In the present times, education is considered the key to the progress and development of a nation and it is for this reason that a high level of research output in institutions of higher learning earns the country a good reputation abroad and enhances the competitiveness of its society and economy at home.

A famous English philosopher, Francis Bacon very rightly said that understanding and knowledge truly are power; and countries that fail to keep up on this front sooner or later falter on other fronts as well. Building research based institutions, that are internationally recognised, is certainly one of the best ways to prevent that and, more importantly, is a need of modern times.

The effects of traditionalism, the culture of conformity that it projects, and unwholesome government interference, when combined with the technical requirements for career advancements, have meant that very little original thinking takes place at our universities. The overall psychological environment of society impacts researchers and conditions their responses. Our academics, understandably, are highly risk-averse and tend to either take a technocratic view of research or then avoid debate and projection of their ideas. As the great French historian Fernand Braudel understood, however, changes in cultural outlook proceed at a slow pace comparable to the pace of change of our physical environment. It is necessary that change towards greater rationality is understood by those who wield power as being in their own long-term enlightened self-interest for the process to be accelerated.

With so many internationally recognised universities offering affiliation to universities in developing countries like Pakistan, establishment of such institutions is not that hard a task as it is thought to be. The government and the HEC need to come out and encourage the development of such universities (in both the public and the private sector) and their successful operation. Universities are, at least in theory, autonomous corporations that should function with minimal external interference. The critical area where the government can exercise due control is in ensuring that the funds allocated to universities are properly spent and the broader policy issues are addressed. In addition, it needs to make sure that students or the faculty are not exploited in any way.

The most critical consideration, in this regard is the availability of faculty to begin with. It is better to have a smaller but more highly motivated group of researchers than a larger and demoralised group. It is also better to produce fewer research students who are genuinely competent rather than churning out vast number of paper-qualified individuals who cannot in many cases write a correct sentence. The administration of such institutions needs to be looked into and their autonomy and integrity must be respected. In this way the politicisation, administrative incompetence and intrigue that characterises our universities today would be transplanted without dedicated attention to this matter.

There is little doubt that a mature, well-functioning university, which is faithful to its mission of educating the community (whether in the public or the private sector) is an important vehicle of social stability and economic progress. In addition, for a country to develop, a critical mass of citizens, it must produce individuals who are trained to think. Therefore, a university of international standard, with its liberal curriculum and an atmosphere of free inquiry, helps enhance this essential body of thoughtful citizens through its young graduates who will become the future leaders of the country.

Furthermore, a good university is, above all, an important catalyst for social awakening and economic development. It produces graduates whose human capital is essential for the difficult process of nation-building. However, sadly due to the lack of quality education a large number of students leave the developing countries like Pakistan, in search of better and higher education in the West.

Legions of students overseas receive support from their parents who pay tuition fee using foreign exchange while the same funds could serve other urgent developmental needs of the country. If comparable education were available at home, many of these students would stay in the country and reduce the drain on scarce foreign exchange. The scarcity of foreign exchange pales when compared to the scarcity of trained manpower or "brain" from these countries and the pernicious impact of the loss of this resource is also very great.

On a more positive note, it is refreshing to see that many of the newly established private universities have been able to provide salaries and working conditions that have attracted a large number of expatriate scholars and even foreign academicians. Hence private universities can affect a significant reversal of the debilitating brain drain that afflicts all developing countries, against which they have been powerless for decades.

In recent years, the progress achieved in private higher education in the non-western world is impressive by historical standards. Opening a new university is always a milestone, a step not to be taken without adequate preparation. However, taking advantage of unique windows of opportunity and a confluence of favourable forces, a host of new private universities has cropped up in various parts of the developing world. The landscape of higher education in these countries, and in the world as a whole, is richer as a result of this development. These new universities in the private sector are expected to bring an increased exchange of ideas and knowledge between the mature economies of the West and the struggling democracies and developing economies of the world. Already there has been something of a reversal in the international brain drain from the developing countries to the rich nations. The impact on the social and economic development of these societies could be far-reaching if these new institutions are built on solid foundations and efforts are sustained over time.

This is the age of information. Rapid and massive flows of data and information are the hallmark of the computer era. The process of economic development can be greatly accelerated by the universities of international standards. This is because a good university is not only a depository of existing data and information; it is a vigorous participant in creating new information and in disseminating and synthesising new and existing information. In addition, the early confinement of knowledge to a few key players is now irrevocably challenged by the development of the worldwide information superhighway.

The free flow of ideas is the best guard against tyrannical rulers, inefficient bureaucracies and businesses. For economies in transition and resource-poor nations with underdeveloped political institutions, universities can be important catalysts in building a civil society, a necessity if liberal democracy is to flourish.

George Akerlof, a Nobel laureate in Economics (2001), wrote an article, "The Market for Lemons: Quality, Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" when he was an assistant professor at The University of California, Berkeley, in 1966-67. In this article he emphasised the importance of asymmetric information in a market where it is difficult to gauge the quality of goods and services.

The basic idea was that, doing business in underdeveloped countries in the absence of trust is difficult. In other words, dishonest dealings drive honest dealings out of the market. Using the example of the market for used cars he showed that sellers of bad cars (lemons) would eventually drive out sellers of good cars.

The lemons model can be applied to several other markets as well, such as insurance, credit, and as per the focus of the article, on PhDs as well. That is, by analogy, dishonest PhD scholars will drive out honest PhD scholars because in our country, dishonesty is reflected in almost all phases of the PhD process. First the PhD topic is often chosen without reviewing the relevant literature. Second, the review of the literature is often considered as a laundry list of articles often simply abstracted intelligently. Third, the empirical results are not trustworthy because the original data are not often attached along with the information of the statistical software used.

Furthermore, during these three steps PhD scholars keep searching for a supervisor who is ready to sign their thesis without even reading it. After these three simple steps, a five hundred-page PhD dissertation results. A riffle through these dissertations always suggest that things are in pretty good order. However, a careful reading of the documents (which does not happen normally) would reveal the very poor quality of research in most cases.

Now comes the next stage; the scholars start looking for friends and acquaintances in the technologically developed countries preferably non-English speaking countries in order to prepare a list of international reviewers. The names of those foreign scholars who seem lenient and easy based on the scholars' prior information are placed on top of the list. The scholars then use their connections to request the authority to select the reviewers of the scholars' choice. At the same time the scholars are busy finding someone for internal review.

The internal reviewer often assures the scholars of their success. Finally they are awarded a PhD making them eligible for Rs 5000 per month as PhD allowance and promotions. The scholars then make foreign trips financed by Higher Education Commission (HEC) to read their papers in the conferences. However, what is worse is that these scholars may also be eligible to supervise new PhD candidates.

The consequences of HEC policy regarding the quality of PhD program if not implemented properly will be dangerous. Moreover, the PhD requirement for promotion of university teachers is not generally welcomed by the non-PhD teaching community.

In order to improve the standard of education, it is the duty of the HEC to make sure that the PhD degree is the true reflection of higher education, lest the sprit of PhD degree will be lost. Therefore, it should make sure that the quality of PhD degree should not be compromised at any cost. Otherwise this will not only produce sub standard scholars but also drive out talented ones.

Teachers, philosophers and reformists have always been the torchbearers in the nation building process. Education is the source of enlightenment and progress for nations.

In the first seven centuries of its history, Islam was the most dynamic and progressive religion of that era. The importance of "Muallim" (teacher) has always been emphasised in Islam and by the great Islamic scholars thus being the pioneering creed of the learning renaissance.

This spirit for learning put the Muslims ahead of all the nations up to the 7th century AD. The knowledge, technology and inventions, were solely the product of Muslim philosophers and scholars of that era, when the West was in darkness. Alas, it was not long before the West, which robbed the Muslims of their knowledge, changed the tides with the help of some deliberate manipulations. Their libraries were destroyed, their books were used as fuel for steam baths and the Nile was soaked with ink from the books thrown in them. Most of the science, philosophy and astronomy literature were adapted and used as text books in the Western universities. Not only this but as conquerors they devised an education system for their Muslim subjects, which was stagnant and stoic.

This system was meant to produce Huffaz without any awareness or insight to the divine message or the knowledge beyond that. Consequently, the Muslim Empire plunged into an age of darkness, which has left us still under-developed and desperately trying to cope up with the rapid advancements of the West in every sphere of life.

Pakistan, a part and parcel of this system, has yet to come together as a nation and is still wrangling in the politics of ethnicity, regionalism and religion. The extreme lack of education that hampers our way to progress, threatens our unity, sovereignty and above all, our very existence.

One wonders, what is in the minds of our economic wizards when they allocate a negligible sum of money to "quality education" (1.80% of the GDP). With deceptive concepts like that of 'enlightened moderation' and westernisation, which are in themselves causes of conflict, how is a country supposed to flourish? While the super powers go rocketing away to other heavenly bodies for new discoveries, our country fights with the curse of ghost schools.

In such adversity, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman realised the impediments and obstructions in our way to progress. He came up with some positive steps in education structure like the introduction of Tenure Track System by Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The TTS, though it is still in its nascent stage, if properly implemented and sustained is a guarantee to answer the modern day teaching needs. This system is based on the idea of providing basic facilities to the teachers, which would make them feel responsible to deliver. Under this system the faculty members are put to continuous study, research and interaction with the fast growing world and development.

To be eligible for the senior ranks under TTS, that is associate professor and professor, a candidate must have pre and post PhD experience and certain number of publications in international abstract journals, recognised by HEC. The salary of the rank of professor is minimum Rs 180,000 /month and an increment of Rs 8,800 with a maximum of Rs 312,500 per month. Similarly, for the post of associate professor, minimum and maximum salary is Rs 120,000 and Rs 226,250 respectively, while for the junior rank of assistant professor, it is Rs 80,000 minimum and Rs 161,000 maximum.

This salary scale will most certainly attract well-qualified teachers, scientists and researchers for teaching, who otherwise would opt for going abroad. Some of our teachers are already returning back and applying for the posts of Foreign Faculty Members under TTS.

Interestingly, there is a strong opposition for the implementation of this system in certain public sector varsities, University of Peshawar (UoP) being one of them. Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Chairman Environmental Sciences, UoP, was of the view that TTS is devised for certain individuals as more than 90 percent of Pakistani teachers are not eligible for this. He maintained that of the total 13,000 university teachers, two third two by three are not PhDs. He criticised certain points in TTS model and said that they (HEC) are going to frustrate those people who are not eligible. He further said that in the selection process, the role of HEC is not justified.

Answering this point, Altafullah Khan, Assistant Professor at the department of Journalism and Mass Communication, UoP, rebutted that HEC is financially supporting the teachers working under TTS by giving them direct salary and the university and students are saved from extra charges, so the role of HEC in the selection is well justified.

He added that the present criterion is mild enough but the Teachers' Union is not ready to accept it. Ironically, the first draft that was harsh, in which the medical, housing and pension facilities were not given, was supported by those same teachers who oppose it now.

If the experts of our education industry were to forgo their sugar coated versions of what the education sector is really like at this point and time, an overall grim picture of the country would appear. The economy and the corporate sector are indeed suffering. One would simply wonder as to how the education and the economy are linked because education is imperative for any kind of growth, be it economic, politics, cultural etc. The present situation is unfortunate because most institutes and educationists are becoming more commercialised. Although at a micro level this may seem like a small problem, at the national level the adverse effects become more evident.

The education of the private sector appeals to many people since it is a known fact that it produces individuals of caliber and competence. However, for most in Pakistan private education is not a feasible option. And at times even private institutes only live up to their reputation for being expensive and fail to produce capable graduates. The example of this can be seen in our Information Technolog (IT) sector. Even with all the institutes that have popped up, the IT sector is still on decline. Complete IT education needs a lot of time, effort and money, none of which, it seems, students can spare at present. It is because of this and other reasons that most students often opt for MBA degrees and leave their IT education halfway through. The same is the case with other disciplines too. In the wake of the already poor educational standards yet another change that will negatively affect the masses ranging from the lower to the middle income groups is the decision of the policy-makers to combine the Bachelor's and Master's degree programme into a single four year Bachelor's of Studies (BS) programme (counted as a single degree).

It seems as if the policy-makers have failed to understand the consequences of such a system. In a situation where one hand feeds ten mouths, the family expects young members to lend financial support to the ailing and weak parents and siblings. However, if a Bachelor's degree extends beyond 14 to 16 years of education, the agony of a large family multiplies massively adding miserably to socio-economic problems.

Advocating the almost lost case of a two-year Bachelor's degree one can see that even many universities with high educational standards in Britain do not have four-year Bachelors. Infact, it is a common observation that in many cases those who have done Masters after a two-year Bachelors are doing admirably well in leading national and multi-national organisations. Seeing this, the logic behind the conversion of Bachelor's degree to BS programme becomes doubtful.

The problems that our nation is facing today are simply because our priorities are not right and the focus has shifted away from improving education in the country. The solution lies in revamping higher education keeping in mind the socio-economic conditions of the country. Educational policy-makers, managers, subject specialists and PhD prodigies need to focus more on their respective areas through innovation, research and excellence rather than on mere foreign tours, rosy seminars and public relations priorities.

Prof Syed Siraj ul Islam Bukhari, Controller of Examinations, Sindh Board of Technical Education has announced the result of Technical School Certificate part-II (Class 10th) Annual Examination 2008, says a press release sent by Sindh Board of Technical Education.

Giving the statistics of the results, the press release states that in total 1846 candidates were registered, 1839 appeared in the exam, while 1457 candidates were declared successful making the passing percentage 79.22%.

Farhan Shahadat, Roll No. 5027 of Al-Habib Technical School, Orangi Town, Karachi secured first position with 91.13 % (A-I Grade). Maryam Ara, Roll No. 6682 from Kamal Ata Turk Technical High School, Karachi secured second position with 89.82 % (A-I Grade) and Rida Afroze Roll No. 5091 from D.M.R Technical High School, Karachi came third with 88.34 % (A-I Grade).