It was mid-October 1973 when, after a grueling 26-hour train ride from Karachi, I reached the physics department of Islamabad University (or Quaid-e-Azam University, as it is now known). As I dumped my luggage and “hold-all” in front of the chairman’s office, a tall, handsome man with twinkling eyes looked at me curiously. He was wearing a bright orange Che Guevara t-shirt and shocking green pants. His long beard, though shorter than mine, was just as unruly and unkempt. We struck up a conversation. At 23, I had just graduated from MIT and was to be a lecturer in the department; he had already been teaching as associate professor for five years. The conversation turned out to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Together with Abdul Hameed Nayyar – also bearded at the time – we became known as the Sufis of Physics. Thirty six years later, when Faheem Hussain lost his battle against prostate cancer, our sadness was beyond measure. Read the rest of this entry »
Faheem Hussain – As I Knew Him
Building an ICT R&D Eco-System in Pakistan: A Conversation with Dr. Qasim Sheikh (Part 1-of-2)
On the History of the Fund
STEP Editors: Let’s start with the history of the Fund, if you can tell us a little bit about it. We understand that it was in a dormant state before it was revitalized.
Dr. Qasim Shaikh, CEO, National ICT R&D Fund:
Yes, it was in a dormant state but, as I tell my team, I don’t think that we are the opening batsmen of this team. Actually, the Fund was created when PTCL was the only telecom operator (in the country). I think, and somebody has to correct me, that the key person who pushed (that) some of the PCTL’s earnings should go into research and development in Pakistan, like Bell Labs at ATT, was Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman. Then the Deregulation Act was passed and in the Deregulation Act it was mandatory that every telecom operator will have to contribute 0.5% of their revenue to the Fund. That included internet service providers as well, not just the large service providers. Since there were more contributors to the Fund than just PTCL, it didn’t make sense for it to stay within PTCL. So, it was taken out of PTCL and created as National ICT R&D Fund.
DISCUSSION: What are the correct metrics to measure higher education reform in Pakistan?
Nature’s recent article on higher education in Pakistan has re-ignited the debate on higher education reform, evoking strong responses from both supporters and critics of the HEC. Recently, we interviewed the lead author Dr. Athar Osama, to learn more about his wider conclusions, and his response to some of the criticisms of the methodology used in the Nature article.
To seed this discussion, we present commentary from Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy and Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman. Dr. Hoodbhoy presents his opposing point of view, arguing that the measures presented in the article were inadequate, and further that the conclusions drawn from the metrics were flawed. Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, founding (and former) chairman of the HEC, who led the higher education reform effort during his tenure, responds by pointing to data that, in his view, shows the depth and breadth of the reform’s success.
We invite our readers to contribute their thoughts on what metrics are appropriate for measuring the success of higher education within the context of Pakistan.
NOTE: Both commentators have significantly shaped the landscape of Pakistani education over the last few decades. We request our discussants to avoid personalizing the discussion and to maintain a civil and constructive tone.
|
Read Dr. Hoodbhoy’s complete post here. |
Read Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman’s complete post here. |
Nature’s Coverage of Higher Education Reform in Pakistan: Comments by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy has reproduced his email but not my subsequent response to it.
There are four aspects of the comments of Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy that need to be considered:
- Firstly, Dr. Hoodbhoy himself admits that there has been a huge increase in international publications at QAU after HEC came into existence when he mentions the number of international publications in the two time periods. Strangely, he picks a six year period, 1998-2003, and then compares it with the subsequent 4.5 years (?) , 2004 to mid 2008, (the correspondence occurred in August 2008, so he could not possibly have had access to the figures for the entire year) I can only assume that he has mentioned 2003 by mistake in the second “5 year” period as there is no reason to include the publications of the year 2003 in both time periods, which he has done. It is clearly unfair to take two time periods of different durations and compare them.
Nature’s Coverage of Higher Education Reform in Pakistan: A Response from Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy
This communication is concerned with “Pakistan’s Reform Experiment” (Nature, V461, page 38, 3 September 2009), and the response to my critique by its lead author.
Unfortunately, I find the response as unsatisfying as the original article. Since Nature is unwilling to accord me a chance for a satisfactory reply on its pages, I shall clarify the basis of my criticism in some detail here.
In the said article, strong conclusions have been derived from weak data. The authors have not dared to ask the basic questions whose answers are essential for ascertaining whether there has been actual progress in Pakistan’s higher education system and, if so, by how much. Instead, in giving a thumbs-up, numbers have been quoted that have doubtful significance. Take, for instance, the claim that:
“In mathematics, for example, an average paper by a Pakistani author is cited around 20% more than the worldwide average for the discipline”.
Nature’s Coverage of Higher Education Reform in Pakistan: A Conversation with Athar Osama
Dr. Athar Osama is a public policy researcher with specialization in science and innovation policy and a visiting fellow at Pardee Centre for the Study of Long Range Global Future at Boston University. He is the lead author of the article “Pakistan’s Reform Experiment” in this week’s issue of Nature (Sept. 3, 2009), which is raising quite a bit of debate (and controversy) on whether the Higher Education Commission has delivered the aspired results and what can other countries contemplating the reforms learn from this experience. STEP contacted him to seek his views on the article. Read the rest of this entry »
For the motivated student wanting to follow an academic career, the standard plan of action is: work hard to get good SAT scores, get admitted into a good college, work hard to maximize overall GPA, work hard to get good GRE scores, and then hope to get admitted into a good graduate school. Unfortunately, there is a subtle flaw in this scheme of things which limits the potential academic accomplishments of the student: the negative effects of working hard.
Specifically, working hard for extended periods of time on things mainly as means to some other end – in this case admission into graduate school – can seriously harm the long-term ability to enjoy research work. This begs two questions: what are the harmful effects of such hard work, and how do they limit one’s academic career.
Research Highlight: Wiring Urdu to the 21st century
The reign of the English language over modern technology and the Internet may soon be at an end. Increasingly, local language technologies are emerging to challenge the role of English as the language of the web. Representing Urdu and other Pakistani languages at the forefront of this battle is the Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP). For Dr. Sarmad Hussain, founding director of CRULP, and his team, developing the capacity of local language processing is not merely an intellectual exercise in machine processing research but their contribution to the global struggle, which aims to provide every human access to information regardless of the language they speak. Like the translators of Al-Mamun, the eighth Abbasid caliph, who translated and protected many of the classics of Greek, Indian, Persian and Chinese scholarship from the ash-heap of history, the team at CRULP is working to bridge the disconnect that exists between the wealth of knowledge available on the Internet and the large non-English speaking segment of Pakistani society. While this team may not have royal patronage like the Abbasid translators, who were paid in gold equal to the weight of the books that they translated, the dissemination of knowledge and the legacy of scholarship team CRULP leaves behind will be invaluable. I recently visited the CRULP headquarters at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Lahore, where project manager Kiran Khurshid showed me around the CRULP lab and talked about the various projects currently in progress.
The overarching goal of CRULP is to develop local language processing technologies to provide people easy access to information regardless of the local language they speak. The traditional approaches to introducing technology into rural areas have involved providing schools and colleges with computers and expecting the locals to learn and adapt to modern technology. Dr. Hussein sees a fundamental flaw in this approach, in that they either fail to address or underestimate the two major barriers people face in using modern technology: illiteracy and language. With 45% of the population illiterate and most people unable to interact in English, it is impractical to expect them to use computers to access information through current technology. The team at CRULP aims to break the illiteracy barrier by developing Urdu Speech Recognition systems and Text to Speech systems to allow users to operate technology vocally. The language barriers are being tackled through the development of software in Urdu, examples of which include the SeaMonkey internet suite that provides users Urdu-based tools to make websites, surf the internet, email etc.
Q&A with Pervez Hoodbhoy: Part 1 of 2
Editor’s Note: Pervez Hoodbhoy is head of the Physics Department at Quaid-e-Azam University and a prominent social activist in Pakistan. We conducted this interview through email correspondence over a few weeks, to get his perspective on the state of higher education in Pakistan. This is the first in a two part series. The second part is shared here.
STEP: According to recent estimates, less than half of Pakistan’s population is literate, less than half have access to basic sanitation, and the economy is strangled by debt. In context of this, what is the social relevance and value of the modern university, with its emphasis on research and higher learning, in Pakistan today?
PH: Pakistan’s social indicators are indeed abysmal. But no country can wait for everything and everybody to get up to speed before making universities. Nor should it, because that would essentially mean waiting forever. But we should remember that there is a difference in the purposes that universities serve in countries like Pakistan, and in advanced countries like the US. The latter have knowledge-driven economies, and universities function as the engines of progress. They are the fountainheads of modern science, and of new technologies that have changed the world more in the past fifty years than the previous ten thousand years.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ground Realities of Pakistan’s Education System
Sana Fatima, a student of Lahore University of Management Sciences, recently visited two primary schools in the District of Kasur, where she witnessed first-hand the plight of children in the public education system of Pakistan. The following is a pictorial account of her visit.
Editor’s Note: Since the establishment of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002, the higher education sector in Pakistan has undergone a transformation both in its size and its nature. Dr. Sohail Naqvi, the Executive Director of the HEC, has been at the helm of many of these changes. STEP’s student editor Mariyam Khalid recently sat down with Dr. Naqvi to learn more about the HEC and its mandate. In the first of this two-part interview, the performance of the HEC, the local relevance of research and other key issues regarding research in Pakistan are examined.
STEP: You have worked as a professor, as a dean, as an industrial entrepreneur and now as a policy-maker in the government. Which of these roles did you find the most rewarding?
SN: I find the one that I’m doing now the most rewarding because of its ability to influence so many factors pertaining to education in Pakistan. But I do miss the university environment, especially the interaction with students. I’ve always loved teaching and being in the classroom. In fact, I sometimes catch myself talking to my colleagues as if I’m lecturing them! So that’s definitely something that I do miss. There is a freedom in being a professor that is simply not available in any other job. When I’ve had it with administration, I can always go back to being a professor. Read the rest of this entry »
An Excellent Example of Social Science Research: The Demographics of the Partition of India
A recent paper by Dr Asim Khwaja (Harvard) and Dr Atif Mian (U of Chicago), with graduate student Prashant Bharadwaj, is an excellent example of quantitative social science research on a locally relevant issue. Titled “The Big March: Migratory Flows After the Partition of India”, the paper analyzes archival records to answer questions about the volume of people who migrated to India or Pakistan at the time of the partition in 1947.
This is a controversial topic, to say the least. Estimates of those who died in the process vary significantly across sources, especially depending on the national or religious affiliations of the source. More importantly, there have hardly been any scientific studies of perhaps the most significant event in the history of the subcontinent.
