shopping for bangles,mehndi,clothes and shoes , these poor ones will have to sit aside and work with fervor to score the straight As that is a dream of every Alevel and Olevel student. Respect for culture is something The British Council should have kept in mind while making the schedules this time. All we can do is sympathies and wish them best of luck.
by Asim Nawaz Abbasi
We are surrounded by crises, surely our country is in dire need of money and other assistance but the authorities must have adopted a more visionary and proactive approach. Cut in funds for education sector may have disastrous affects on our individuals and nation as whole. On one side we are demanding a well educated nation and want to increase our literacy rate, but at the same time we are putting future of millions of students and our nation at the brink of catastrophe greater than any tsunami and recent floods in Pakistan.
In this situation, universities would have to increase fees to survive and obviously there would be no other option left for universities than to put burden on students and their parents. As a result, students will start leaving universities and this would drain our already sagging economy. Thus, the students who would have become scientists, scholars, doctors and engineers might end up becoming burden on society and may even fall in the hands of people who may convert them into terrorists.
Education is one of the basic tools to make useless people an asset. The government must adopt a positive approach and should resort to austerity measures to overcome the problem. Education sector should have the immunity from the after affects of every crisis so that our forthcoming generation do not see Pakistan as we are seeing.