Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Educational Attainment in India & Pakistan

As of 2010, there are 380 out of every 1000 Pakistanis age 15 and above who have never had any formal schooling. Of the remaining 620 who enrolled in school, 22 dropped out before finishing primary school, and the remaining 598 completed it. There are 401 out of every 1000 Pakistanis who made it to secondary school. 290 completed secondary school  while 111 dropped out. Only 55 made it to college out of which 39 graduated with a degree.

Source: Barro & Lee



The preceding assessment is based on an interpretation offered by Indian blogger Siddarth Vij of Barro-Lee data in response to my earlier blog post titled Pakistan Ahead of India in Graduation at All Levels.  Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee are Harvard University researchers whose data on educational attainment is used by UNDP and the World Bank.  Here's how Vij read Barro-Lee dataset for India:

"327 out of every 1000 Indians above the age of 15 have never had any formal schooling. Of the remaining 673, only 20 dropped out during primary school. Once we got kids into primary school, we managed to make sure that they completed it. In secondary school, however, the situation is markedly different. 465 out of every 1000 Indians made it to secondary school but 394 dropped out without completing. Only 58 made it to college out of which a little more than half graduated with a degree" 

Putting the two together, here's how the two South Asian neighbors compare:

 As of 2010, there are 380 (vs 327 Indians) out of every 1000 Pakistanis age 15 and above who have never had any formal schooling. Of the remaining 620 (vs 673 Indians) who enrolled in school, 22 (vs 20 Indians) dropped out before finishing primary school, and the remaining 598 (vs 653 Indians) completed it. There are 401 (vs 465 Indians) out of every 1000 Pakistanis who made it to secondary school. 290 (vs 69 Indians) completed secondary school  while 111 (vs. 394 Indians) dropped out. Only 55 (vs 58 Indians)  made it to college out of which 39 (vs 31 Indians) graduated with a degree.

While Vij's explanation of Barro-Lee data-set sounds quite plausible, I still stand by my conclusion made in the earlier post that the percentage of population that completed secondary and tertiary education in Pakistan is higher than that in India.

Source: OECD Global Education Digest 2009



Another important point to note in Barro-Lee dataset is that Pakistan has been increasing enrollment of students in schools at a faster rate since 1990 than India. In 1990, there were 66.2% of Pakistanis vs 51.6% of Indians who had no schooling. In 2000, there were 60.2% Pakistanis vs 43% Indians with no schooling. In 2010, Pakistan reduced it to 38% vs India's 32.7%.


Clearly, both India and Pakistan have made significant progress on the education front in the last few decades. However, the Barro-Lee dataset confirms that the two South Asian nations still have a long way to go to catch up with the rapidly developing nations of East Asia as well as the industrialized world.


Year 2020 Update Pakistan: 


Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics




67 comments:

Oostur said...

Keep up the great service to the community - you are educating us.
Lets forget India comparisons and focus on the pathetic state of Pakistan's education. We need a US sponsored (both government and private ) initiative to channel most of the aid dollars to education.

Riaz Haq said...

Oostur: "We need a US sponsored (both government and private ) initiative to channel most of the aid dollars to education."

About a billion dollars of British aid for Pakistani prim & sec schools and hundreds of millions of US dollars from US AID are flowing into higher education in Pakistan.

However, not only are the aid donors fickle, the foreign aid can not be really effective unless Pakistanis get their house in order.

For example, a government education task force last year said that "under 1.5% of GDP [is] going to public schools that are on the front line of Pakistan's education emergency, or less than the subsidy for PIA, Pakistan Steel, and Pepco."

Just getting rid of such subsidies by privatizing state-owned money-losing corporations and giving the money to education can help fund public education better.

Oostur said...

So, I agree. We need to have more dollars flowing to eucation.
I have Stopped dreaming about Pak government to do better.

Imran said...

Given the massive Transformation the Education sector has to go through, it would be prudent to outline the small steps required to achieving literacy rate gain of 5-7% per annum. The goal is to achieve 100% literacy in 15 years. The literacy rate can be sub divided into primary, secondary and higher education categories - funds should be allocated based on the priorities.

Riaz Haq said...

Imran: "Given the massive Transformation the Education sector has to go through, it would be prudent to outline the small steps required to achieving literacy rate gain of 5-7% per annum...."

First, we need to differentiate mass literacy from formal schooling and then try to understand specific areas where the problems are the most pressing.

In terms of mass literacy campaign, I think the initial target needs to be rural females, particularly in FATA, KP & Balochistan, who suffer the highest rates of illiteracy. This is likely to offer the biggest payoff because women can influence children the most and help the entire family.

A possible initial focus for the Si valley crowd might be to support & enhance the ongoing UNESCO literacy campaign using cell phones.

A pilot program in Pakistan has demonstrated the effectiveness of pushing mass literacy through the use of cell phone text messaging capability. The five-month experiment, initiated by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), targeted 250 females aged 15 to 24 years old in three districts of Pakistan's Punjab province. In this pilot project which successfully concluded last month, the participant who have just completed the basic literacy course, were given a mobile phone each. They received three text messages a day in the local language. They were required to practice reading and writing the messages in their work book and reply to their teachers by text.


http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/01/mobile-phones-for-human-development-in.html

Other ICT initiatives and informal education methods used by UNESCO in villages should also be considered here. These methods focus on teaching to read & write words and sentences used in agriculture & other rural occupations in village life which are familiar to the rural folks. Such exercises are sometimes done by writing in the dirt without the use of pencil and paper. The most important here is the teacher or facilitator familiar with such techniques.

http://www.accu.or.jp/litdbase/literacy/nrc_nfe/eng_bul/BUL17.pdf

For formal schooling, it's the rural children who need the most help. Here, we need to work with local reps of organizations like DIL, HDF & TCF to understand how we can contribute.

Riaz Haq said...

Here are the names of 6 Pakistani universities among top 300 Asian universities ranked by QS 2012:

#108 NUST Islamabad

#191-200 University of Karachi

#201-250 Agha Khan University Karachi

#201-250 Univ of Engg & Tech (UET) Lahore

#251-300 Lahore University of Management Sciences

#251-300 University of Lahore

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an AFP report on Pakistan economy:

Pakistan's economy grew by 3.7 percent in the current fiscal year with tax collection up an "unprecedented" 25 percent, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Thursday.

He unveiled the statistics one day before presenting the next budget to parliament amid concerns that Pakistan is headed towards a financial crisis unless it returns to the IMF.

"The growth rate remained 3.7 percent and it is the highest in the past three years," Shaikh told a news conference of the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

"The growth rate for a country like Pakistan should be at least five to six percent and this is our medium term goal," he said.

Shaikh said that high oil prices in the international market had affected economies all over the world, including Pakistan's, and that Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence deterred foreign investors.

Pakistan has also suffered from a second consecutive year of major flooding, totting up losses of $3 billion, Shaikh said.

The minister said the budget deficit was five percent for the period July 2011 to April 2012. External forecasts predict it will nudge closer to seven percent of GDP for the fiscal year amid warnings that the government is running out of ways to fund it.

The IMF bailed out Pakistan with an $11.3 billion loan package in 2008 that stopped last November after Islamabad rejected strict reform demands, largely over tax.

Shaikh said tax collection had increased by 25 percent compared to the previous year.

"For the first 10 months we had tax collection of 1,450 billion rupees as compared to 1,050 billion rupees last year and it is an increase of 25 percent which is unprecedented in Pakistan's history," Shaikh said.

The country's tax revenues are among the lowest in the world at just 9.8 percent of GDP in fiscal 2010-2011, says the Asian Development Bank. Less than two percent of the population pays tax on their income.

The minister said the government had reduced its expenses by 10 percent.

Inflation stood at 10.8 percent, compared to 13.8 percent during the previous fiscal year, he said, adding: "We have adopted a tight monetary policy."

Pakistan has also missed out on payments from the United States for its efforts to fight militancy under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

This brought around $8.8 billion into Pakistan's coffers between 2002 and 2011, including $1.5 billion in 2009-10, but Islamabad stopped claiming the money as ties with Washington collapsed in the wake of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i5FI6KtGv3YCAp5BkWTywYT69MaQ?docId=CNG.f69b45f6cd1189152e35c5b5ab00af47.8a1

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an ET story on increasing school enrollment in Swat with food rations to children:

Apart from providing education, primary schools have an added incentive for children in upper Swat. They get free food rations for attending classes under the United Nations World Food Safety Net Feeding Programme. This has subsequently upped the enrolment rate in the schools by 60 per cent, it has been learnt.

Students have been provided energy biscuits and cooking oil under the World Food Program-sponsored programme since 2009. Teachers said that the project is achieving more than their expectations.

“Apart from increasing enrolment in primary schools, the programme aims to eliminate child labour and improve attendance,” Programme Manager Amjad Ali told The Express Tribune. He said that around 130,000 children and teachers in 610 primary schools of the upper Swat have benefited from the programme.

Balancing an oil canister in his hands, Muhammad Ali, a second grader who was returning home on Wednesday, said joyously: “We get parathas (oiled flatbread) with tea at school daily in the morning, which we did not get before.”

Another schoolboy, also holding an oil canister he got from school, seemed even more jubilant than his classmates. “We are getting double advantage: study and food. We love our school,” they said in unison.

“This is an effective way of attracting children towards schools,” said Kalam Education Department Centre In-charge Shah Nazar. “We don’t need to launch new campaigns to attract students; we are already short of space to accommodate them,” he said. Nazar added the programme has also motivated parents who were initially sceptical about sending their children to school and were more inclined towards sending them to work instead.

Abdul Ghafar Khan, a teacher in Kalam, concurred. He said that with the incentive of food, even street children have been admitted to schools.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/386965/food-for-education-in-swat-a-delectable-reason-to-be-in-primary-school/

Zia said...

What is the relevance of your comment here. it is heartening to see that in 1990 there were 66.2% of Pakistanis who had no schooling compared to 38% now. What is the point of comparing this with India. How does does this up yours or i am a percent point better than you attitude attitude in every aspect of life benefit Pakistan?

Riaz Haq said...

Zia: "What is the point of comparing this with India. How does does this up yours or i am a percent point better than you attitude attitude in every aspect of life benefit Pakistan?"

It's called benchmarking, and helps you understand how you are doing relative to your region....and Barro-Lee dataset is used for this purpose by the UN and its various agencies.

It shows that in spite of faster progress, Pakistan is still 5% behind in getting children into schools, but Pakistan has done better than India in terms of the percentage of population completing high school and college education.

BTW, would you rather compete in an arms race?

Jayesh said...

"t shows that in spite of faster progress, Pakistan is still 5% behind in getting children into schools, but Pakistan has done better than India in terms of the percentage of population completing high school and college education. "

And India has done far better in proving itself to be a worthy competitor to west in knowledge based economy. Pak is non existent. So much for completing education.

Riaz Haq said...

Jayesh: "And India has done far better in proving itself to be a worthy competitor to west in knowledge based economy"

Worthy competitor to the west? Really? Or just cyber coolies to the West?

India's IT sector business is essentially driven by low-cost call centers, first-line tech support, simple repetitive code writing, and execution of pre-defined test suites. A typical Indian IT worker is increasingly being called a "cyber coolie" or sometimes a "code coolie", the former term having been coined by an astute Indian columnist Praful Bidwai back in 2003.

It takes high quality education to compete with the West, not the kind of low quality education Indians receive in India.

Indian students rank near the bottom on PISA, a global test of learning standards conducted in 74 nations this year. TIMSS, another standardized international test, produced similar results earlier in 2003.

Jayesh said...

Sniff Sniff. I smell something burning.

So what is stopping Pak from doing the same. Surely it is no worse than making underwear and towels for west.

Fact is, India producers far better educated folks who can do R&D jobs. Shall I post URL of your ex-employer Intel's India web site. I can also throw in Oracle, Cisco, Samsung's web site mentioning what their Indian R&D office does for them.

Shall we believe them or Praful Bidwai. Interesting that when it is convenient you are willing to quote an indian over western companies.

If you represent the best of educated Pakistani brain, then India has no worries for competition.

Just admit it. Pak has no quality in education.

Riaz Haq said...

Jayesh: "Surely it is no worse than making underwear and towels for west."

Forget the hype. Deal with reality of India.

About 60% of India's workforce is in agriculture. Textile industry is the second biggest employer, accounting for a fifth of India’s exports, and employs almost 10 percent of India’s workforce, or some 35 million people, and has the potential to add another 12 million new jobs --dwarfing the 1-2 million jobs created by the much-heralded IT and BPO sector, according to a World Bank report

Jayesh: "Shall I post URL of your ex-employer Intel's India web site."

I am quite familiar with what Intel does in India and labels it "R&D". It's the kind of work that is done with well-established, well-tried & well-tested tools and technologies that requires following clear instructions with little thinking.

No new ground is broken at these offshore "R&D" centers. Israel is the only exception to this rule.

It's all about wage arbitrage and nothing else. It's essentially glorified coolie work.

Jayesh: "Just admit it. Pak has no quality in education"

Rather than express a biased and groundless opinion lacking any data or factual basis, I have already shared with you PISA and TIMSS results confirming the absence of quality in Indian education.

Indian students rank near the bottom on PISA, a global test of learning standards conducted in 74 nations this year. TIMSS, another standardized international test, produced similar results earlier in 2003.

Anonymous said...

According to Nasscom, the official BPO& IT exports for fiscal 2011 stood at $69 billion. I'll take that any day Riaz. Envy, snobbery or plain hatred on your part but, ultimately, it is a huge figure for India which was non existent about 15 years ago.

Pakistani intellectuals who don't understand the struggle of the common man in the subcontinent can comment from your imagined ivory towers and call it "cyber coolie" but it employs lot of people in India upwards of 2 million.

Even then, the facts are 24% of that export figure is BPO or "back office", 56% is ITes or code writing and 20% and rising is software engineering, consultancy and applications. Companies such as Cognizant Technologies are in this area.

Jayesh said...

Mr Haq, I understand that as a Pakistani it is hard for you to accept India's success in knowledge based economy. Well if you care to get informed, you will know that almost all top tech companies have huge r&d office in india producing top notch stuff.

==============
BANGALORE: The world's largest chipmaker, Intel, on Tuesday unveiled its latest microprocessor for servers, designed entirely by its Bangalore team and developed in a record two years. The Intel R&D centre in Bangalore designed the Xeon 7400 series processor and it marked the first time that work on the 45 nanometre technology was taken up by the company outside its US home base. The six-core microprocessor is based on Intel's x86 architecture.

A 300-member team from Bangalore undertook the work with support from units in the US and Costa Rica, Intel India president Praveen Vishakantaiah sai
===============

Coolie work ???? Doesn't seem so.

http://www.samsung.com/in/aboutsamsung/ourbusinesses/samsunginindia/RD.html

Actually IT is stealing the thunders of some of the other industries. One such is Pharma. Indian pharma companies now have a reputation to reverse engineer any drug and come up with a cheap drug. Many African and Asian countries now depend on indian drugs. Even in US , Walmart supplied generic drugs are siginifantly procured from India.

Honestly Pak can learn a lot from India in producing educated force which can do this. As of now, they don't seem capable of doing anything remotely close. Do you think there is no reason why a single Pak company is well known.

Anonymous said...

As a Pakistani I grudgingly admit that I have seen many TV talk shows or read books or articles written and hosted by Americans where they have praised Indians. This is reflected by their huge collaboration in various industries.

It is matter of regret that Pakistan is completely absent.

I find it hard to believe that Pakistan's education level is same as India. If it indeed is, then shame on our educated and business community to not replicate India's success. If it is not, then to some extent that explains why can't do what India did.

Riaz Haq said...

Jayesh: "The Intel R&D centre in Bangalore designed the Xeon 7400 series processor and it marked the first time that work on the 45 nanometre technology was taken up by the company outside its US home base. The six-core microprocessor is based on Intel's x86 architecture."

I know x86 architecture well. I was part of the original design teams of 80386 and 80486 processors in the US. I also worked with the people who developed the semiconductor process technology for these processors.

It's obvious that you do not understand what R&D in microprocessors really means.

Transferring a well-established processor architecture to finer geometries is not original development...the real research & development work for such new process technologies is still done by TD groups in the US and Israel...what's left for other offshore groups is using the RTL and std cells already built, characterized and tested in the US.

I do acknowledge that the team in India was capable enough to do what it was asked to do on xeon. I also know that many US-educated and US-trained engineers work as leads on these projects.

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "As a Pakistani I grudgingly admit that I have seen many TV talk shows or read books or articles written and hosted by Americans where they have praised Indians."

Here's how Indian journalist Pankaj Mishra recently explained this phenomenon in a Bloomberg piece:

..I..saw much in this recent visit that did not conform to the main Western narrative for South Asia -- one in which India is steadily rising and Pakistan rapidly collapsing.

Born of certain geopolitical needs and exigencies, this vision was always most useful to those who have built up India as an investment destination and a strategic counterweight to China, and who have sought to bribe and cajole Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment into the war on terrorism.

Seen through the narrow lens of the West’s security and economic interests, the great internal contradictions and tumult within these two large nation-states disappear. In the Western view, the credit-fueled consumerism among the Indian middle class appears a much bigger phenomenon than the extraordinary Maoist uprising in Central India.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-22/pakistan-s-unplanned-revolution-rewrites-its-future.html

Jayesh said...

Mr Haq,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6N7B6DObeFI

Riaz Haq said...

Jayesh: "India in space"

This is the Indian govt version.It leaves out the most important facts of Indian space program history.

APJ Abul Kalam is credited with designing India's first satellite launcher SLV3. Its design is virtually identical to the American Scout rocket used in the 1960s. According to the details published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Abul Kalam spent four months in training in the United States in 1963-1964. He visited NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, where the U.S. Scout rocket was conceived, and the Wallops Island Flight Center on the Virginia coast, where the Scout was being flown. Soon after Abul Kalam's visit, India requested and received detailed technical reports on the Scout's design, which was unclassified.

US Scout and India's SLV3 are both 23 meters long, use four similar solid-fuel stages and "open loop" guidance, and lift a 40-kilogram payload into low earth orbit. The SLV's 30-foot first stage later became the first stage of the Agni.

The United States was followed by others. Between 1963 and 1975, more than 350 U.S., French, Soviet, and British sounding rockets were launched from India's Thumba Range, which the United States helped design. Thumba's first group of Indian engineers had learned rocket launching and range operation in the United States.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/04/indias-indigenous-copies-of-foreign.html

Ashmit (India) said...

Riaz Haq: "Here are the names of 6 Pakistani universities among top 300 Asian universities ranked by QS 2012"
"Indian students rank near the bottom on PISA, a global test of learning standards conducted in 74 nations this year."

…..

Let's get a few things straight. In India, students from only 2 out of 28 states and 7 union territories were surveyed.

Next, the PISA survey was not conducted in Pakistan (why they thought of Pakistan as irrelavamnt for the survey – is anybody’s guess). So, your well camouflaged exercise in one-upmanship lacks basis, due to lack of PISA findings on Pakistan and standards of education.

Thirdly, speaking of quality of education. You have quoted the rankings of universities in Asia. There are a total of 6 universities from pak that feature on that list, with pak’s premiere NUST university featuring at 108. Meanwhile, 8 Indian universities are in the top 100. Clearly, even the best that pak has to offer, is just not good enough.

Fourthly, for all your talk of Indians being cyber coolies and wage arbitrage, the fact is that the Indian services sector has bloomed into a multi-billion dollar industry that any lesser developed nation would long for.

Finally, your aggressive and confident posturing against india suggests a sense of accomplishment, and achievement. And that would be acceptable from even citizens of countries like Sri Lanka. But Pakistan?!?!? Really?! Last I heard, pak was readying for a fresh round of begging at the IMF.

(http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-112314-Back-to-IMF)

Riaz Haq said...

Ashmit: "In India, students from only 2 out of 28 states and 7 union territories were surveyed."

Students from two states each from different parts of India took PISA and TIMSS...that's four states all together. Himachal Pradesh (North) and Tamil Nadu (South)took PISA & Orissa (East) and Rajasthan (West) took TIMSS.

All of the four sates' students averages were at or near the bottom. If students from the largest, poorest and most backward Indian states of Bihar, MP & UP in the Hindi heartland had participated, the results would be no better.

Ashmit: "due to lack of PISA findings on Pakistan and standards of education."

Indian students ranked bottom, and Pakistanis would do no worse...it's hard to go below the bottom.

Ashmit: "here are a total of 6 universities from pak that feature on that list, with pak’s premiere NUST university featuring at 108. Meanwhile, 8 Indian universities are in the top 100. Clearly, even the best that pak has to offer, is just not good enough".

You are bragging about 8 out of 504 universities in India with 1.2 billion people vs 6 from 143 universities in Pakistan with less than 200 million population?

Iqbal Singh said...

Universities in India (alphabetically)

Title
Aegis School of Business and Telecommunication
Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Bangalore
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Calcutta
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Indore
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Kozhikode
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Lucknow
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Shillong
Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD)
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG)
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK)
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKGP)
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM)
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR)
International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
S P Jain School of Global Management
University of Calcutta
University of Delhi
University of Hyderabad
University of Mumbai
University of Pune
VIT University

My count is 26.

You missed the point that 8 are in top 100 as opposed to none for Pakistan in top 100.

Population ratio comparison that you seek to do is only valid if you take into account the total students at these universities.

Riaz Haq said...

Singh: "My count is 26"

Just 26?

Shouldn't it be closer to 40 compared to Pakistan's 6 to account for the population ratio?

Iqbal Singh said...

Singh: "My count is 26"
Just 26?
Shouldn't it be closer to 40 compared to Pakistan's 6 to account for the population ratio?
-Riaz

For a population ratio comparison one must take into account the student body. For example, U of Calcutta ( my alma mater) has an undergraduate student body of more than 100,000.

Anonymous said...

For a population ratio comparison one must take into account the student body. For example, U of Calcutta ( my alma mater) has an undergraduate student body of more than 100,000.

Exactly the size of students in India vs Pakistan in top institutes ie top 500 is 15:1.

Also Indian Universities in the top 500 are ranked much higher with some of the top 100 rankings having very large student bodies like Delhi University.

Though still I don't consider Indian universities outside IISc(ranked World #60 in Chemistry and in top 100 in Physics and Life Sciences) and IIT(all in world 500 ranking) and a few others being all that good.

Riaz Haq said...

Here are a few excerpts from Wall Street Journal story titled "India Fades":

India's growth prospects have been fading for some time. Multinationals are walking away from the country, withdrawing some $10.7 billion worth of investments in 2011 alone, according to Nomura. Manufacturing contracted by 0.3% for the year that ended March 31. Agriculture and services faltered as well.
-------------
Delhi managed to keep the party going after the 2008 financial crisis with more government spending and easier credit. But that only postponed the reckoning—while sending the inflation rate north of 8% for the better part of the last two years.

After growth dipped below 7% late last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh turned to gimmicks, like having state-owned Coal India boost coal supply to power producers in a one-off manner or proposing to set up special manufacturing zones where factories would get tax breaks. But businesses want less red tape permanently, especially when it comes to energy investments, as well as labor reform to make hiring and firing easier. On both fronts, the Prime Minister has done nothing.

Then there was his one serious attempt at reform. In late November he announced plans to allow foreign investment in big-box retail stores. The reform would have been a boon for consumers, and would have helped import some crucial supply-chain know how. But the reform met the usual combination of populist and special-interest resistance, and the government folded in 10 short days.

Indians are increasingly disenchanted with Congress's failure to push for pro-market reforms, and have voted accordingly in recent state elections. That's the good news. There's been a lot of talk about India's emergence as a new economic superpower. An India with the ambition to rise in the world will not treat a high-growth economy as a national birthright.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303640104577440103460087194.html

Anonymous said...

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/will-provide-technology-access-to-india-us/264634-2.html

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a NY Times story of an English educator in Chitral, Pakistan:

CHITRAL, Pakistan — During a grand gathering of tribal elders in this rugged and remote mountain district recently, one guest of honor stood out: an elderly Englishman in a suit and polished shoes, his snowy hair carefully combed, the morning newspaper folded on his lap.

That man, Geoffrey D. Langlands, has had a front-row seat on Pakistan’s many dramas since he arrived, at the country’s chaotic birth, 65 years ago. He has taken tea with princesses, dined with dictators, been kidnapped by tribesmen and scraped through several wars.

Now, at 94, Mr. Langlands, a former British colonial officer who retired with the rank of major, and a lifelong educator, is striking out on a fresh adventure: retirement.

For the past quarter-century, his home and work have been in Chitral, a sweeping district of snow-dusted peaks at the northern tip of Pakistan. The institution he founded and ran here, the Langlands School and College, has become a watchword for excellence; each year, the best of the school’s 1,000-plus students, one-third of them girls, go on to universities in bigger cities, the United States or the United Kingdom.

That success is all the more startling for its setting in a region awash with violence and intrigue: to the east of Chitral is the Swat Valley, where Pakistan’s army fought Taliban insurgents in 2009; to the west lies the Afghan province of Nuristan, where American troops have seen some of their toughest combat. Some years ago mysterious Americans turned up in town asking questions about Osama bin Laden; locals said they worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
------------
But replace him they must. A minor stroke a few years ago left his hands trembling; doctors worry about the effects of another freezing winter in Chitral. A current of worry courses through local conversations: when the major goes, will his proud school survive him?

The answer, they hope, is another English principal — but this time a female one. From September, the Langlands school will be run by Carey Schofield, a writer who has published books on French gangsters, Mick Jagger and, mostly recently, the Pakistani Army. Ms. Schofield, 58, admits to no teaching experience, but says Chitralis were insistent on another “Britisher.”

“They have so much respect for Major Langlands that I think they wanted to clone him,” she said by phone from London.

Urgent work awaits. As Mr. Langlands has slowed in recent years, problems have piled up: unpaid school fees, lagging teacher wages, a lack of computers, organization and money. Already, Ms. Schofield has raised $55,000 to improve the bumpy track that curls up a steep slope to the senior school: last year a school bus with 14 students on board tumbled over the side; miraculously, no one was badly hurt.

Mr. Langlands, meanwhile, will move to Lahore, where his former students have arranged a small apartment for him on the magnificent grounds of his old school, Aitchison College. He has also, quietly, chosen his spot in one of the city’s Christian cemeteries: near the gate, he says, so friends can visit.

But first, he says, there is more work to be done: a memoir to write, a 95th birthday to share with his brother and more fund-raising. His dream, now, is to build a proper dormitory in Chitral, creating an ever better academy.

“I refuse,” he announces firmly, a gimlet sparkle in his blue-gray eyes, “to sit back and do nothing.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/world/asia/formidable-pakistan-school-losing-its-founder.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

AG said...

I guess my Indian compatriots have to be more mature in responding to Riaz Haq's observation. It need not always be a Pakistan India duel.
The fact is that the IT success story is as Riaz says no different than selling towels and hosiery.If that we not so, we would have seen Indian companies coming out with a lot of IT products; there are just a handful here.Large Indian IT giants shirk away from products and focus on services.As margins come crashing down, the emphasis turns to squeezing more from junior resources, but hardly towards high value added stuff.In the US and Israel, the opposite is true. Small companies show great innovation and promise in coming out with excellent products.
I read an eye opener piece many years ago to a great article in an Indian newspaper.The author alluded to the times in mid nineteenth century when the English were laying out railwy lines in East Africa.Most of the labour was Indian, and the skills ranged from those of a poor labourer at the bottom to the Engine driver, who was at the pinnacle of technology knowhow.His relatives used to boast of his being an engine driver, and many gulible folks then used to claim that without the engine driver, the British empire would collapse.Indians were in larger number than the English, so the belief was that the English empire depended on Indians (this term applies to both Pakistanis and Indiansof today!)to run its economic engine.
Nothing has changed.Indian parents boast that their son works for Microsoft,and we also think that Microsoft survives on the 33% workforce that is claimed to be Indian.But just as the Indians never could design and build railway engines and railway tracks or run an empire, the software greats of India could as of now not create a MS operating systems or design and build hardware or for that matter just software products! Nothing has changed

Riaz Haq said...

AG: "I guess my Indian compatriots have to be more mature in responding to Riaz Haq's observation. It need not always be a Pakistan India duel"

Good advice.

While India has made significant progress, it still remains essentially a poor, backward, third world nation comparable with sub-Saharan Africa on most indicators.

Among all the falsehoods my Indian readers love to claim to put down Pakistan, the two myths that stand out are as follows:

1. They quote Pervez Hoodbhoy to claim that Pakistanis export bedsheets & towels while Indians export IT products.

The fact is that India exports a lot more textiles than Pakistan. Last year Indian textile exports were worth $34 billion (Source: Economic Times), more than twice Pakistan's $14 billion (Source: Dawn). India's IT exports consist mainly of low-end services, not high-end products.

2. They claim Pakistanis are mostly cabbies in America. The 2000 census analysis showed that there were about 10,000 Pakistanis employed in driving and transportation sector versus 16000 Indians

So the chances of finding an Indian made textile or an Indian taxi driver are twice those of finding a Pak made textile or Pak taxi driver.

Finally, it's a fact that India has been and continues to be home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterate people who still defecate in the open.

http://southasiainvestor.blogspot.com/2010/08/india-is-home-to-worlds-largest.html

Riaz Haq said...

Here's Daily Times on increased British aid for education in Pakistan:

Under the new UK Operational Plan for Pakistan (2011-2015), almost 1.4 billion pounds have been allocated for Pakistan, primarily in the education sector.
According to sources, the plan will make Pakistan the largest recipient of the UK development assistance in the world. UK believes that Pakistan’s education system is in crisis, and the country has a booming youth population. By 2032, the number of young people in Pakistan will be larger than the entire UK population. That’s why education is one of the UK’s priorities in Pakistan from 2011 to 2015, besides peace and stability in conflict-hit areas of in the country. Between 2011 and 2015, the UK will support four million children in school and construct more than 20,000 classrooms.
The UK is Pakistan’s second largest trading partner in Europe after Germany and an important source of foreign investment and remittances. Bilateral trade with the country was 1.77 billion pounds last year. Importantly, the two sides have agreed to a Trade and Investment Roadmap to not only increase the bilateral trade to 2.5 billion pounds by 2015 but also enhance investment opportunities. There are over 100 British companies in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s relations with the UK have become stronger and more meaningful since signing of the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue (ESD) on April 5 last year. The UK has also been very supportive of Pakistan’s desire for inclusion in GSP+ in 2014.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\07\21\story_21-7-2012_pg7_28

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an ET story on Dr. Ataur Rehman speech on knowledge economy in Pakistan:

“With the initiatives taken by the HEC, Pakistan was poised to make a major breakthrough and evolve into a knowledge economy from an agricultural economy,” he said. He lamented that an official notification was issued on November 30, 2010 to fragment the HEC and break it into pieces.

Rehman, however, being the Pakistan Academy of Science president intervened and approached the apex court to receive an order which declared the fragmentation of the HEC to be unconstitutional. “The government, however, slashed the commission’s budget by 50 per cent and a number of development programmes in universities have come to a halt,” he said.

Making a reference to an article in The Hindustan Times, he said, “The rapid developments posed a threat to India, but we ourselves are our own worst enemy.” He added we had this aim that Pakistan should not equal India but outdo it in terms of research outpost.

He also highlighted the fact that during his term as minister, he successfully convinced the former president, Pervez Musharraf, to increase the education budget by 2,400 per cent and that of science and technology by 1,600 per cent.

According to Dr Rehman, around 11,000 scholarships were awarded to students to study abroad at mostly European universities.

He said that the world’s largest Fulbright scholarship programme was initiated, with a research grant worth $100,000 dollars and a job arranged for the recipient a year prior of returning to Pakistan.

The HEC also developed the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) through which 60,000 textbooks and 25,000 research journals were made accessible to students at their educational institutions. The students’ enrolment at the universities climbed up to 850,000 from 270,000 in just nine years while the universities produced 3,685 PhDs in such a short span which earlier were 3,200 in total from 1947 till 2000.

As for technological development, Dr Rehman said that fiber-optics lines which were laid in 40 cities in the year 2000, expanded to 400 cities allowing access to internet in nearly 1,000 cities and villages from just 29 cities previously.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/410711/we-are-converting-to-a-knowledge-based-economy-from-an-agriculture-based-economy/

Anonymous said...

I think you should read this, current GDP spending on education in Pakistan is just 0.9% of GDP or 0.58% of total budget, do you really think Pakistan can get its nation out of illiteracy and quality education with such a low monetary allocation on education.

http://www.mediapoint.pk/study-defence-and-education-budget-of-pakistan/

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "current GDP spending on education in Pakistan is just 0.9% of GDP or 0.58% of total budget"

Your figures do not make sense!

How can 0.58% of budget be equal to 0.9% of GDP?

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a story of WFP program take-home rations for school girls in Bajaur agency in FATA:

Taking turns to lug a heavy can of edible oil, Mushtari and Sheema Gul, twin sisters aged nine, trip home happily from their school in Ghareebabad village in Pakistan’s troubled Bajaur Agency.

“Our kitchen is run on this oil,” explains Sheema. The shiny cans are distributed in her school under World Food Programme (WFP)’s ‘Back to school, stay in school’ project launched as people began streaming back to the Bajaur after the Pakistan army completed flushing out Taliban militants from the agency in April 2011.

“Last year, as people displaced by the fighting began returning, we entered into an agreement with the WFP to launch the project,” Akramullah Shah, an official of Bajaur Agency’s education department, tells IPS.

From 2007 to 2009, when the Taliban held sway over Bajaur Agency, about 100,000 people fled for safety to makeshift camps. “During that period Taliban militants destroyed 107 schools and disrupted education services, affecting about 80,000 students,” Shah said.

With much of Bajaur’s infrastructure reduced to rubble and the mainstay of agriculture ruined, the returning residents had little to look forward to and were reluctant to take on the added burden of sending their children to school.

Ghufran Gul, father of Mushtari and Sheema, said he would not have been able to send his daughters to school but for the WFP programme of distributing edible oil and fortified biscuits. “The oil is tasty and people like to use it for making rotis (unleavened bread),” he said.

“We are happy. We sisters get the biscuits while the oil is used by the entire family,” said the Gul twins who study in grade three of the government girls’ high school in Bajaur.
---------
“As soon as the Pakistan army had defeated the militants, we started reconstruction of damaged schools and launched programmes to encourage the students to return, ” Bajaur Agency lawmaker Akhunzada Muhammad Chittan told IPS.

According to Chittan, enrolment at the government-run primary schools had increased from 102,922 in 2010 to 1,320,876 by the end of June this year and was to improve further.

“Apart from providing free books and food items, relief organisations other than the WFP have been pitching in with purchased uniforms, shoes and teaching kits that are powerful incentives for parents to send their children to schools,” he said.

According to the 2008 census the literacy rate among the FATA’s 3.2 million population is just 22 percent, well below the national average of 56 percent.

A brief setback to the food distribution programme occurred in December 2010 when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a WFP centre in the Bajaur, killing 45 people and injuring 80 others.

WFP spokesperson Amjad Jamal said the food assistance programme was due to run until the end of this year, but the U.N. agency has proposed that it should be allowed to continue until 2015.

“The main objectives of the programme are to protect children from hunger and motivate the parents to send their children back to schools to resume their education,” he said.

Except for the North Waziristan Agency, the WFP programme now covers the whole of the FATA and parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhthunkwa provinces.


http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/07/pouring-edible-oil-on-pakistans-troubled-areas/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a News report on Pakistan's published scientific research output:

Pakistan is expected to have second highest increase in research output ranking in the world, increasing from its current position of 43 to 27 in 2018. An encouraging news for higher education sector in Pakistan, the ranking is announced by the Scopus, world’s largest abstract, citation database of research literature and analytical tool similar to Web of Science (Impact Factor).



The Scopus initiated a forecasting exercise on predicting in April 2011 under the topic, “How World Scientific Output will be in 2018”. According to the results of this mega exercise based on the research output from 2003-2010, Pakistan is expected to have the second highest increase in research output ranking in the world.



Commenting on this development, HEC Executive Director Professor Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi said this ranking recognises the tremendous growth in research in higher education sector of Pakistan over the past ten years and it also predicts the a bright future for research in Pakistan.” The HEC has accomplished more in nine years since its establishment than was achieved in the first 55 years of Pakistan’s existence. Recently, six Pakistani universities have been ranked among the top 300 Asian universities.



Research output has grown eight-folds since 2002 (from 815 in 2002 to 6,200 in 2011). Around 80 per cent of these research publications from Pakistan are coming from higher education institutions. Output has more than doubled just in the last 3 years and is expected to double again in the next 3 years.



More than 5,000 Pakistani scholars have been facilitated to present their research work in leading conferences of the world. The HEC Video Conference Network is established in all public sector universities by covering 31 cities. The network is recognised one of the mega interactive network by having total 79 purpose built e-classroom based videoconference set-up.



Access to 140 plus free software provided to over 1 million students in higher education sector and there has been more than 80,000 downloads from 68 universities during 2011-12. During 2011-12, a total of 447 accredited lectures/ lecture series have been conducted by both Local and Foreign Speakers under the Virtual Education Programme, totalling to 1,043 lectures since commencement of programme.



The academic circles have termed the Scopus ranking as great success and honour for the county in particular and higher education sector in general. They believe that if the continuous support may be given to this sector and the faculty continues their work with same zeal and vigour, Pakistani higher education sector can win more laurels for the country.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-124146-Pakistan-expected-to-climb-from-47th-to-27th-place-in-2018

http://www.scimagolab.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/forecasting-excercise.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Here's PakistanToday on young Pakistanis participating and winning at various international science competitions:

Four teams of talented Pakistani students represented Pakistan in the 23rd International Biology Olympiad (IBO) in Singapore, 44th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) in United States, 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Argentina and 43rd International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in Estonia.
This year all the four teams showed excellent performance altogether winning One Silver, Four Bronze Medals and Two Honorable Mentions in these events. The International Science Olympiads are unique competitions organized to discover and encourage young talented students from all over the world, says a press release issued here by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Sunday.
These young talented Pakistani students were facilitated under Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Careers Programme, a joint innovative venture of Higher Education Commission HEC and Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences PIEAS, for grooming talented students for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The main objective of this program is to inspire the Pakistani youth to opt for careers in science, mathematics and engineering and preparing them for participation in the annual International Olympiad in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. The program also encourages Pakistani students to come up with innovative solutions to problems of national interest. Pakistan has been participating in these international competitions since 2001.
According to the details, The 23rd International Biology Olympiad (IBO) was hosted by Singapore from July 8 to July 15, 2012. About 236 students from 59 countries participated in the event. Of the three students who participated from Pakistan in the event, two won Bronze Medals and one got Honorable Mention The bronze medalists include Mr. Usama Tahir from Lahore Grammar School Lahore, Ms. Hafsa Shahab from Lahore Grammar School Islamabad, and Mr. Hassan Mirza (Honorable Mention) from Lahore Grammar School Lahore. The IBO team was led by Dr Zahid Mukhtar.
The 43rd International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) was hosted by Estonia from July 15 to July 24, 2012. Total 400 students from 88 countries participated in the Olympiad. Of the five students who participated from Pakistan in the event, one of them won Bronze Medal. The awards winner is Mr. Muhammad Taimoor Iftikhar (Bronze Medal) from Rangers Public School & College Mandi Bahauddin. The IPhO team was led by Dr Shahid Qamar and Dr Aftab Rafiq of PIEAS, Islamabad.
The 44th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) was hosted by United States, from July 21 to July 30, 2012. About 270 students from 70 countries participated in the event. Of the four students who participated from Pakistan in the event, one of them won Bronze Medal. The award winners is Mr. Armughan Ahmad Khan from Lahore Grammar School Lahore. The IChO team was led by Prof Dr. Khalid M Khan and Dr Muhammad Raza Shah of HEJ Research Institute, Karachi.
The 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) was hosted by Argentina from July 8 to July 16, 2012. About 600 students from 100 countries participated in the event. Waqar Ali Syed of Beacon House School Karachi won Silver Medal while Ms. Huma Sibghat from Hamza Army Public School & College Rawalpindi won Honorable Mention. The IMO team was led by Prof Dr Barbu Berceanu and Dr Ahmed Mahmood Qureshi from Government College University Lahore...
-...


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/08/05/news/national/pakistani-students-shine-at-international-science-olympiads-2012/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a BR report on HEC sponsored research scholars:

Higher Education Commission (HEC) has awarded 1647 scholarships to PhD scholars, studying in higher education institutions of Pakistan, for undertaking research at top ranking universities of 37 academically advanced countries.

The scholarships has been awarded under International Research Support Initiative Programme (IRSIP).

These foreign scholarships have been awarded in all the major disciplines including physical sciences, agriculture and veterinary sciences, biological and medical sciences, social sciences, management sciences and engineering.

It was informed during the 22nd meeting of IRSIP award committee which was presided over by the Executive Director HEC, Prof. Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi.

The meeting was apprised that through this innovative programme, HEC is offering six month research fellowship abroad to full time PhD students enrolled in Pakistan to enhance their research capabilities.

It is of utmost importance that the doctoral studies carried out in Pakistan are of a standard that is at par with any international reputed institution. This is only possible if candidates are provided with adequate support in research projects.

The indigenous PhD students sometimes face problems in research due to paucity of resources therefore the scheme is helping to provide doctoral students exposure internationally so they could carry out research projects of high standard.

It was also informed that the scheme is also assisting ongoing Indigenous PhD programmes by providing a mechanism for PhD scholars to travel abroad and conduct research in academically advanced countries.

This is providing exposure to the PhD scholars which will enhance the quality of research that they will be conducting in Pakistan.

The programme has also been greatly helpful to develop academic linkages between Pakistani and leading foreign institutions. The fellowship package covers travel, bench fee and living expenditure.

As an outcome of this programme, the number of international research publications by Pakistani scholars has been increased from 304 to 662 with 117% increase while the number of local publications has also been increased from 380 to 552 with 45% increase.

The Executive Director HEC and participants of the meeting appreciated the outcome of the programme and termed it as flagship programme of the HEC.

The establishment of the HEC in September 2002 has heralded a revolution in higher education in Pakistan; the HEC has accomplished more in nine years since its establishment than was achieved in the first 55 years of Pakistan's existence.

In Pakistan, under the HEC, in addition to quality reforms, there has been a strong resurgence of research and innovation.

In particular, there is a significant growth in the number of PhDs awarded out of Pakistani universities.

As a result of phenomenal increase in research publications, the world share of Pakistan's research has gone up by 300 percent in the last five years.


http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/general-news/72612.html

Hopewins said...

AG SAID:.....The fact is that the IT success story is as Riaz says no different than selling towels and hosiery.If that we not so, we would have seen Indian companies coming out with a lot of IT products; there are just a handful here.Large Indian IT giants shirk away from products and focus on services.As margins come crashing down, the emphasis turns to squeezing more from junior resources, but hardly towards high value added stuff.In the US and Israel, the opposite is true. Small companies show great innovation and promise in coming out with excellent products.....

---------------------------

South Korea started off as a dirt-poor country just like India in 1950.

Today, South Korea is considered a fully-developed country and a member of the OECD.

Can you name any South-Korean innovation?

When you cannot compete on price, necessity becomes the mother of invention, and so you innovate. Your example: US, Israel.

When you can compete on price, you do that and let the others innovate & then learn from that innovation.
Your example: India, Pakistan.

This is exactly how the South-Koreans climbed the ladder to developed status. As far as South-Korea today is concerned, the latest innovations will happen in the richer US and they will then learn from the US to rise along with them.

---------------------------

AG SAID:.....I read an eye opener piece many years ago to a great article in an Indian newspaper.The author alluded to the times in mid nineteenth century when the English were laying out railwy lines in East Africa.Most of the labour was Indian, and the skills ranged from those of a poor labourer at the bottom to the Engine driver, who was at the pinnacle of technology knowhow.His relatives used to boast of his being an engine driver, and many gulible folks then used to claim that without the engine driver, the British empire would collapse.Indians were in larger number than the English, so the belief was that the English empire depended on Indians to run its economic engine.........

------------------------

Actually, this view is not totally incorrect.

The British Empire could not have been run without the collaboration and co-operation of Indians. This was true of the Empire in India as well as in Sub-saharan Africa, SE Asia and the Middle East & North Africa.

Without Indian troops fighting & stabilizing swaths of SE Asia, North Africa and West Asia and Iran, the Empire would have lost both World Wars even before the US could intervene.

Without India and Indians, the British Empire would have collapsed economically, politically and militarily a long, long time ago. This is exactly what Churchill said when he opposed granting India independence as he warned that losing India would spell the end of the Empire. And that is exactly what happened. The Empire effectively ended when India broke away.

And BTW, the term "India" here refers to Unified India pre-1947.

Hopewins said...

^^^^Forget the hype. Deal with reality of India..... Textile industry .... accounting for a fifth of India’s exports......

-----------------

Textiles, Fabrics & Related (from List below) = $13,689 + $6,805+ $5,063= 25,557 Million$

% of India's Total Exports = 8.2%

Very, very far away from "a fifth", methinks. Perhaps the World Bank Report cited is an old one?

IMF is now projecting that India's Exports of Goods & Services will reach 1.4 Trillion$ by 2020. Our Exports of Goods & Services are projected to reach only 60 Billion$ over the same period.

Why the difference? Domestic savings, domestic savings, domestic savings.....

-----------

REFERENCE: India's Detailed Goods-EXPORTS (sorted by value) for 2011-12 from RBI---

III. Petroleum Products $55,604
II.E Gems & Jewellery $46,901
1. Pharma $24,440
4. Transport Equip $20,906
IV. Others $16,662
3. Machines and Instr $14,364
6. Readymades $13,689
2. Metal Manufactures $9,615
5. Electronic Goods $8,895
15. Other Agriculture $8,273
6. Other Engg Goods $6,866
1. Cotton Fabrics $6,805
1. Iron & Steel $6,447
2. Plastic Products $6,356
3. Manmade Fabrics $5,063
3. Rice $5,033
II.A Leather Goods $4,789
3. Glass, Paints etc $4,771
5. Cotton Raw $4,512
1. Iron Ore $4,421
3. Other Ores $3,683
12. Marine Products $3,461
14. Meat $2,945
8. Spices $2,749
II.G Other Manuf Goods $2,580
9. Oil Meals $2,454
13. Sugar $1,875
4. Residual Chem $1,623
10. Fruits and Veg $1,191
11. Processed Fruits $1,140
2. Coffee $946
7. Cashew Processed $929
1. Tea $864
9. Carpets $846
6. Tobacco $836
4. Manmade Fibre $566
7. Jute Manufactures $457
II.F Handicrafts $234
4. Wheat $214
8. Coir & Manuf $213
2. Silk Yarn $208
5. Woolen Products $152
2. Mica $49
TOTAL EXPORTS $304,624

AG said...

If Pakistan has indeed surpassed on most of the parameters, why don't you raise the bar and look for another benchmark?

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a News report on number of PhDs in Pakistan:

The Pakistani universities are now able to produce more PhDs in the next 3 years as compared to last 10 years. The total number of PhDs in Pakistan has reached the figure of 8,142.



According to the data available with ‘The News’, the number of PhDs has increased from 348 (1947 to 2002) to 679 in 2012 in agriculture and veterinary sciences, from 586 to 1,096 in biological sciences, from 14 to 123 in business education, from merely 21 to 262 in engineering and technology and from 709 to 1,071 in physical sciences. In social sciences, the number increased to 887 from 108 during last ten years.



The figures also indicate that during the last decade, special emphasis has been paid to the disciplines of agriculture and veterinary sciences, biological sciences, business education, engineering and technology, physical sciences and social sciences.



Expressing his view over this development, HEC Executive Director Professor Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi said that the production of these PhDs is the harbinger of a great future. “These researchers, who have worked on problems of crucial importance to Pakistan, will play a leading role in the production of knowledge workers with a potential to take Pakistan in the ranks of developed nations,” he added.



He further said that HEC since its inception has introduced various indigenous scholarship schemes to create a critical mass of highly qualified human resources in all fields of studies who conduct research on issues of importance to Pakistan. “These locally qualified academics and researchers are playing an important role to improve the research and development potential of public as well as private universities and it will also strengthen the local industrial sector. With the launching of the schemes, research culture in public or private sector universities has been developed in accordance with international standards.”



The education experts view this development as an achievement in the higher education sector of Pakistan.



Dr. Farida Faisal, a fresh PhD holder from Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi in Economics, views this development as result of provision of incentives and various indigenous scholarship schemes introduced during last few years in Pakistan. She said that good aspect of this development is that along with quantity, there has been strong emphasis over quality of these PhDs, which will improve with the passage of time, she hoped.



She suggested that keeping in view the future needs of Pakistan; there is a need to produce more number of PhDs in the next ten years.



Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed, associate professor at the Institute of Business and Management, UET, Lahore, who has recently completed his PhD degree in Management Science with distinction from Foundation University, Islamabad, termed this achievement an outcome of reforms and education-friendly policies introduced by the HEC, which were aimed at promotion and research and academic activities nationwide and across the globe during the last decade.



In the first 55 years since Pakistan’s independence, a total of 3,281 PhDs were awarded at Pakistani universities. However, since the establishment of the HEC in 2002, over 4,850 PhDs have been awarded to-date, which is more than what was awarded in the previous 55 years.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-136296-Total-number-of-PhDs-reaches-8142-in-Pakistan

Riaz Haq said...

Here's PakObserver on growing number of people with doctorate degrees i Pakistan:

Saturday, November 24, 2012 - Islamabad—The Pakistani universities are now able to produce more PhDs in the next 3 years as compared to last 10 years. The total number of PhDs in Pakistan has reached the figure of 8,142. According to the available statistics, the number of PhDs has increased from 348 (1947 to 2002) to 679 in 2012 in agriculture and veterinary sciences, from 586 to 1,096 in biological sciences, from 14 to 123 in business education, from merely 21 to 262 in engineering and technology and from 709 to 1,071 in physical sciences, Technology Times Reported.

In social sciences, the number increased to 887 from 108 during last ten years. The figures also indicate that during the last decade, special emphasis has been paid to the disciplines of agriculture and veterinary science, biological, physical and social sciences, business education, engineering and technology. “HEC has so far introduced various indigenous scholarship schemes to create a critical mass of highly qualified human resources in all fields of studies who conduct research on issues of importance to Pakistan.


http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=183938

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a News Op Ed by Dr. Javaid Laghari of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission:

Universities in Pakistan have rapidly morphed into their new role as producers of knowledge and research that lead to innovation and entrepreneurship, create employment, and be prime builders of a knowledge economy.
----

As per the Education Policy 2008, the HEC targets to increase accessibility to higher education from the current 8 percent to 15 percent by 2020, which translates into an increase in university enrolment from 1m to 2.3m. This is a major challenge tied to the funding situation. However, to achieve the best results effectively, in addition to establishing new campuses, the HEC is focusing on the use of educational technologies and through the recently established directorates of distance education.


---

Faculty development programmes are the mainstay of the HEC. With over 7500 scholars currently pursuing their PhD degrees both within and outside the country, and an additional 2,200 having graduated and placed at universities and other organisations, it is estimated that with the projected growth in universities, at least 16,000 ‘additional’ PhD faculty will be required by 2020.



This will raise the percentage of the PhD faculty from the current 22 percent to 40 percent. Simultaneously, the standards for faculty appointment will become stringent. Starting in 2014, all lecturer appointments will require a MPhil/MS degree, and from 2016, all assistant professors and above will require a PhD degree.



------


There has been a significant growth in the number and quality of the PhDs awarded. The number of PhDs awarded per year has increased to over 850 in 2011, with significantly higher standards. It is estimated that over 2400 PhDs will be awarded in 2020, which will give Pakistan the same competitive advantage in research and innovation as is available to China, India, Turkey and Malaysia.



The number of research publications out of Pakistan has gone up by 50 percent in the last two years alone. Scimago, an independent database, has projected that Pakistan will have the second-highest growth in the Asiatic region, moving up 16 notches from the current worldwide ranking of 43 to 27.



Offices of innovation, research and commercialisation, centres of advanced study and research in energy, food security, and water resource, incubators and technology parks are being established to link research and innovation with industry.

----

This is already beginning to pay off, as today more than six Pakistani universities are ranked among the top 300 universities of the world, while there were none a few years ago. By 2015, we expect at least 10 universities to be in the top 300, with one in the top 100.



All HEC reforms are becoming the envy of other countries in the region. While Turkey already has a similar commission, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in the process of replicating the HEC model, and India is going a step further and establishing a supra-HEC with far-reaching consequences to position itself as a regional leader.



The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report indicators on higher education and training, technology readiness and innovation are showing a consistent improvement over the last three years for Pakistan, much more than many other countries, which is clear proof that higher education reforms are paying off.



---

Pakistan has achieved critical mass and reached a point of take-off. For this phenomenal growth to continue, it is important for the government and other stakeholders to support and further strengthen the HEC as a national institution and protect its autonomy. If this momentum continues for another 10 years, Pakistan is certain to become a global player through a flourishing knowledge economy and a highly literate population.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-147565-HEC-the-next-10-years

Riaz Haq said...

Here's Gulf News on a planned model village named after Arfa Karim:

Islamabad: Authorities in Pakistan are planning to build a model village in honour of late Arfa Karim, an information technology genius who at nine years became the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional.

Arfa’s ancestral village in Punjab, Ramdewali Chak No 4, will be soon developed into a model village at a cost of Rs140 million (Dh52 million) the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

A monument will be built at her grave, and a library and a museum will also be established within the model village.

“She deserves to be honoured by the entire nation forever,” the APP quoted a government spokesman as saying.

The village will have a girls’ degree college, a technical training centre, a basic health unit, a playground, improved drainage scheme, paved streets, provision of portable water and agriculture equipment.

Arfa died in January 2012, aged 16, after complications resulting from an epileptic stroke and cardiac arrest.

She rose to international fame when she became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at the age of nine in 2005. She was subsequently invited to visit the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, by founder Bill Gates.

She received the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of science and technology in 2005, and was also the recipient of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance.

In 2006, she was invited by Microsoft to be a part of a conference in Barcelona. She was the only Pakistani among over 5,000 developers in that conference, the Daily Mail reported.


http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/pakistan-plans-model-village-to-honour-it-wizkid-1.1129557

Riaz Haq said...

Here's PakistanToday on German help for vocational training in Pakistan:

KARACHI - The Government of Germany is launching a joint initiative with eight German firms to impart vocational training for mechanical professionals in Pakistan. To be formally started in spring this year, the Germany-Pakistan Training Initiative (GPATI) was supported by the German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation through Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
GPATI was a joint initiative of the German Consulate General in Karachi and eight German companies based in the metropolis.
On Monday, Robert Bosch GmbH of Germany donated some tool sets consisting of over 10 top of the line power tools for the vocational institutes in Pakistan through their local principals, Adamjee Trading Corporation, a part of the Adamjee Group.
The German Consul General Dr Tilo Klinner and Adpower Group Executive Director Hisham Adamjee presented the first set of the tool kits to AmanTech, one of the two vocational training institutes participating in the GPATI.
The donated sets included tools for woodworking, metalworking, stone working and concrete drilling and breaking.
The tools would enable trainees at the selected vocational training institutes to work with quality tools and according to international standards and to promote the German quality concept regarding products in Pakistan.
Moreover, it would also allow the trainees to learn new skills which would help them compete and work in the international market.
Bosch, one of the largest portable power tools manufacturers in the world, had recently launched their power tools in the Pakistani market which have proved its worth in the local market.
GPATI was founded on the renowned concept of Dual Training System that was implemented effectively throughout Germany and was also successfully applied internationally.
The objective of this unique training initiative was to produce a workforce that was immediately productive and ready to take on the existing and emerging challenges of the industry.
The participants of this programme would have a good balance of knowledge, skills and a positive work attitude. On the Job Training (OJT) was an essential element of this concept.
The two vocational training institutes participating in this programme were AmanTech and iACT.


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/01/22/city/karachi/german-firms-to-impart-vocational-training-to-pakistanis/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Daily Times report on AI and Robotics education in Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD: Robotics as a discipline of science and technology is being taught at the graduate and post-graduate levels by more than 60 universities of Engineering Science and Technology in Pakistan, official sources told Daily Times here on Saturday.

The research and development (R&D) in advanced fields of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence has also been undertaken by some of laboratories established in the R&D institutes and universities in Pakistan. The official in the Ministry of Science and Technology claimed that there is a technical group engaged in development of automation of industrial processes at the National Institute of Electronics (NIE), Islamabad. The group has developed Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which are used in automatic industrial controls.

The Centre for Intelligent Machines and Robotics (IMR) at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology has a Research Group, which is undertaking research related to robotics, computer vision and machine learning. The IMR Research Group is conducting basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks; the robotics technology in Pakistan has the potential role in boosting the productivity and competitiveness. The researchers at CIIT are working for projects on visual guided robotic systems for use in surgery, navigation control, mapping and geometric representation of environmental parameters.

National Engineering Robotics Contest (NERC) is an inter universities robotics competition held annually since 2005 at the NUST. The contest is organised by HEC, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Careers Project with more than 60 Pakistani universities participating in the event, and aims to train individuals for engineering services in Pakistan, and cash prizes are awarded to the winners.

NERC 2011 held at the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME), Rawalpindi from June 28 to July 2. Many universities like FAST, GIKI, LUMS, CASE and UET Lahore participated in the event, where students were encouraged to design, develop and programme their respective robots.

R&D projects on Tele-Surgical Training Robot and Simulators and Development of Intelligent Robotic Wheelchairs are being undertaken by NUST funded by ICT R&D Fund.

International workshops and seminars for knowledge sharing and events at national level for talent hunt among youth in the fields of robotics have been organised regularly at NUST. Specialisation in robotics is a popular choice for students going abroad to study under various scholarships schemes for research and PhD. This field offers job opportunities, and robotics engineers can apply their mastery in diverse fields like modern warfare, surgery, nano-technology and space-exploration.

The official claimed that developing a robot comes with the goal of finding a solution to the problem. Along with the technical know-how, interest in research is essential. This field has promising opportunities, with no boundaries and will continue to grow with the advancement of science and technology in the near future.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\02\10\story_10-2-2013_pg5_12

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a post on AI and Robotics Conf at NUST Pakistan:

Rawalpindi:The 1st International two days Conference on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence was organized at NUST, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.The conference held under flagship of IEEE and National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) on Monday.

ICRAI is the first of its series, and this conference will be held biennially. This conference covers latest and emerging trends in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence including Intelligent Mechatronics and Robotics, Haptics, Tele and Medical robotics, Unmanned Vehicles, Prosthetics, Micro and Nano robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Neuro and Fuzzy control, Human Machine Interface and Automation.

Maj Gen. Obaid Bin Zakria, commandant college of E&ME welcomed all participants and guests at the opening ceremony. He highlighted the importance of research conferences around the world and said that this is how knowledge integrates into development of great ideas.

He appreciated the efforts put in by the Department of Mechatronics Engineering for arranging such an event. He said that NUST College of E&ME has been a home to novel, state of the art projects and the research work being done here is no less than the work done internationally. Our students are technically sound, very talented and extremely competent and the work presented in this conference is a proof of that.

Dr. Mahmood Anwar Khan, the Conference Chair informed that more than 110 research papers had been submitted to the conference and after a thorough review, 20 were accepted for oral presentation and 13 for poster. He also mentioned that the conference was graced by four International key note speakers from USA, UK and Korea.

Dr. Francisco Sepulveda from University of Essex, UK gave an interesting keynote talk on Brain Computer Interface Systems . At the end of his talk, he praised the level of research being done in Pakistan.

Dr. Lynn E Parker from University of Tennessee, USA said in her recorded message that The conduct of such an event in Pakistan shows the research maturity of the academic institutions . She further assured to attend the conference next time.

Dr. Younus Javed, Dean NUST College of E&ME emphasized that such events and meetings give a chance to form collaborative projects and research groups.

Dr. Javaid Iqbal, Head of Mechatronics Engineering Department appreciated the turnout at the conference and said that the aim of conference is to have collaboration of national and international researchers from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds to bridge the gap.

At the end of the ceremony, the Chief Guest Dr. Javaid R. Laghari, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) gave souvenirs to the foreign keynote speakers.

In his address, the Chief Guest congratulated NUST College of E&ME for arranging 1st International Conference on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Pakistan.

He mentioned that conferences like this are not only a platform for great minds to meet but also a venue for research collaboration. He said that everyone should make the most of this opportunity and socialize and discuss latest topics of research.

He also mentioned that this conference was the first of its kind and expected it to grow over the years into one of the prestigious conferences in the field of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence .

A large number of participants from many Universities, colleges and research organizations of the country have benefited from this well focused and target oriented conference.


http://pakistan.onepakistan.com.pk/news/city/141930-1st-international-conference-on-robotics-and-artificial-intelligence-icrai-2012-held.html

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an ET report on nanochemistry lab in Karachi:

The country’s first ever nanochemistry laboratory is slated to open at Karachi University next year.

A ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of the facility, called Latif Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute of Nanotechnology, was held at the institution on Monday. The first-of-its-kind research centre in the country will be a part of the university’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) and receive Rs50 million worth of funds from the Husein Ebrahim Jamal Foundation.

The director of ICCBS, Prof. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, said that the new centre will be housed in a two-storey building with ten large laboratories, a central instrument room, dedicated library, a central workshop, a pilot plant and faculty, seminar and meetings rooms.

Speaking at the occasion, the founder of the Higher Education Commission, Dr Attaur Rahman, said, “In today’s world, nanotechnology has a major influence on the development of science and technology as well as engineering. The world of nanotechnology involves shrinking things down to a whole new level, where things are a billion times smaller than the world of metres that we live in.” He added that the country’s progress in the field of nanotechnology is strategically important for rapid industrial development. Dr Rahman added that in the near future, many fields, including manufacturing of new diagnostics, medicines, agrochemicals, defence products and engineering equipment will become dependent on nanochemistry.

The university’s dean of sciences, Prof. Shahana Urooj Kazmi, was quite optimistic that Pakistan will be able to create a pool of skilled manpower in the discipline as well as a network with international experts. “I believe the scientists from across the world will have a great time doing research with the latest equipment at the state-of-the-art centre.”

The HEJ Foundation had also played a key-role in the establishment of world-famous HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the university, which garnered tremendous recognition for Pakistan in the fields of chemical and biological sciences, said its chairperson, Aziz Latif Jamal. The foundation had also established the largest digital library in the region, named as LEJ National Science Information Centre. It has access to over 31,000 science journals and around 60,000 books from 220 international publishers.

Sindh governor’s adviser on higher education, Aftab Lodhi, was also present at the event.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/512455/first-nanochemistry-lab-of-pakistan-to-be-set-up-at-ku/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an excerpt of a Dawn report on Pakistan's university education:

According to the OECD’s 2009 Global Education Digest, 6.3 per cent of Pakistanis were university graduates as of 2007. The government plans to increase this rate to 10 per cent by 2015 and 15 per cent by 2020. But the key challenges are readiness for growth of the educational infrastructure and support from public and private sector.
----------
According to 2008 statistics, Pakistan produces about 445,000 university graduates and 10,000 computer science graduates per year. Pakistan Telecom Authority indicates that as of 2008 there are nearly 22 million internet users and over 80 million mobile phone subscribers. A combination of all these educational and technological factors gives Pakistan great leverage to progress towards targeted curriculum development and dissemination through e-learning..


http://dawn.com/2011/02/28/towards-e-learning/

Here's an excerpt of OECD Global Education Digest 2009:

In 2007, 9% of all mobile students originated from South and West Asia. Overall, 1.5% of the region’s tertiary students go abroad, which is lower than the
global average. India, for example, accounts for 5.5% of
the global total of mobile students. Yet, its outbound
mobility ratio is very low with only 1 out of 100 tertiary
students from the country studying abroad. Outbound mobility ratios are generally low across the
region with the notable exceptions of Nepal (5%) and Pakistan (3%). In 2007, the outbound mobility ratio increased by 0.5 percentage points.


http://www.ifap.ru/library/book433.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Top four online outsourcing sites Elance.com, oDesk.com, reelancer.com, and Guru.com report that Pakistan ranks number 3, after US (#1)and India (#2), in terms of freelancers doing outsourced IT work on contract. Bangladesh ranks fourth.

It also shows US, Australia and the UK as the top hiring countries.

All of the above-mentioned websites work in a similar fashion: companies post job requirements on these sites. Next, freelancers or IT-companies offer their skills and price for the project listed on the website. Finally, the company chooses the best type of bid for its job requirements.

http://swproposal.com/Blog/Topic/How_to_work_with_Elance_oDesk_Freelancer_and_Guru

Riaz Haq said...

The latest 2012 IQ data published by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen puts mean IQ of Pakistanis at 84 and of Indians at 82.2, and Bangladeshis at 81.

Each country has big std deviations and large positive outliers.

The highest IQs are reported for East Asia (100+) and the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa (just over 70).

https://lesacreduprintemps19.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/intelligence-a-unifying-construct-for-the-social-sciences-richard-lynn-and-tatu-vanhanen.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Nation report on Pakistan's rising research publications in international journals:

Pakistan has witnessed, an impressive 50 per cent increase in the number of research publications during just the last two years, going up from 3939 to 6200 in the higher education sector of Pakistan.

This has been the second highest increase worldwide. Scimago, the world's leading research database, forecast that if this research trend from Pakistan continues, then by 2018, Pakistan will move ahead 26 notches in world ranking, from 43 to 27, and for the first time ever, will cross Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand in Asia. Today Pakistan is publishing more research papers per capita than India.
The number of PhD faculty at our public universities has also increased by almost 50%, from 4203 to 6067 in just the last 2 years alone. This is the result of the HEC PhD scholars that have started returning back and joining universities. These scholars are being selected for pursuing studies at leading universities of the academically advanced countries through a well-defined open, transparent and merit based mechanism.
About 10 to 15 scholars are completing their PhDs every week and are being placed by HEC at the universities under Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs Programme (IPFP). Other HEC incentives include a 0.5 million research grant to every returning scholar. Currently, there are hundreds of fresh foreign PhDs currently inducted into various universities across the country.
The number of PhD students enrolled at the universities has increased by over 40% in just the last one year, from 6937 to 9858 students, while over 28122 students are registered for MPhil/MS, up from 16960, an increase of 65% in just two years.
The increase in the number of PhDs awarded is again very similar, from 628 to 927 in the last 3 years, and will surge exponentially in the future as more PhD faculty and students join the universities.
Commenting on these developments, Dr. Javaid R. Laghari Chairperson HEC said that Universities are the single most important producers of knowledge and research that leads to innovation and entrepreneurship.
By introducing innovation, creativity and interdisciplinary research as a vital component of teaching, and with knowledge exchange programs, the university contributes more directly to the economy and the society than many other institutions in the country.


http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/islamabad/24-Jun-2013/pakistan-becomes-major-player-in-world-research

http://www.scimagojr.com/


http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=0&category=0&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Anonymous said...

The latest 2012 IQ data published by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen puts mean IQ of Pakistanis at 84 and of Indians at 82.2, and Bangladeshis at 81.

Each country has big std deviations and large positive outliers.

The highest IQs are reported for East Asia (100+) and the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa (just over 70).

https://lesacreduprintemps19.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/intelligence-a-unifying-construct-for-the-social-sciences-richard-lynn-and-tatu-vanhanen.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an AP report on increased spending and focus on education in Pakistan:

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says international donors have pledged to provide Pakistan with about a billion dollars over the next three years to help it provide education to millions of out-of-school children.

Now a United Nations special envoy on global education, Brown said Saturday in Islamabad that the global community will partner with Pakistan in financing the biggest education expansion in the country's history.

Pakistan recently doubled its education budget, from two to four percent of its gross domestic product.

Brown says the goal is to provide education to more than 55 million people over ten years old who are illiterate in Pakistan.


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/donors-pledge-billion-pakistan-education-23112596

Riaz Haq said...

From Sadaf Shallwani:

Take a look at these recent statistics:

Pakistan has the second highest (after Nigeria) population of out-of-school children in the world, with almost five and a half million school-aged children not accessing school . This number accounts for 10% of the world’s out-of-school children. (UNESCO, 2014)
72% of school-aged children enroll in school. This is an improvement compared to two decades ago, when only 58% of children enrolled in school. One of key goals of the Education For All declaration is for countries to achieve a primary enrollment target of at least 95% by 2015. While Pakistan is rated as very far from target (with an enrollment rate below 80%), it is also rated as having relatively strong progress over the last two decades. (UNESCO, 2014)
However, only one out of every two children who enroll in school will make it to the last year of primary (Grade 5). On average, 4% of children will repeat any given grade. (UNESCO, 2014)
Before the end of Grade 1, 17.5% of enrolled children drop out of school. Another 4.9% repeat Grade 1. In other words, more than one in five children experiences failure before making it to Grade 2. (UNESCO, 2014)
Of those children completing primary school (Grade 5), 51% are unable to read at a Grade 2 level and 57% are unable to do arithmetic at a Grade 2 level (SAFED, 2014). This means that these children have spent five or more years of their lives attending school but are still without basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Outcomes for all learning indicators are lower in government schools than in private schools, and lower in rural areas than in urban areas. (SAFED, 2014)
The education system is failing too many children!

Education is critical for human development – and for national development. Consider this:

The Pakistani government invests only 2.3% of its Gross National Product in education – less than what it spends on the military (UNESCO, 2014). The effects on the availability and quality of the education system are clear, as seen above.
In Pakistan, the wages of a literate person are 23% higher than those of an illiterate person (UNESCO, 2014). However, the adult literacy rate is 55% (UNESCO, 2014), and it will be difficult to increase this number in the decades ahead with so many out-of-school children, and so many children leaving primary school without basic literacy skills.
We need to push for greater public investment in education in Pakistan. This means:

Increasing tax revenue and reducing tax evasion (less than 1% of Pakistanis pay income tax – Economist, 2012, as cited in UNESCO, 2014)
Prioritizing education at the policy and budget level – above the military for example (education is likely a stronger force against terrorism and war anyway, in the long run!), and
Identifying and implementing proven strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools across the country – especially in the early grades. (More on this in a later post.)

http://sadafshallwani.net/2014/08/07/primary-education-in-pakistan/

Riaz Haq said...

India College and University Education Stats:


Key Results of the AISHE 2011‐12 (Provisional)
 Survey covers entire Higher Education Institutions in the country. Institutions
are categorised in 3 broad Categories; University, College and Stand‐Alone
Institutions. Lists of 642 Universities, 34908 colleges and 11356 Stand Alone
Institutions have been prepared during the survey.
 In addition to the actual response received during AISHE 2011‐12, data has
been pooled from the AISHE 2010‐11 for the Institutions whose name existed
in 2011‐12 but has not submitted data so far. Thus the results are based on 601
Universities, 21158 Colleges and 6702 Stand Alone Institutions. Out of 601
universities, 238 are affiliating.
 Whole survey was conducted through online mode for which a dedicated
portal (http://aishe.gov.in) has been developed. The e‐version of DCF expands
according to the structure/size of the Institution. No investigator is sent to the
Institution to collect the data. One unique feature is that the filled in DCFs are
always available on the portal, which can be seen by the Institutions and
higher level authorities.
 There are 83 Technical, 33 Agriculture, 24 Medical, 17 law and 10 Veterinary
Universities.
 The top 6 States in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil
Nadu.
 Bangalore district tops in terms of number of colleges with 924 colleges
followed by Jaipur with 544 colleges. Top 50 districts have about 36% of
colleges.
 College density, i.e. the number of colleges per lakh eligible population
(population in the age‐group 18‐23 years) varies from 6 in Bihar to 64 in
Puducherry as compared to All India average of 25.  
 73% Colleges are privately managed; 58% Private‐unaided and 15% Private‐
aided. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, both have more than 85% Private‐
unaided colleges, whereas, Bihar has only 6% and Assam 10% Private‐
unaided colleges.
 Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 28.56 million
with 15.87 million boys and 12.69 million girls. Girls constitute 44.4% of the
total enrolment. 

http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics/AISHE2011-12P_1.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

At the time of its independence in 1947, the nascent nation of Pakistan had only one university, the University of Punjab. By 1997, the number of universities had risen to 35, of which 3 were federally administered and 22 were under the provincial governments, with a combined enrollment of 71,819 students. There were also 10 private universities. The universities are responsible for graduate (postgraduate) education leading to master's and doctoral degrees in a variety of fields. Most universities have their own faculty in the various departments but many use senior faculty from the colleges to participate in the teaching program at the master's level as well as for supervising students at the doctoral level. The trend is, however, to concentrate all postgraduate work in the university departments in order to maximize the benefits of teacher-student interaction on a daily basis. This has tended to limit the college faculty exclusively to undergraduate education, which serves as a disincentive for them to conduct higher-level research or writing.

Read more: Pakistan - Higher Education - Universities, Colleges, Students, and University - StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1146/Pakistan-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html#ixzz3gG4rjO2H

Riaz Haq said...

The latest presently available enrollment statistics are for 2004-2005. They amount to 534,000 or 2.5% of the eligible age group. If affiliated colleges are included, the number of students the higher education sectors increases to
807,000 which is about 3.8% of the eligible age group.


http://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2014/02/Essay-On-Pakistan-Higher-Education.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan is facing a shortage of manpower in technical and vocational education as only 255,636 students are enrolled in 3,125 different vocational education and training institutes’ set-up across the country. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report, Pakistan presently had 64 technicians per one million population, while the same figure for the technically advanced countries was in the range of 1,500 to 2,500.

http://www.hedfpk.com/blog/posts/vocational-education-and-training-for-pakistan-students/

Riaz Haq said...

The (ADB) report ( Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2015) uses a unique data set of education indicators across 67 economies globally, including 23 from developing Asia and the Pacific, to capture key features of basic educational systems.

In most economies, the report states that the enrollment ratios are generally gender neutral, the largest gap is in Pakistan, where the net enrollment ratio in primary education for boys is 9.9 percentage points higher than that for girls, but this gender gap has narrowed significantly from 21.1 percentage points in 2002.

In other economies where enrollment ratios have been in favour of boys in earlier years, the gender gaps have also narrowed, with the advantages slightly reversing in favour of girls in latest years for Bangladesh, Bhutan, Georgia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Developing economies with youth literacy rates below 80% include Afghanistan (47.0%), Bangladesh (79.9%), Bhutan (74.4%), Pakistan (70.8%), and Papua New Guinea (71.2%).

Among the 23 economies that fell short of the 95% mark for completion of last grade of primary school, five economies with the lowest ratios (below 70%) are Nepal (60.4%), India (61.4%), Pakistan (62.2%), Cambodia (64.2%), and Bangladesh (66.2%). However, more economies have improved their expected primary school completion rates, with significant increases of at least 20 percentage points (pp) in Bhutan (48 pp), Cook Islands (30 pp), Cambodia (30 pp), the Lao PDR (41 pp), Mongolia (23 pp), Nepal (25 pp) and Tajikistan (27 pp). Armenia’s latest rate (94.2%) is slightly below 95% and has just fallen slightly from its 1997 baseline rate (96.5%).

As of 2015 (or latest year), all economies in the Asia and Pacific region have under-5 mortality rates of less than 100 deaths per 1,000 live births, with the highest rates in Afghanistan (91), Pakistan (81), and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (67).

Other developing economies with at most 75% of their 1-year-old children immunized against measles are Afghanistan (75%), India (74%), the Marshall Islands (70%), Pakistan (61%), Papua New Guinea (70%), and Timor-Leste (70%).

The prevalence of moderately and severely underweight children under 5 years of age has decreased in 26 of the 31 economies with data for earliest and latest years. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Vietnam have remarkable average annual reductions (of more than 1 percentage point per year) in the prevalence of underweight children since 1990. However, malnutrition remained high in 11 economies of the Asia and Pacific region (at more than 20%), which include the heavily populated economies of India (29.4%), Bangladesh (32.6%), and Pakistan (31.6%).

Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines and Vietnam in Southeast Asia and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, and Tajikistan have seen rise in HIV prevalence rates since 2001.

Prior to that, economies with a relatively young age structure, such as India and Pakistan, should benefit from a rising share of the working-age population in their total population.

About half the regional economies were in the category of “medium human development,” including India and Indonesia. Bangladesh, the region’s fifth most populous economy, was a new addition to the medium group, while the fourth most populous economy, Pakistan, remained in the “low human development” group, along with five other smaller economies.

In Pakistan, a randomized experiment that provided information on school performance to families in markets with public and private education raised student achievement by 0.11, while reducing private school tuition costs by 17%.

“Private school tuition likely declined because better schools were forced to spend more with little real return to learning outcomes, simply to differentiate themselves enough from competing schools,” the report stated.

http://www.geo.tv/article-201487-Enrollment-ratio-of-primary-schoolchildren-has-improved-ADB

https://openaccess.adb.org/handle/11540/5231

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan's educational attainment progress from 2010 to 2020:

Education Attainment 2010 to 2020

No schooling 16.3% to 21.75%

Below Primary 38% to 18.3%

Primary 19.3% to 30.14%

Secondary 22.5% to 23.85%

College 3.9% to 5.96%



Sources:

Barro-Lee Educational Achievement Dataset

http://www.barrolee.com/

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files//tables/EDUCATED%20POPULATION%20BY%20LEVEL%20OF%20EDUCATION.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Only 4.5% Population in India is Graduate or Above: Census

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/only-4-5-population-in-india-is-graduate-or-above-census-1240996


Only 4.5 per cent of the population in the country is educated up to the level of graduate or above while a majority of 32.6 per cent population is not even educated up to the primary school level.

According to the census data for 2011 on literacy, workers and educational levels, released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, literate population who are presently attending any educational institution in the country, below primary occupies the major share of 32.6 per cent.

It was followed by primary (25.2 per cent), middle (15.7 per cent), matric (11.1 per cent), higher secondary (8.6 per cent) and Graduate and above (4.5 per cent).

During the decade 2001-11, improvement is observed at middle and above educational levels and decline in percentage share at lower levels (below-primary and primary).

The improvements at higher educational levels are indication of educational advancement in the country during the decade 2001-11.

The data on workers by five categories of literates namely literate but below matric/secondary, matric/secondary but below graduate, technical diploma or certificate not equal to degree, graduate and above other than technical degree and technical degree or diploma equal to degree or post-graduate degree have also been released.

The data that distributes the population, main workers, marginal workers, non-workers, marginal and non-workers seeking/available for work by literacy status and educational levels separately for total, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes population is also released.

The data reveals that during the decade 2001-2011, there is an overall improvement in literacy status and educational levels of various types of workers and non-workers among total and SC/ST population.

Census 2011 has further exhibited that out of about 55.5 million Marginal workers seeking/available for work in India, the majority of 21.9 million (39.4 per cent) are illiterates followed by 20.9 million (37.6 per cent) literates but below matric/secondary and 8.0 million (14.5 per cent) matric/secondary but below graduate.

Riaz Haq said...

From Dawn's story "The missing third"



Of all children between the ages of 5-16, the highest enrolment rate is observed among nine years olds (82 per cent) followed by 11 year olds (81 per cent). It is interesting to note that the same trend is observed for boys and girls virtually across the range of five to 16 years. The only difference is percentage of enrolment of each age group is higher for boys than girls.

The data indicates two underlying themes:

• First time enrolments happen later than required — The data shows that enrolment rates pick up steadily from five years to nine years. It shows that more and more children are enrolled into the system much beyond the age of five. It also indicates lack of emphasis on early childhood education leading up to class 1.

• Drop outs start to happen between 9-11 years of age — The data shows a steady decline in enrolment percentages after 11 years, as children go beyond the primary school age. Possible reasons are limited access to middle and high schools which are typically fewer and farther compared to primary schools and rising opportunity costs.



https://www.dawn.com/news/1643918

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistani convicted murderer takes top #school score, wins #scholarship. Shah is one of 1,200 inmates studying in Central #Prison #Karachi, but his success is unparalleled, said Saeed Soomro -- deputy superintendent of the prison. #convict #education https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/asia/pakistani-murder-scholarship-win-intl/index.html

A Pakistani inmate serving a life sentence for murder in an overcrowded Karachi prison has won a scholarship for further study after taking one of the highest scores in the city's higher secondary school exams last year.

Syed Naeem Shah, 35, scored the highest in the general high school exams among private candidates - that is, among non-traditional students -- last year in Pakistan's largest city, winning a scholarship for further studies from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP).
"What I have achieved while languishing in jail is not possible if one does not have conviction," Shah told Reuters in an interview in Central Prison Karachi, built by the British in 1899 in the port city in southeastern Pakistan.
The prison, like many others in the country, is notorious for being overcrowded, holding nearly 6,000 inmates in space meant for 2,400. Pakistan prisons overall are at 130% of capacity and are poorly ventilated, with insufficient beds and limited access to medicines, safe water and bathing facilities, according to Amnesty International.

Speaking in a classroom inside the prison grounds, Shah said he enjoyed school as a child but that his family could not afford to continue his education. In jail, older inmates who were also taking classes motivated him and helped him prepare for exams.
Shah is one of 1,200 inmates studying in Central Prison Karachi, but his success is unparalleled, said Saeed Soomro -- deputy superintendent of the prison.
"His results are (also) tantamount to our success," Soomro said, in giving him the opportunity to study and providing him with books and materials.
Shah was sentenced to life -- 25 years in Pakistan -- in 2018 for the shooting and killing of another man in a personal disagreement in 2010. Years spent as a prisoner on trial, plus time off for academic achievements, good behavior and blood donations, leaves him with about six years to serve.
Shah still has to pass an entrance exam to formally take up the scholarship, an ICAP official said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to talk to media.
The scholarships -- of 1 million rupees or about $5,700 -- are offered to students earning the top four scores in intermediate exams, regardless of whether "they are in jail or outside," the ICAP official said.
"I feel it will be very difficult for me to pursue this scholarship from prison," Shah said, given the technical and specialized subjects he will be pursuing.
Even before his exam success, Shah said he had filed an appeal against his conviction that is pending in a high court in the southern province of Sindh.
"I appeal to the president of Pakistan, prime minister and chief executive of Sindh province to consider my case for remission."