One of the noblest institutions of our times that is imparting quality education has been devalued by self-styled contractors of the field. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that responsibility has been handed over to the private sector to a very large extent.

In fact, the sudden cropping up of private educational institutions can be traced back to the government's failure to effectively monitor these schools which despite relevant laws can not prevent them from fleecing parents. Moreover, the shabby state of public sector institutions has brought the education system to a virtual collapse, forcing the students to seek asylum in private institutions. Even those who can barely afford it prefer to send their children to private institutions rather than let their talents waste in the public sector. Manipulators call this profession "an opportunity to serve the masses". However, when it comes to earning money, all kinds of heinous methods are used to exploit the gullible people. Allured by easy money, private institutions have made education a domain of the rich. Lavish spending by these institutions, the palatial buildings and frequent lavish dinners hosted by them in honour of politicians and VIPs, tell their own story.

The exploitation of the parents and students can be gauged by a traumatic experience which one mother recently went through. She had just got her children admitted at a private school, (named after a herbal medicines' manufacturer) but she was told at the accounts office that her wards could not go to the classroom until she submitted their fees in advance. This was odd since she had submitted all other relevant documents just the day before, and her wards should, essentially, have been admitted. When she complained, the administration and directors proved a chip of the same block and eventually, for no fault of theirs, the children were insulted in front of their schoolmates. Was this conduct becoming? That is not end of the story since even the teachers get a very raw deal from the school's management since the institution has a very high teacher turnover rate.

In the name of providing quality education, private schools or perhaps I should call them the modern education shops charge exorbitant amounts of money in the name of fees. Due to this, middle class parents, who cannot afford the Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000 fees, and the huge admission fees, extracted from unwilling parents in the garb of donations, annual charges, tuition fee, security charges, transportation and annual functions, are unable to get their children admitted into "good, educational institutions". Besides this it is the norm to collect the fees many months in advance without any justification. Parents are also made to buy course books, stationery items, uniform the entire school paraphernalia from specific shops recommended by the school which sell everything at nearly at nearly double the rates. However, when it comes to academics the standard is only mediocre yet having no alternatives, parents are forced to relying on these schools.

The reason for this may be the fact that many teachers in private schools are not well-paid; in fact some of them are paid a mere Rs.1,000 to 3,000, despite having been signed up for more, due to which they naturally don't pay too much attention to the academic progress of their charges. Even government school teachers are better paid than that! Though government institutes have improved lately, their low numbers force people to send their wards to private institutions. Keeping in view the public interest the previous Punjab government had worked towards bringing a new legislation for the regulation of private sector schools and developed house committees to draft proper laws concerning them. They believed in a public-private partnership and the legislation was a step towards realising that relationship. However, the idea was discarded midway due to the change of governments.

Pakistan had three parallel systems of education – the posh English medium schools, resource-less government schools and Deeni Madaris none of which is performing up to the mark. The private institutions are fleecing the public, government schools are in a sorry state and the madaris are another kettle of fish altogether. Education has now become a business. Everyday new private schools, colleges and universities with air-conditioned classrooms are coming up, without any notifications and so are not bound to follow any code of conduct when it comes to syllabi and fee structures.

According to the Punjab Ombudsman Annual Report 2006, the highest number of complaints (1854) was filed against the Education Department. The first census of private education institutions showed there were 22,855 private institutions in Punjab of which some 64% were registered, and 3.4% recognised. The federal government is set to introduce a law making it mandatory for private schools and educational institutions to register with the government. The legislation will be brought before the National Assembly as soon as it gets a nod from the cabinet.  According to the government officials the provinces already have laws to register private schools. This law was introduced in Punjab in 1985 and was later amended in 1995.

Curriculum, regarded as the heart of educational process, is mandatory for achieving educational objectives. It provides direction and rationale for educational endeavours. Every society develops its own curriculum according to its needs and ideology. For example, the curricula of an agrarian and industrial society will invariably differ. So will those of communist and capitalist ones as well as of secular and dogmatic societies. Developed countries around the world, specially the USA and Britain, have established uniform system of education. In Korea, there is a national curriculum the details of which are determined by the Ministry of Education. In Japan too, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture gives guidelines for curriculum and authorises textbooks in schools.

Malaysia too has evolved a common curriculum and common system of education. In Sri Lanka also, there is a common National Curriculum atleast from class 1 to 11.

In Pakistan, the word "national" is quite weak and is fast becoming weaker day by day, when it comes to deciding curriculum. The present curriculum of Pakistan has many lacunae. It is outdated and mostly irrelevant to the needs and demands of modern age; it is more teacher-centred than student-centred. Mostly insisting on theoretical aspect, the curriculum generally neglects practical, technical and research aspects of the education. As a result, class-based curriculum and education is being followed at primary, secondary and post-graduate level.

Generally speaking, the educational institutions in Pakistan can be easily divided into two main categories: Religious institutions called madaris (seminaries) and the secular educational institutions (including both private and public sector institutes).

These two are further divided into many other sub-categories. At present, at least five separate independent religious boards have been functioning in the country. Many seminaries are not even affiliated with any religious board, instead these are financed and administered by individuals affiliated with Tablighi jamaats.

Of the approximately 20,000 seminaries countywide, only a small number are registered with the government. Almost all of them are run independently of the government. Students are imparted knowledge from the perspective of their sects and trained in the art of how to validate their sects and nullify others. Interfaith harmony, dialogue, and tolerance are given scant attention.

After passing out of certain seminary, each student looks at things, issues and people from a narrow vision, which he was given during his academic years. A tendency to doubt and question the faith of persons belonging to other sects is but natural to him. Conflict of interests is bound to occur when each one of them tries to substantiate his sectarian viewpoint. Similarly, 'secular' educational institutions are further sub-divided into public and private schools.

Public schools, run by federal and provincial governments, include both Urdu and English medium institutions scattered across the country. Children of the poor majority study in the former. The standard of education is very low in these institutions which generally lack basic facilities. Children sit on the ground in overcrowded classrooms. The curriculum here is outdated, teacher-centred and irrelevant to the outside world. Usually, the curriculum in these state-run schools is different in each of the provinces.

As far as the private schools is concerned, on the basis of their administration and source of funding, these schools are further divisible into individually owned, parties' managed, foreign affiliated, semi-governmental but autonomous schools and military-run schools. Majority of these schools are low standard and are mere money-minting machines. Many of these schools select their curricula prepared by private firms. They add expensive imported books in their curriculum, their uniforms and exercise books etc are provided by certain prescribed shops which are on the panel of these schools.

Some independent networks also administer some schools. Pakistan Army runs a huge network of cadet schools throughout the country besides many other schools in the cantonment areas under its indirect supervision. Other security forces have also opened schools for children of their in-service and retired personnel.

Some other schools and colleges are affiliated with foreign universities. These elite institutions offer high-standard expensive education to the children of a minority affluent class with all facilities and excellent learning environment. This creates a clear divide in the society with children from public schools coming with inferiority complex and the students studying in the elite schools 'gifted with' superiority complex.

To sum it up, there are at least 12 types of educational institutions working in the country. All these schools promote distinct cultures among students which represent specific economic classes in the society. It is feared that this national divide, on the basis of education system, will become stronger if the class-based system of education in Pakistan is not abolished immediately.

In order to bring some positive changes in this bleak scenario, we can take some measures:

* The discrepancy between the curricula of the religious and mainstream educational system of education should be done away with. At the intermediate level, all the students in the country should take a federal examination on the pattern of developed countries. Preferably, this examination should be conducted by reputable private institutions to ensure fairness, transparency and reliability.

* In order to give equal opportunities of quality education to all the children, education should be made free and compulsory.

* Religious seminaries should be included in the mainstream educational network. For this purpose, a spirit of give and take is required on the part of both types of institutes.

* After doing intermediate from institutions with national curriculum, a student, if she/he so desires, may seek admission in the modern seminaries for religious education and after completion of five years of education there, he should be given a bachelors degree. He may register for PhD for specialisation in any subject later. Once implemented, this system would produce competent religious scholars; well versed both in Islamic teachings and modern education.

* The existing BA/BSc course should be replaced with a new scheme of four-year specialised education, for all other branches and subjects on the pattern of medical and engineering courses.

The two-day interdisciplinary conference ended on a high note with the chief guest Mahmood Sham, Editor-in-chief Jung International, stressing upon the point that the academia is the only institution that can work for the stability of the country after the failure of all the other institutions.

A large number of foreign guests were invited to speak at the 3rd annual Interdisciplinary International Conference on Media and Social Change. These included Prof Dr Zamaraeva Natalia from the Russian Science Academy, Prof Dr Danilo Ardia from the University of Padova, Prof Dr Santagostino, Jean Monnet professor of European Economic Integration, Lord Shaukat Nawaz Khan, chairman of the British Pakistanis Foundation and many more.

The conference, contrary to quite a few expectations started on time and speeches were delivered by Prof Dr Shamsuddin, the Dean faculty of Arts, University of Karachi and the university's Pro-Vice Chancellor. In her keynote speech Dr Zamaraeva Natalia spoke about the mutual interaction between the political scenario and the Pakistani media. Prof Dr P Q R Siddiqui, Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi gave his welcome address.

Dr Ikhlaq Ahmed, Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi stressed on media identifying the main sources of terrorists around the world and not to be afraid of doing it through proper dialogue.

In the first plenary session, Prof Ali Ahmed Khan from UK discussed his paper "British Media Islamophobia -The Ideology of Demonisation". He emphasised that Great Britain is one of the most tolerant and civilised nations of the world. However, after 9/11 and 7/7, what is seen today is a misunderstanding of Islam and the birth of Islamophobia. It is the British media's responsibility to shape the correct perception of Islam in British society.

Parallel presentations including those presented by Prof Dr Ardia, Lord Shaukat and Prof Dr Santagostino, followed next which were informative and interesting for the entire audience. Dr Ardia spoke of the role of public diplomacy in today's world stating that with the advent of the modern media and internet which has brought the world to our fingertips, governments are no longer concerned only with the diplomatic ties with other countries, but also with the links they form with both their local and the international public. This has led to the building up of a very efficient network comprising of lobbyists, business corporations, journalists all of whom are involved in this propaganda dissipation and convincing the public of the rightness of government policies.

Lord Shaukat spoke of the role that the Pakistani media play in building up a negative image of Pakistan in the west, stating that the government control was much greater in UK than in Pakistan where the government kept a strict vigil on everything. He felt that the media plays a very important role in the image-building of any country and that, thanks to the negative image built up by our own media, Pakistan has got a very negative reflection in the west.

Dr Santagostino spoke of the European Union and its role in the peace-building and peace-keeping process in the world. He felt that the EU should prepare the guidelines of a project for the diffusion of the concept of solidarity between civilisations and the media should be invited to give feedback to this project along with scholars representing both the Christian and Islamic faith so that they could easily build up solidarity between the EU and other countries. He termed Turkey as a "bridge of peace" between the east and the west and that having Turkey in their midst was politically very advantageous for the EU. Dr Mansoor Kundi from Balouchistan accentuated on change being very important and media's role in bringing it a bit faster in society.

The most interesting part of the conference was a "special session" with the eminent columnist, Ardsher Cowasjee. Cowasjee was under the misapprehension that he had been called as a "show" and was therefore, to quote Prof Ardia, "more salt than sugar." With every remark he made, Cowasjee seemed to be ridiculing someone or the other so that people were a little wary about asking him questions and this was a drawback since it was a general question & answer session going on! If he would have kept a more inviting sort of attitude, Cowasjee would have been the most favourite guest at the conference, if the standing ovation he had received when he entered the auditorium was anything to go by.

The VC in his speech said that the media has great power, but the actual thing is how to use that power. He said that this conference helped participants learn how to respect and use this power for the benefit of the society that we live in.

Featured speakers Prof Dr Mehmood Ali Shah from the University of Balochistan presented his paper on Positive and negative effects of media on political consciousness in Balochistan and Sara Ansari from UK presented her research paper on "Between Ourselves": Social Change, Nation Building, and Women's lives in the Post Independence Pakistan.

While talking about the negative impacts of media Dr Mehmood said that "Media must balance highlighting the positive points and the negative points of events instead of just focusing on one aspect." He also said that the media has become over politicised and that the competition of breaking news first is compromising the working and ethics of the media." The topic of the last panel discussion of the two-day conference was Media; Freedom vs Responsibilities. The panelists of this discussion were Hasan Abdullah, Prof Dr Mehmood Ali Shah, Prof, Dr Mansoor Kundi and Dr Khalida Ghaus. "Media can be used as a tool to build mutual consensus and to find a new direction," said Dr Ghaus. She also suggested that the media should not try to make people believe what they are thinking rather let them decide for themselves.

The President Islamic Republic of Pakistan in his capacity as the Chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University has appointed Prof Dr Naveed-i-Rahat, Chairperson of Anthropology Department as the new Dean of Social Sciences for a term of three years w.e.f November 4, 2008. Prof Dr Naveed-i-Rahat is the first female to assume the highest office in Social Sciences at the QAU. She played a pioneering role in establishing the Department of Anthropology at the QAU. She is also the first female Anthropologist of the country.

Prof Dr Naveed-i-Rahat has rich experience in teaching/research, administration and planning. She started her career at QAU from 1979 as a Lecturer and became full Professor in 1999. She established the Women Study Centre at QAU and remained its Director from 1989 to 1993. She chaired the Department of Anthropology from 1980 to 1981 and again from 1990 to 2002. She has served as member of numerous administrative bodies of the University such as Finance and Planning Committee, House Allotment Committee, Lady Provost of Women's Hostel, Management Committees of QAU Staff Housing Scheme, Board of Governors of the Area Study Center and Discipline Committee.

She obtained PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex, UK, and MSc in Anthropology from QAU. She has won many merit scholarships and foreign fellowships. She has the distinction of being one of the two students selected from Pakistan for an international study "Action-oriented Study of the Role of Women in Rural Development" at the University of Sussex, UK.