Education in Pakistan

In Pakistan education from age 5 to 10 is called primary schooling and then 11 to 12 of age is called Middle Schooling. From the age 13 to 14 it is called High Schooling and then from age 15 to 16 it is called Intermediate or Higher Secondary School Certificate which is equal to 'A' Levels or Secondary Education. Until the year 2002 a Bachelors Degree consisted of two years education. Since then onward it is a four years degree and it is equivalent to Graduation. Then Masters Degree consist on two years education provided by the Universities.

Some Masters Degrees also consist of 1.5 years. Then there are PhD Education as well in selected areas. One has to choose specific field and the suitable university doing research work in that field. PhD in Pakistan consists of minimum 3-5 years. Some universities doing contributions in research fields are Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI), Aga Khan University (AKU), King Edward Medical College (KE), Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJ),etc.

The most controversial aspect of Education in Pakistan is indisputably that of Madrassahs. Madrassahs, Islamic schools which operate out of the control of the state, generally have a two course system. The first course, the hifz, focuses on the memorization of the Qur'an, while the second course, the alim, which focuses on training potential candidates for scholars and mullahs. A regular curriculum also usually includes courses in Arabic, Qur'anic interpretation, Islamic law, Hadith, logic, and Islamic history. Many Madrassahs also have expanded their educational system to include the sciences, Arabic literature, foreign languages, and world history. Madrassahs are particularly prevalent in the mountainous north west, where the government is less established, exist throughout Pakistan. Demographically, they generally draw attendance from the poor, who generally hold more traditionalist views of Islam, and who might lack the opportunities to partake in the state run system.

Because many schools teach a hardline traditionalist form of Islam while often excluding more secular ares of learning, Madrassah's have frequently been perceived as being institutions which brain wash children into adherence of fundamentalist Islam, and encouraging students to fight in wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Furthermore, many Madrassahs are run by mullahs who possess considerable connections to organizations which have been labeled as terrorist groups. This has been true in many cases, but with the widespread differences between madrassahs, some might characterize this as an unfair generalization.

Despite their prominence in the media, little is known about just how much influence madrassahs have in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has released censuses which suggest that in 1998, only about 150,000 students actually attended madrassahs. These figures are open to criticism, though, with the governments presence weakest where madrassah attendance is strongest, and the possibility that the statistic were distorted to cover up short falls in the state educational system always remaining plausible. None the less, few have suggested that attendance exceeds 1.5 million students, a definite minority of all Pakistani children. However, with many world newspapers like "The independent" noting that many of the first responders to the earth quakes of the fall of 2005 were attendants of traditionalist madrassahs, it may be that they hold a much stronger influence in the mountainous northwest than the government.

[~*Heer*~]

sahi

nice post