Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Pakistan Ahead of India in Graduation Rates at All Levels

Pakistanis spend more time in schools and colleges and graduate at a higher rate than their Indian counterparts in 15+ age group, according to a report on educational achievement by Harvard University researchers Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee.

In a recent Op Ed titled "Preparing the Population for a Modern Economy" published by Pakistan's Express Tribune, Pakistani economist Shahid Burki wrote as follows:

"Pakistan does well in one critical area — the drop-out rate in tertiary education. Those who complete tertiary education in Pakistan account for a larger proportion of persons who enter school at this level. The proportion is much higher for girls, another surprising finding for Pakistan."

Source: Global Education Digest


Upon closer examination of Barro-Lee data on "Educational Attainment for Total Population, 1950-2010", it is clear that Pakistani students stay in schools and colleges longer to graduate at higher rates than Indian students at all levels--primary, secondary and tertiary. While India's completion rate at all levels is a dismal 22.9%, the comparable completion rate in Pakistan is 45.7%.

Here is a summary of Barro-Lee's 2010 data in percentage of 15+ age group students who have enrolled in and-or completed primary, secondary and tertiary education:

Education Level.......India........Pakistan

Primary (Total)........20.9..........21.8

Primary (Completed)....18.9..........19.3

Secondary(Total).......40.7..........34.6

Secondary(Completed)...0.9...........22.5

College(Total).........5.8...........5.5

College(Completed).....3.1...........3.9



It shows the following:

1. India's overall schooling rate of 67.4% exceeds Pakistan's 61.9% in 15 and over age group.

2. Pakistan's primary schooling rate of 21.8% is slightly higher than India's 20.9% of 15+ age group

3. India has a big edge with its secondary enrollment of 40.7% over Pakistan's 34.6%, but India's completion rate at this level is a dismal 0.9% versus Pakistan's 22.5% of the population of 15+ age group.

4. India's tertiary education enrollment rate of 5.8% is higher than Pakistan's 5.5%, but Pakistan's college and university graduation rate of 3.9% is higher than India's 3.1% of 15+ age group.

5. Pakistan's combined graduation rate at all three levels is 45.7% versus India's 22.9% among the population age group of 15 years or older.



Barro-Lee data also shows that the percentage of 15+ age group with no schooling has gone down in both nations in the last decade, particularly in Pakistan where it dropped dramatically by a whopping 22% from 60.2% in 2000 to 38% in 2010. In India, this percentage with no schooling dropped from 43% to 32.7% of 15+ age group.



The Aug 23 & 30, 2010 issue of Newsweek had a cover story titled "The Best Country in he World is...". It ranked top 100 nations of he world based on education, health, quality of life, economy and politics. On education, Newsweek ranked Pakistan 86 and India 88 among 100 nations it included.

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 nations of East Asia and the industrialized world.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings
India and Pakistan Contrasted in 2010

Educational Attainment Dataset By Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee

Quality of Higher Education in India and Pakistan

Developing Pakistan's Intellectual Capital

Intellectual Wealth of Nations

Pakistan's Story After 64 Years of Independence
Pakistan Ahead of India on Key Human Development Indices

68 comments:

Salman said...

Pls stop comparing with India,look at ground realities. Pakistan may be far ahead in all fields and can beat India in the field of IT,literacy rate,charity,nuclear technology and what not.Bottom line...... the citizens are living with fear even within their own homes,one is not sure if he will return home in one piece.

Riaz Haq said...

Salman: "Pls stop comparing with India,look at ground realities."

Today's ground realities are not permanent. Many nations, including the United States and Britain, have seen civil wars and extreme violence far greater than the man-made tragedy unfolding in Pakistan.

I remain optimistic that Pakistanis will overcome the current difficulties and emerge stronger from it.

Moin said...

I do believe that India's secondary completed rate of 0.9 % may be an error. It is not likely that less than 1 % of the people that enroll in secondary school actually complete in India. That means less than 1 in 100 !! Barro-Lee Data here needs to be challenged.

Riaz Haq said...

Moin: "It is not likely that less than 1 % of the people that enroll in secondary school actually complete in India."

Please read the data carefully.

It is 0.9% of the 15+ age group, not 0.9% of those who enter secondary
school.

In fact, all of the percentages are of the 15+ population in all countries
compared.

Indian said...

Just like a company can claim to make superior products than their competitors, when it is sales which matters, the same is true for this post. The purpose of education is to help the society. Where is Pakistan in that compared to India. India's educated class export $250 billion dollars in a year.

Taken from latest print copy of Economist.com

"But other companies, such as General Electric and Tata’s chemicals arm, have applied frugal engineering techniques to produce cheap products with great success. GE, for instance, has developed basic medical scanners in India and now sells them in the West."

If I were a Pakistani, I would wait for the day when western media writes about Pakistan like above and then post here to rub it on Indians.

regards

Riaz Haq said...

Indian: "Where is Pakistan in that compared to India. India's educated class export $250 billion dollars in a year."

So you think that preparing code coolies to serve the West is the primary purpose of education in India?

How about preparing people to solve your own dire problems of hunger, poverty, illiteracy, disease, lack of sanitation, etc?

I feel sorry for you!

Jafri said...

Riaz bhai, thanks for sharing. What about the quality of primary and secondary education that is being taught in Pak versus India. Secondly, are Madarssahs being included as primary and secondary schools? I think, India has done well in building technical institutes that can turn individual into money maker with short certificates

Riaz Haq said...

Jafri:

On quality and competitiveness, the only independent data available for India is 2003 TIMMS on which they ranked 46 on a list of 51 countries. Their score was 392 versus avg of 467. They performed very poorly. It was contained in a report titled "India Shining and Bharat Drowning". No similar data is available for Pakistan. As to your question about madrassas in Pakistan and IITs in India, there is a lot of negative hype about the former and positive hype about the latter. Only a tiny percentage of Pakistanis attend madrassas according to Pakistan education census, and not all madrassas are bad. In fact even Hindus attend some madrassas in India because they provide free room and board and free education to the poor. And a few IITs can not make up for the serious deficiencies in India's higher education. Recently, Wall Street Journal reported on the quality of Indian education as follows: "So few of the high school and college graduates who come through the door can communicate effectively in English, and so many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension, that the company (24/7 Customer Pvt. Ltd.) can hire just three out of every 100 applicants."

Riaz Haq said...

Labor force data from the World Bank for 2007 indicates that 23% of Pakistan's labor force has had tertiary (college) education.

This compares with 61% in the United States, 32% in the UK, 20% in Malaysia, 33% in Singapore and 17% in Sri Lanka.

It has no data for India or China.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TERT.ZS

Anonymous said...

Labor force data from the World Bank for 2007 indicates that 23% of Pakistan's labor force has had tertiary (college) education

nope tertiary education is any education after school NOT college.
This includes things like carpentary schools,masonary schools,Welding etc...

23% of the Pak labour force has almost certainly NOT undergone a 3-4 year college education....

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "nope tertiary education is any education after school NOT college."

It does include education at colleges and universities.

Since I quoted data from the World Bank, let me share with you how the WB defines it:

"Tertiary education broadly refers to all post-secondary education, including but not limited to universities. Universities are clearly a key part of all tertiary systems, but the diverse and growing set of public and private tertiary institutions in every country—colleges, technical training institutes, community colleges, nursing schools, research laboratories, centers of excellence, distance learning centers, and many more—forms a network of institutions that support the production of the higher-order capacity necessary for development."

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:20298183~menuPK:617592~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html#what_why

Ashmit (India) said...

Hey. I take exception to you refering to the Indian IT sector as "code coolies". Export led growth has been the theme that place China where it is. Would you then reject country as grouping of welders, cobblers and tailors?!

Meanwhile, the Newsweek's ranking of the "best country in the world" does put pak at 86 and India at 88 for education. The same index also places India at

And while Pak beats india marginally in education. India is placed far ahead on indicators such as economic dynamism and political climate.

And finally, here one piece that ought to put things in perspective for you to understand the new pecking order in the world.

This news item is summary of the comments made by the US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta. He states that emerging powers such as China, Brazil and INDIA, will be watched as possible "threats". open admission of the potential power of countries such as INDIA. And quite unsurprisingly, Pak fails to register on the radar.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/us-says-it-would-ensure-rising-powers-like-china-brazil-and-india-do-not-threaten-world/articleshow/9731968.cms

So i guess, you take pride in educating and feeding 2 out 10 people (never mind that 8 still go hungry, uneducated)as comapred to 1 out of 10 in india. And on this side of the border, we'll celebrate India dominating the power circuit in South Asia in a comprehensive manner to be acknowledged on the world stage.

To each his own, as they say.

Farookh Pandit said...

You should read that report again and in more detail paying attention to the mathematical model that Professor Lee has chosen.

Your GRAND conclusions are incorrect because Indian states follow a 10+2 education system. After 10th you chose technical, vocational, business or science essentially choosing a career path - therefore an "incomplete" 12 format matriculation rate(0.9%). Please call him up!

I take offense to the your choosing the word "cyber coolie" implying Indians as brainless machines doing menial work. Even if they were it is a livelihood and an opportunity for many Indians. Shame on you! Aren't you quick and defensive (5% vs 95% article) when Pakistanis are thought of as terrorists in the western media!

Riaz Haq said...

Pandit: "Your GRAND conclusions are incorrect because Indian states follow a 10+2 education system."

Regardless of the model or how the level is defined, the report clearly shows that graduation rates at ALL LEVELS in Pakistan are higher than in India. Similarly, UNDP reports that Pakistanis have longer average years of schooling than Indians, and ranks Pakistan higher than India on this sub-index.

Pandit: "I take offense to the your choosing the word "cyber coolie" implying Indians as brainless machines doing menial work."

I have borrowed from Praful Bidwai, an Indian, the use of the derogatory term to describe those Indians who constantly brag about how "advanced" they are in technology when in fact they are simply the product of wage arbitrage doing routine work like other sweatshop workers in garments and shoe industries.

Anonymous said...

"I have borrowed from Praful Bidwai, an Indian, the use of the derogatory term to describe those Indians who constantly brag about how "advanced" they are in technology when in fact they are simply the product of wage arbitrage doing routine work "

something which pakistan is desperate to mimic and so far met with only total failure.

And BTW 98% of americans do the same routine work and it is their job which is in danger of being bangalored.

Raghotthama said...

RiazSaheb, 'So you think that preparing code coolies to serve the West is the primary purpose of education in India?' What about Nitin Nohria of Harvard, Pradeep Khosla of CMU, Vinod Khosla of SunMicro systems, etc?What about 40% of startups in silican velley which are by Indians.(Watch 2millionminutes documentary) .If intentions are not good then one can use denigrating words like professor coolie, business coolie, scientist coolie, doctor coolie etc. You seem to have used that word which is Praful's disription as a retort to belligerent software professionals of India(who just do testing and nothing else and still feel on top of the world).But then one can also view their over enthusiasm and celebration in perspective i.e.,Indians poorman's perspective. During 1st 50 years of Independence the only jobs available for normal people (average intelligent) were government teacher posts, bank clerk posts, other government posts which were too less in number for countless millions. Since last 15 years as the software jobs for ordinary people became available then lacks of people are getting jobs with 25000 to 50000 Indian rupees as beginning salary and if it is in US, it is much more(due to $ conversion). That might be small in some other countrymen’s view but for Indians who have seen mind boggling unemployment that is like top job in MNC. So obviously they are in cloud nine. For what actually is a modest intellectual work, normal people are getting high salaries. But jobs small or medium need not denigrated because of the quality of job. Everybody has the right to lead life with dignity. If that is not the case then people who are not scientists in Intel should commit suicide. If the unemployed Pakistanis are offered these software jobs in US, then would the reject them? If they accept, then would you use the same word for your fellow countrymen. These strong usages are best avoided.
''How about preparing people to solve your own dire problems of hunger, poverty, illiteracy, disease, lack of sanitation, etc?
I feel sorry for you'' There is nothing for the poor and We are all feeling sorry here too.

Riaz Haq said...

Rago: "What about Nitin Nohria of Harvard, Pradeep Khosla of CMU, Vinod Khosla of SunMicro systems, etc?"

These people have had the US education and experience and opportunities that enabled them to achieve what they have.

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "And BTW 98% of americans do the same routine work and it is their job which is in danger of being bangalored."

No, they don't. There are few call centers in US, and very little running of software test suites, and other mundane tasks that can be done with very little skill.

Recently, Wall Street Journal reported on the quality of Indian education as follows: "So few of the high school and college graduates who come through the door can communicate effectively in English, and so many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension, that the company (24/7 Customer Pvt. Ltd.) can hire just three out of every 100 applicants."

At least some of these call center jobs are starting to come back to the West because of lack of sufficient skills in India to do them satisfactorily.

Public radio recently reported that "Jobs For America, a call center collation, said today it's hoping to create up to 100,000 jobs in the next two years in the call center industry -- jobs coming back from being outsourced to places like India and the Philippines."

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Times of India story about the impact of corruption on "Brand India":

BANGALORE: Anna Hazare's anti-graft campaign has pushed corruption to the fore again. Corporate honchos say businessmen overseas have been vexed with corruption here for a long time, and this movement addresses their worry too.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, executive co-chairman, Infosys Technologies, said Brand India is affected because of the perception that we can't solve the problem of corruption.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon, said India has an outstanding business reputation. But people outside feel the cost of doing business in the country comes at a price that may require underhand dealings to get things done. "This perception needs to change," she said.

Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO, MindTree, echoed that feeling: "Outsiders feel the government is not transparent and India is not an easy place to do business. There is discomfort, especially on issues related to infrastructure," he said.
-----------
* Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International placed India at 87 among 178 countries in the 2010 corruption index. India scored 3.3 on a scale of 10

* Janaagraha initiative ipaidabribe.com shows Bangalore at the top with maximum number of bribes paid. Earlier this week, the site showed 3,641 instances of bribe that amounted to Rs 10 crore. Police, followed by the registration department and municipal services, sought the maximum number of bribes. The site depends on people logging in their bribe-paying details, and therefore is limited to that extent.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Graft-gives-Brand-India-a-hard-time/articleshow/9762758.cms

Riaz Haq said...

Raghu: "Out of many brilliant graduates reaching US for education and careers from different countries, Indians have reached many top postions in US(i.e., in the world, as there are no bigger places than Harward, CMU, MIT etc)."

There is no doubt that there are many well-educated and highly accomplished world-class Indians, particularly in the Indian diaspora.

But collectively, these people still make up a very narrow band for a very large Indian population at home and abroad.

The fact is that India is still home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry, illiterate and sick people sixty four years after independence.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/08/63-years-after-independence-india.html

Raghu said...

Sirji, you have responded without posting my comment. ''But collectively, these people still make up a very narrow band for a very large Indian population at home and abroad.
The fact is that India is still home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry, illiterate and sick people sixty four years after independence.'' You are talking as if I disagreed with it or vehemently denied it. I was more than ready to accept it and very much guilty of it and you could have seen that in all my previous posts (unless you didn't want to). Please go through this article "In search of a Hazare"
By Shahzad Chaudhry at http://tribune.com.pk/story/237772/in-search-of-a-hazare/ then read these 2 comments ,one by a Pakistani which would hurt you I guess and one by an Indian which would bring smile on your face. FAHIM:ndia is a million times more poised to succeed than us in every field, social , technical, education, health, infrastructure, science and engineering, std of living, opportunities, growth…. the list goes on. I have traveled there and was spellbound to see the transformation within last 10 years itself. No doubt there are many poor, and it has a lot to catch up with a authoritarian hard handed communist china, but i think their society is much stronger internally and well tied to their 6000 year history. I think like us, they also have problem with security and wealth distribution. But, we are busy day dreaming, foolish debates, conspiracy theories and looking for a scapegoat to dump our faults. Two Very different societies, very different future. raj:Do not look to us for your solutions Pakistanis! India has many problems but we have control of our own international narrative, our industrialists are notorious bigots and Hazare himself is no saint. He did not fast half a day for the victims of Gujarat! We have an economy that is a tiger but we have no justice. We have opportunities for the wealthy but the poor are stuck in a state of destitution.
India is growing but it is not becoming humane, if anything it is going in the opposite direction. We face the same sort of problems as Pakistan but we have very strong urban centres and our system of higher education is formidable and making great progress. Underneath the veneer of progress though India is rotting and we are suffering under the same half witted politicians.
But us Indians have stuck to the path of democracy, unfortunately you Pakistanis have had the army – and that ultimately is the difference. Nothing to do with culture or religion (our BJP and Hindu fundamentalists are pretty nasty).

Riaz Haq said...

Raghu: "But us Indians have stuck to the path of democracy, unfortunately you Pakistanis have had the army –"

Neither India nor Pakistan are democracies. Each is an oligarchy where few control the power and the resources of the state for their own benefit at the expense of the poor.

The problem in India is worse because 55 billionaires there control a fifth of the economy and bribe the politicians to have favorable treatment.

Here's an excerpt from a recent New York Times story that captures the essence of crony capitalism and the rise of Indian oligarchy as being among the world's largest:

"India’s billionaires control a considerably larger share of the national wealth than do the superrich in bigger economies like those of Germany, Britain and Japan. Among the Indian billionaires included on the most recent Forbes rich list, a majority have derived their wealth from land, natural resources or government contracts and licenses, all areas that require support from politicians."

Among India's powerful billionaires, the New York Times story particularly features Gautam Adani whose cozy relationship with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has made him the tenth richest man in India. It says that "Mr. Adani has benefited from various governmental approvals and also bought coastal land from the Gujarat government at very low prices — in one instance paying as little as $540 an acre. Once he completed infrastructure, Mr. Adani sold land at a handsome profit to corporations locating inside the economic zone, including one parcel to Indian Oil Corporation, a state-owned firm, for $54,000 an acre."

Sanjay said...

the recent hurricane irene tracking by NASA was helped by ISRO satellite oceanstat-2

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-268

Now how long will it take for pakistan with his superior rate of graduation to achieve the same.

Riaz Haq said...

Sanjay: "Now how long will it take for pakistan with his superior rate of graduation to achieve the same."

Have you ever wondered why NASA is now using Russian Soyuz rockets to put American astronauts in space? Is it because Americans lack such capability?

The fact that NASA is using data from an Indian satellite does not mean others do not have the same capacity to collect such data. It's because NASA has provided the required equipment to India and has a data-sharing agreement with ISRO.

Pakistan already has such a capability in its satellite Paksat r-1 for remote sensing of weather patterns and events.

Although Pakistan currently lacks the satellite launch capability (that India has) but it's working on a Shaheen III design to serve as an SLV.

Pakistan has an active space program with many space scientists and engineers with advanced imaging and remote sensing, data collection and analysis for a variety of applications ranging from weather forecasting to resource management and others as follows:

Agriculture
crop estimation
Water resource management
Mitigation of natural disasters
Land use

Mapping
Surveying
Forestry
Droughts
Desertification studies
Vehicle tracking & fleet management Vehicle management
Environmental monitoring
Climate change

adam said...

If we break up the age groups, then in the age group of 15 to 19 (the normal age group for secondary education), the % of persons of this age group having attained or enrolled in secondary education is 70.3% for India, 49.6% for Pakistan and 85.8% for China.
If we consider the age group 20-24 (normal age group for tertiary education), then % of this age group having attained or enrolled in tertiary education is 9.5% for India, 7.3% for Pakistan and a whopping 26% for China.
If the secondary education statistic is to be gone by, the gap between India and Pakistan might increase as you can’t have tertiary education without secondary.
Another interesting statistic is that % of 20-24 year olds enrolled for/having completed tertiary education in Pakistan has dropped since 2000 rather than increased.
It seems that for Pakistan from 1990 to 95 the tertiary education for 20-24 year olds increased from 4 to 9.8, what explains this, or is this some thing about statistics.
I really don’t understand the Pakistani statistics there seems to be huge ups and downs, whereas the indian one has been steady.
As far as India is concerned, I do have to say that are a lot of variations from state to state. An overall statistic does not give a proper representation for those states of India which are booming. Their statistics will be very high (south, west of India, delhi & punjab compared to central/eastern states/BIMARU states). But recently some of those lagging states having high population density have picked up in social indicators. Let’s see how that affects the overall statistics in the next 10 years.

Data:
http://www.barrolee.com/data/BL(2010)_MF.xls

Riaz Haq said...

Adam: "If we consider the age group 20-24 (normal age group for tertiary education), then % of this age group having attained or enrolled in tertiary education is 9.5% for India, 7.3% for Pakistan and a whopping 26% for China.
..."

This post is about graduation rates, and I suggest you look in the "completed" column rather than under "total".

For example, Barro-Lee data shows that the 20-24 year age group tertiary education "completed" for India is 3.5% versus 6.3% for Pakistan....a huge gap.

Also look at avg years of total schooling for 15+ age group, and it shows 5.13 years for India versus 5.593 years for Pakistan.

Rahotthama said...

''According to government figures, the country’s information technology exports totaled $1.4 billion in the last financial year.'' There is a sense of achievement and further hope when you qoute Pakistan's case, but when somebody gives statistics of IT sector of India, then you are using denigrating words like India is producing 'software coolies'. Sirji, you are not being nuetral. Riaz:''Neither India nor Pakistan are democracies. Each is an oligarchy where few control the power and the resources of the state for their own benefit at the expense of the poor''. I agree with this.Both India and Pakistan are DARBARI or DYNASTIC democracies.Gore Vidal said,Italy has worst features of capitalism and socialism.Where as Pakistan has worst features of capitalism and feudalism, India has worst features of socialism,capitalism, feudalism and now a new characteristic Chrony capitalism. Is there any hope in India's case because of recent JanLokal's agitation or India has to grow 'inspite' of corruption remains to be seen.

Riaz Haq said...

Raghu: "Is there any hope in India's case because of recent JanLokal's agitation or India has to grow 'inspite' of corruption remains to be seen."

I see hope for both India and Pakistan as long as people continue to fight against corruption and injustice.

I am very excited by the emergence of Anna Hazare in India as a force to counter the power of the oligarchs exercised through corrupt politicians and public officials.

Similarly, I a hopeful about the new role of Pakistan's chief justice Chaudhry as a fighter against corruption in Pakistan.

adam said...

I think there is some misinterpretation on the way the word 'completed' and 'total' is used. For example if you look at the age group 15 to 19 for the year 2010 for India, the secondary total is 70.3% and completed is 0.9%...Your interpretation seems unimaginable to me. You mean 70.3% of the age group 15 to 19 are/were enrolled but only 0.9% have completed?. Hardly possible.
Also the average number of years for the 20-24 year olds for 2010 (India) is just 0.261 years. There is something wrong I feel in the interpretation. Have you read the complete paper? I would like to know what it states.

adam said...

I went through the paper. The completion rate is defined as follows:
The completion rate at the primary level is expressed as a ratio of people who completed primary schooling but did not enter secondary schooling to people who entered primary school. (Page 8)

So your interpretion of 'completed' column might be incorrect.

In case I am mistaken, please explain.

Riaz Haq said...

Adam: "The completion rate at the primary level is expressed as a ratio of people who completed primary schooling but did not enter secondary schooling to people who entered primary school. (Page 8)"

If that is the case, then what does "completed" mean at the tertiary level?

I think completed just means those who have graduated at that level.

It just shows India has a very high drop-out rate, higher than Pakistan's which is also high.

And that is reflected in avg years of schooling data which puts Pakistan at a miserable #86 and India even worse at #88 on a list of 100 nations compiled by Newsweek last year.

Raghotthamacharya said...

Except that pakistan has allowed religious extremism to go out of its own control, and didn't have continuous delivering domacratic
governments instead of 'national secutity' obscessed military
dictatorships, pakistan has performed better than India in most respects as many indices and ground realities show(most of the indians dont know this, Chetan Bhagath wrote a column in Times of India saying how developed was india compared to Pakistan and that paper was stupid enough to publish it.It requires 10 William Dalrymples and many CNN,BBC channels brainwashing to change this misconception) . If Mr Jinna lived for another ten years, if Pakistan has not followed tha Jihad policy after Soviets occupation of Afganistan,it is very likely that pakistan would
have been like Malaysiya now.
There is one more area in which pakistan outclass india, in having a number of self critical liberal
intellectuals.There are no liberals in India (rather in Indian media) like Najam Sethi, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy,and many others in Pakistan (you may disagree with their views), who can criticize Indian foriegn policy, 'Indian imperialism',mass graves in Kashmir, the savagely draconian 'Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act' ,and support Irom Sharmila who has been fasting since last 10 years against that act.people like Arundhathi roy are on fringes.Read this article in Dawn news paer about abscence of such liberals in India.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/03/belligerence-with-a-mission.html
Indian liberals,have waged unrelenting war on Indian establishment against corruption, for the rights of minorities, dalits and tribals etc, but in case of Indian foriegn policy and military attrocites they are shockingly silent. They are puppets in the hands of narrow
minded, patriotic media with bigotic views. In this regard, although it has many worst features, pakistani media has evolved into more
developed and matured one providing space to opinion of those who are self critical, and many common people in Pakistan (although , might be
a minority) who are atleast able listen to those views. And any
society, which has maturity to cricize itself, will always evolve under the guidence of strong leaders and reformists.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/asia/02india.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

Riaz Haq said...

Anon:

Pakistan is about 5 years ahead of India on biometric database of its citizens.

All the hype about Indian IT sector makes it hard to believe that it is Pakistan, not India, which has widely deployed biometric identification technology to issue multi-purpose national ID cards and e-passports to its citizens. Is this just another case of the proverbial shoemaker's children going barefoot?

http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/05/pakistan-leads-asia-in-biometric-it.html

Raghotthama said...

Just came to know What is taught about history in Pakistani text books regarding wars with India, who started it and who won the wars,Indian is enemy country
etc and Even about when idea of pakistan or Pakistan as a nation was formed.Heard that there is a book named 'The murder of history in Pakistan'. read this article Tribune:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/163868/what-are-we-teaching-our-children/

here is the video in you tube in which discussions in different
pakistani channels are shown and I came to know, among others, views of Dr A H Nayyer who threw some light on this,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEhc6dL-JgM

Can any one say such thing about Indian text books.Not a mention of war or 'Enemy country'. Only in 2004 BJP led government tried to alter text books regarding culture but it was later changed. In Pakistan even after 5 decades children are reading the same thing and growing hatred. In india hatred towards Pakistan is seen in media, in Pakistan it is in media and text books till 12th class. How likely is that a child who grows up studying all that since childhood, has tolerence to listen to any other information from other sources

Riaz Haq said...

Raghu: "Can any one say such thing about Indian text books."

Indian textbooks are filled with anti-Muslim propaganda which manifests itself in frequent violence against Indian Muslims and continuing hatred of Pakistan.

Gujarat textbooks are among the worst in India in promoting anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan hatred.

The following is a report at India Together Website about Gujarat textbooks:

An ongoing study of school textbooks in four states has found stereotypes and biases in Gujarat's textbooks. The Social Studies textbook for standard five has nine stories on mythology masquerading as history. Deepa A reports.

*Gujarat is a border state. Its land and sea boundaries touch the boundaries of Pakistan which is like a den of terrorism. Under such circumstances, it is absolutely necessary for us to understand the effects of terrorism and the role of citizens in the fight against it

*If every countryman becomes an ideal citizen and develops patriotism, the National Population Policy can definitely be achieved

*When people used to meet earlier, they wished each other saying Ram Ram and by shaking hands. Today, people enjoy their meeting by speaking Namaste. Is it not a change?


Indian Supreme Court Justice Katju recently said the myth-making against Muslim rulers, which was a post-1857 British project, had been internalised in India over the years. Thus, Mahmud Ghazni's destruction of the Somnath temple was known but not the fact that Tipu Sultan gave an annual grant to 156 Hindu temples. The judge, who delivered the valedictory address at a conference held to mark the silver jubilee of the Institute of Objective Studies, buttressed his arguments with examples quoted from D.N. Pande's History in the Service of Imperialism.

Dr. Pande, who summarised his conclusions in a lecture to members of the Rajya Sabha in 1977, had said: “Thus under a definite policy the Indian history textbooks were so falsified and distorted as to give an impression that the medieval period of Indian history was full of atrocities committed by Muslim rulers on their Hindu subjects and the Hindus had to suffer terrible indignities under Islamic rule.”

Justice Katju said Dr. Pande came upon the truth about Tipu Sultan in 1928 while verifying a contention — made in a history textbook authored by Dr. Har Prashad Shastri, the then head of the Sanskrit Department in Calcutta University — that during Tipu's rule 3,000 Brahmins had committed suicide to escape conversion to Islam. The only authentication Dr. Shastri could provide was that the reference was contained in the Mysore Gazetteer. But the Gazetteer contained no such reference.

Further research by Dr. Pande showed not only that Tipu paid annual grants to 156 temples, but that he enjoyed cordial relations with the Shankaracharya of Sringeri Math to whom he had addressed at least 30 letters. Dr. Shastri's book, which was in use at the time in high schools across India, was later de-prescribed. But the unsubstantiated allegation continued to masquerade as a fact in history books written later.


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1704204.ece

Riaz Haq said...

India has 602 university level institutions and Pakistan has 127.

I suggest that readers also read an Indian blogger's post "Why one million Indians Escape from India every year" to get a full dose of reality about "Shining India":

Here are a few excerpts:

Any crackdown on illegal immigrants abroad or restricting quotas to Indians are a major concern to India’s politicians. The latest statistics from US Department of Homeland Security shows that the numbers of Indian illegal migrants jumped 125% since 2000! Ever wondered why Indians migrate to another countries but no one comes to India for a living?
------
Quit India!

Sixty years ago Indians asked the British to quit India. Now they are doing it themselves. To live with dignity and enjoy relative freedom, one has to quit India! With this massive exodus, what will be left behind will be a violently charged and polarized society.
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15 per cent Hindu upper castes inherited majority of India’s civil service, economy and active politics from British colonial masters. And thus the caste system virtually leaves lower caste Hindus in to an oppressed majority in India’s power structure. Going by figures quoted by the Backward Classes Commission, Brahmins alone account for 37.17 per cent of the bureaucracy. [Who is Really Ruling India?]

The 2004 World Development Report mentions that more than 25% of India’s primary school teachers and 43% of primary health care workers are absent on any given day!
-----------
About 40 million primary school-age children in India are not in school. More than 92 % children cannot progress beyond secondary school. According to reports, 35 per cent schools don’t have infrastructure such as blackboards and furniture. And close to 90 per cent have no functional toilets. Half of India’s schools still have leaking roofs or no water supply.

Japan has 4,000 universities for its 127 million people and the US has 3,650 universities for its 301 million, India has only 348 universities for its 1.2 billion people. In the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities by Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong, only two Indian Universities are included. Even those two IITs in India found only a lower slot (203-304) in 2007 report. Although Indian universities churn out three million graduates a year, only 15% of them are suitable employees for blue-chip companies. Only 1 million among them are IT professionals.

http://escapefromindia.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

But Indians in US are highly sought in demand for any knowledge based jobs as shown in that NY data. And Pak is no where in that.
Even China is way below even though more Chinese live outside CHina than Indians outside India.

Indians are lot smarter than Pakis.

1. Computer software developers 125,300 +/- 4%
2. Managers and administrators 103,500 +/- 5%
3. Scientists and quantitative analysts 81,400 +/- 5%
4. Sales-related occupations 71,500 +/- 6%
5. Engineers and architects 46,500 +/- 7%
6. Clerical and administrative staff 43,900 +/- 7%

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a piece by Pakistan Link editor on Beaconhouse schools in its recent issue:

ABC’s Nightline program sometime back was as usual a pack of distortions about a country that remains steadfast in its support for the US. Entitled ‘The most dangerous country in the world,’ the program focused on the emotional outbursts of a diehard segment of Pakistan society and the fulminations of misguided pacifists known for their opposition to Pakistan’s nuclear program. It conveniently ignored the country’s march in different fields and the progressive nature of Pakistan society. It was a willful and wanton attempt to smear the image of Pakistan.

Yet, there was one positive comment that seemed to have unwittingly slipped from Ted Koppel’s lashing tongue: Some of the world’s best schools are in Pakistan! As the compliment was paid - grudgingly or ungrudgingly - the ABC camera panned across a classroom full of young boys and girls. Their uniforms looked familiar. Was it a Beaconhouse School chapter? I was not sure. Yet the compliment - ‘some of the world’s best schools are in Pakistan’ - reechoed in my ears, and justifiably so. My own son, Jahanzeb, had studied at the PECHS Chapter of Beaconhouse. He was later to win a full university scholarship and excel in studies on migration to the US, thanks to the excellent school education he had received in Pakistan.

Blissfully, the Beaconhouse School System has seen a marked growth in recent years. Its branches dot the country’s landscape and their number is fast multiplying. Founded by Mrs.Nasreen Kasuri and Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, the System is the largest private network of schools with 40,000 students This wholesome trend testifies to the fact that private schools today play a complementary, nay, catalytic role in strengthening the education sector in Pakistan. They have a chain reaction effect and in this enterprise Beaconhouse’s example stands out, thanks to the painstaking strivings of Mrs. Kasuri who has been at the helm of the School System since its inception.

A write-up in Pakistan Link this year furnished a fresh proof of Beaconhouse’s sustained growth: “With the largest private network of schools in Asia, it was only a matter of time before the Beaconhouse School System was ready to take the quantum leap into the higher education sector. The Beaconhouse National University Foundation (BNUF) has been recently established with the express purpose of setting up the Beaconhouse National University at Lahore.”


http://pakistanlink.org/Editor/01072005.htm

Anonymous said...

I have mentioned it to you earlier, that the data for India is wrong and outdated. Comparing the data for India from year 1990, to Pakistan's latest data from year 2010. So the comparison is not valid.


Here's the educational attainment data for India from the year 2004, from another source, mind you the 2010/11 figures have gone up since. And its much better than the 3.9% figure for Pakistan.

http://economics.ouls.ox.ac.uk/12991/1/gprg-wps-071.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "Here's the educational attainment data for India from the year 2004, from another source.."

First, Barro Lee data covers period up to 2010. Go and actually read their paper.

Second, India has a big drop-out problem which data in your link does not address.

In fact, you are misleading readers by offering this link to data which only deals with enrollment and attendance rates, not graduation rates.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a NY Times opinion piece by Bill Keller on technology disrupting the higher education model of elite brick-and-mortar universities like Stanford:

...one of Stanford’s most inventive professors, Sebastian Thrun, is making an alternative claim on the future. Thrun, a German-born and largely self-taught expert in robotics, is famous for leading the team that built Google’s self-driving car. He is offering his “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course online and free of charge. His remote students will get the same lectures as students paying $50,000 a year, the same assignments, the same exams and, if they pass, a “statement of accomplishment” (though not Stanford credit). When The Times wrote about this last month, 58,000 students had signed up for the course. After the article, enrollment leapt to 130,000, from across the globe.

Thrun’s ultimate mission is a virtual university in which the best professors broadcast their lectures to tens of thousands of students. Testing, peer interaction and grading would happen online; a cadre of teaching assistants would provide some human supervision; and the price would be within reach of almost anyone. “Literally, we can probably get the same quality of education I teach in class for about 1 to 2 percent of the cost,” Thrun told me.

The traditional university, in his view, serves a fortunate few, inefficiently, with a business model built on exclusivity. “I’m not at all against the on-campus experience,” he said. “I love it. It’s great. It has a lot of things which cannot be replaced by anything online. But it’s also insanely uneconomical.”

Thrun acknowledges that there are still serious quality-control problems to be licked. How do you keep an invisible student from cheating? How do you even know who is sitting at that remote keyboard? Will the education really be as compelling — and will it last? Thrun believes there are technological answers to all of these questions, some of them
being worked out already by other online frontiersmen.

“If we can solve this,” he said, “I think it will disrupt all of higher education.”

Disrupt is right. It would be an earthquake for the majority of colleges that depend on tuition income rather than big endowments and research grants. Many could go the way of local newspapers. There would be huge audiences and paychecks for superstar teachers, but dimmer prospects for those who are less charismatic.
----------
I see a larger point, familiar to all of us who have lived through digital-age disorder. There are disrupters, like Sebastian Thrun, or Napster, or the tweeting rebels in Tahrir Square. And there are adapters, like John Hennessy, or iTunes, or the novice statesmen trying to build a new Egypt. Progress depends on both.

Who could be against an experiment that promises the treasure of education to a vast, underserved world? But we should be careful, in our idealism, not to diminish something that is already a wonder of the world.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/opinion/the-university-of-wherever.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=digital%20education&st=cse&scp=4

Riaz Haq said...

A recent report by a Govt commission in Pakistan found an "Education Emergency" in public education that paints a grim picture.

Here's an excerpt from a Financial Times story on Indian education crisis:

A report on the state of Indian education, the largest study of the country’s rural children, makes for grim reading.

India’s schools are in bad shape, and not getting any better. Maths ability is declining, and reading is way below where it should be.

The Annual Status of Education Report 2010, prepared by Pratham, an education non-governmental organisation supported by many of India’s top companies, has a blunt message. School enrolment is up but quality is unacceptably low. Inadequate state provision is fuelling the expansion of private education, which India’s largely poor people can ill-afford.

Here are some of the report’s key findings:

1. 96.5 per cent of children in the 6 to 14 age group in rural India are enrolled in school. While 71.1 per cent of these children are enrolled in government schools, 24.3 per cent are enrolled in private schools.

2. India’s southern states in particular are moving strongly towards more private sector education provision. The percentage of children in private school increased from 29.7 per cent to 36.1 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, from 19.7 per cent to 25 per cent in Tamil Nadu and from 51.5 per cent to 54.2 per cent in Kerala

3. There has been a decrease in children’s ability to do simple mathematics. The proportion of Standard 1 children who could recognise numbers from 1-9 has declined.

4. After five years of schooling, close to half of children are below a level expected after just two years of formal education. Half of these children cannot read. Only one child in five can recognise numbers up to 100.

5. Toilets were useable in only half the 13,000 schools surveyed. Teacher attendance was 63 per cent, lower than pupil attendance.
Kapil Sibal, the new education minister, has breathed some life into a portfolio left moribund by his elderly predecessor Arjun Singh. But lately, Mr Sibal, a lawyer, has been seconded into the telecommunications ministry to clean up a mess surrounding the controversial award of new 2G licences that may have cost the exchequer as much as $39bn.

There are few more important challenges in India than improving its schools. Not for the first time ineptitude and greed at the top are robbing India’s young of resources.

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/01/17/indian-schools-failing/#axzz1aLbWwL1D

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan is among the biggest sources of foreign students for OECD countries' colleges and universities. Here's how the Australians see Pakistan's education market:

The education and training sector has been one of the major contributors of Australian services exports into Pakistan market.

Australia is increasingly being recognised as a supplier of a quality education services, with very significant advantages in terms of cost vis a vis UK and USA. To ensure that Australian education providers remain interested and committed to the market, Austrade works closely with both agents and institutions to value add and extend full cooperation and assistance to sustain and increase market share.

The market demand has doubled over the last three years but one of the major constrain to this growth has been the political and economic instability in addition to travel advisory with certain travel restrictions, issues such as lengthy student visa process (now shifted to Adelaide), and less participation/visit of institutions’ representative in the education events or interview/seminar programs.

There is substantial demand in Pakistan from students, parents and employers for private quality higher education along with a willingness and capacity to pay comparatively high fees. Private institutions are seeking affiliations with universities abroad to ensure they offer information and training that is of international standards.

International donor agencies such as DFID and USAID are funding various projects focusing on teacher’s training and capacity building of the public sector institutions.

In response to increased trade competition and need for a high performing work force, the Government of Pakistan is strongly emphasising vocational training.

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system delivers training that is practical and career-oriented could service some of this demand.

The online delivery of programs has potential where Pakistani residents wish to enhance their skills, but are not able to undertake long-term study out of the country. Hospitality is one area where distance education is a preferred option.

Doing business in Pakistan is not without hurdles. Security concerns, inadequate infrastructure and differences in business culture are some of the major challenges faced by Australian institutions or exporters, but the opportunities are not to be underestimated.
Competitive environment

The USA, the UK and Australia are the three destinations most popular with Pakistani students. Most students at the Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree level locally are looking for opportunities to study abroad, often while they complete their Pakistani studies.

An overseas qualification improves chances of gaining a better opportunity in the job market.


http://www.austrade.gov.au/Education-to-Pakistan/default.aspx

nayyer ali said...

Riaz, I looked closely at the Barro Lee data which I found in places contradictory or likely to be erroneous. I think the relevant data is what the current educational system is achieving, which is best assessed at looking at how young people are doing, not the entire population over age 15, many of whom were educated decades ago. What I find is that in the 15-19 range, India only has 5% never schooled, while Pakistan has 25%, this is a huge and unacceptable gap in primary education. I do agree that Pakistan performs at a level about the same as India in terms of higher education, though the IIT has no peer in Pakistan. There is also a large gender gap in Pakistan, and even in India, the Muslim population has worse performance than the majority Hindu. The average years of schooling is slightly higher in Pakistan among the 20-24 age group, and slightly less in 15-19, but the large number of completely illiterate is a major issue. Whether Pakistan is keeping up with India is not the issue, it is whether it is doing what needs to be done period. The government could provide decent primary and secondary education to all if it pushed up the education budget by 2% of GDP. Even 1% would dramatically improve the system if used well. Pakistan underspends on health and education compared with India.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an Express Tribune story on the state of higher education in Pakistan:

....“To create a knowledge capital, particularly in an emerging economy, a country has to invest heavily in the education sector,” said Dr Laghari, citing examples of South Korea, Singapore and more recently of Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey and Indonesia, who invested in education and made significant progress. Sadly, he said, Pakistan invests only 0.7% of its Gross Domestic Product in education, “which is too meagre to achieve its future goals”.

Dr Laghari said we need at least 15,000 PhDs in the next decade, which is only possible if more than 1,000 PhDs are produced every year. However, he said within the available budget we are hardly producing 600 PhDs annually.
---------
Dr Laghari said that at least 20 to 30% of the population aged 17 to 23 should have accessibility to the higher education, but in Pakistan only 7.8% have this facility. In the Muslim world, 27% population in the given age group in Indonesia has access to higher education, in Malaysia it’s 30% and in Turkey it is 37%, he added. He cited that Brazil has invested $26 billion on its higher education and is expected to produce 75,000 PhDs in the next ten years.
--------
But despite outlining the issues marring education in Pakistan, Dr Laghari dispelled the impression that the higher education sector is stagnant.

He said that in spite of the financial crunch, HEC has succeeded in improving the quality of education and research. He said that rate of enrolment in higher education is growing by 15 to 20% annually, and published research is increasing 20 to 25% annually.

He said that 10 offices of research innovation have already been set up and another 12 are in the pipeline. Moveover, three centres of advanced studies focusing on water, agriculture and energy are currently being established at different universities, which are priority areas for developing countries like Pakistan, he added.

HEC is focusing on promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in universities and has defined their roles in building economies, communities and leadership, said Dr Laghari. As a result, he said research output has increased significantly in the last few years and so has as the number of PhD graduates. He said although the commission could not send a single person abroad for PhD last year, this year it managed to send abroad 600 to 700 scholars.

“The biggest challenge for higher education is improving both the quality of education and research, which is only possible if the sector gets appropriate funding,” he maintained. The HEC chief said the commission has gotten some financial respite from the World Bank, which recently loaned it $300 million, in addition to funds from USAID and the British Council.

He said funds allocated to the HEC last year were insufficient, and warned of massive protests by employees across the country if they are not paid their raised salaries.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/312462/laghari-calls-for-heavy-investment-in-higher-education-disapproves-of-commercialisation/

Riaz Haq said...

Here are some excerpts from a piece by Lan Pritchett of Harvard University on India's poor performance on PISA:

Compared to the economic superstars India is almost unfathomably far behind. The TN/HP average 15 year old is over 200 points behind. If a typical grade gain is 40 points a year Indian eighth graders are at the level of Korea third graders in their mathematics mastery. In fact the average TN/HP child is 40 to 50 points behind the worst students in the economic superstars. Equally worrisome is that the best performers in TN/HP - the top 5 percent who India will need in science and technology to complete globally - were almost 100 points behind the average child in Singapore and 83 points behind the average Korean - and a staggering 250 points behind the best in the best.

As the current superpowers are behind the East Asian economic superstars in learning performance the distance to India is not quite as far, but still the average TN/HP child is right at the level of the worst OECD or American students (only 1.5 or 7.5 points ahead). Indians often deride America's schools but the average child placed in an American school would be among the weakest students. Indians might have believed, with President Obama, that American schools were under threat from India but the best TN/HP students are 24 points behind the average American 15 year old.

Even among other "developing" nations that make up the BRICs India lags - from Russia by almost as much as the USA and only for Brazil, which like the rest of Latin America is infamous for lagging education performance does India even come close - and then not even that close.

To put these results in perspective, in the USA there has been huge and continuous concern that has caused seismic shifts in the discourse about education driven, in part, by the fact that the USA is lagging the economic superstars like Korea. But the average US 15 year old is 59 points behind Koreans. TN/HP students are 41.5 points behind Brazil, and twice as far behind Russia (123.5 points) as the US is Korea, and almost four times further behind Singapore (217.5 vs 59) that the US is behind Korea. Yet so far this disastrous performance has yet to occasion a ripple in the education establishment.
------------
These PISA 2009+ results are the end of the beginning. The debate is over. No one can still deny there is a deep crisis in the ability of the existing education system to produce child learning. India's education system is undermining India's legitimate aspirations to be at the global forefront as a prosperous economy, as a global great power, as an emulated polity, and as a fair and just society. As the beginning ends, the question now is: what is to be done?


http://ajayshahblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-pisa-results-for-india-end-of.html

Riaz Haq said...

Here's Russian analyst Anatol Karlin on India's prospects and its comparison with China:

It is not a secret to longtime readers of this blog that I rate India’s prospects far more pessimistically than I do China’s. My main reason is I do not share the delusion that democracy is a panacea and that whatever advantage in this sphere India has is more than outweighed by China’s lead in any number of other areas ranging from infrastructure and fiscal sustainability to child malnutrition and corruption. However, one of the biggest and certainly most critical gaps is in educational attainment, which is the most important component of human capital – the key factor underlying all productivity increases and longterm economic growth. China’s literacy rate is 96%, whereas Indian literacy is still far from universal at just 74%.
-----------
The big problem, until recently, was that there was no internationalized student testing data for either China or India. (There was data for cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai, but it was not very useful because they are hardly representative of China). An alternative approach was to compare national IQ’s, in which China usually scored 100-105 and India scored in the low 80′s. But this method has methodological flaws because the IQ tests aren’t consistent across countries. (This, incidentally, also makes this approach a punching bag for PC enforcers who can’t bear to entertain the possibility of differing IQ’s across national and ethnic groups).
--------------
Many Indians like to see themselves as equal competitors to China, and are encouraged in their endeavour by gushing Western editorials and Tom Friedman drones who praise their few islands of programming prowess – in reality, much of which is actually pretty low-level stuff – and widespread knowledge of the English language (which makes India a good destination for call centers but not much else), while ignoring the various aspects of Indian life – the caste system, malnutrition, stupendously bad schools – that are holding them back. The low quality of Indians human capital reveals the “demographic dividend” that India is supposed to enjoy in the coming decades as the wild fantasies of what Sailer rightly calls ”Davos Man craziness at its craziest.” A large cohort of young people is worse than useless when most of them are functionally illiterate and innumerate; instead of fostering well-compensated jobs that drive productivity forwards, they will form reservoirs of poverty and potential instability.

Instead of buying into their own rhetoric of a “India shining”, Indians would be better served by focusing on the nitty gritty of bringing childhood malnutrition DOWN to Sub-Saharan African levels, achieving the life expectancy of late Maoist China, and moving up at least to the level of a Mexico or Moldova in numeracy and science skills. Because as long as India’s human capital remains at the bottom of the global league tables so will the prosperity of its citizens....


http://www.sublimeoblivion.com/2012/02/04/china-superior-to-india/

Riaz Haq said...

Pak threat to Indian science

Hindustan Times

Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science. “Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan. It has tripled the salaries of its scientists in the last few years.” says Prof C.N.R. Rao, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Council.

In a presentation to the Prime Minister, Rao has asked for a separate salary mechanism for scientists. The present pay structure, he says, is such that “no young technical person worth his salt would want to work for the Government or public sector”.

He adds, “You needn’t give scientists private sector salaries, but you could make their lives better, by say, giving them a free house.”

Giving his own example, he says, “I have been getting a secretary’s salary for the last 35 years. But I have earned enough through various awards.

But I can raise a voice for those who aren’t getting their due.” Last year, Rao won the prestigious Dan David Award, from which he created a scholarship fund. So far, he has donated Rs 50 lakh for scholarship purposes.

The crisis gripping Indian science seems to be hydra-headed. “None of our institutes of higher learning are comparable with Harvard or Berkeley,” points out Rao. The IITs, he says, need to improve their performance: a faculty of 350 produces only about 50 PhD scholars a year. “That’s one PhD per 5-6 faculty members,” says the anguished Professor.

Rao fears that India’s contribution to world science would plummet to 1-1.5 per cent if we don’t act fast. At present, India’s contribution is less than three per cent. China’s is 12 per cent.

“We should not be at the bottom of the pile. When I started off in the field of scientific research at 17-and-a-half, I had thought that India would go on to become a top science country. But now, 55 years later, only a few individuals have made it to the top grade,” he laments.


http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/NM13/Pak-threat-to-Indian-science/Article1-124925.aspx

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Daily Times story on higher education growth in Pakistan:

Shaikh also highlighted the performance and achievements of government during last 10 years. He said that there are 71 universities in Pakistan in 2002, but in last 10 years, 66 new universities have been added in Pakistan. Previously, female enrolment was 37 percent, now it is 45 percent. Previously, numbers of PhDs were 1,500, now 10,000 new students have been enrolled in PhD, added the minister. He also mentioned that federal government has spent Rs 160 billion on promotion of higher education in the country. The federal minister said that federal government has transferred additional Rs 800 billion to provinces during the last four years to enable the provinces to provide their population best social services like health education. He also advised students to be proud and loyal Pakistanis. Shaikh said that it is a great day for the degree holding students, so they must thank their parents and teachers. He also assured that the government is doing every effort for the promotion of education sector in Pakistan.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\20\story_20-5-2012_pg5_1

Riaz Haq said...

Here's how an Indian blogger Siddarth Vij at The Broad Mind interprets Barro-Lee data:

Focusing our attention on 2010, one can see that there are seven key numbers:

No schooling – 32.7%
Primary Total – 20.9%
Primary Completed – 18.9%
Secondary Total – 40.7%
Secondary Completed – 1.3%
Tertiary Total – 5.8%
Tertiary Completed – 3.1%

If you add up serial numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6, you reach 100%. This is the entire universe – each and every Indian above the age of 15 is assigned to one and only one of these buckets. 33 out of every 100 Indians above the age of 15 in 2010 have had no formal schooling. 21 have been only to primary school, 41 reached as far as secondary school while the rest made it all the way to college. When Mr. Haq says that India has a ‘secondary enrollment of 40.7%’, he is wrong. It is critical to note that BL says nothing about enrollment. Enrollment ratio is a flow measure. BL measures a country’s existing stock of human capital through levels of educational attainment. All that BL tells us is that for 40.7% of Indians above the age of 15, the highest level of educational attainment is secondary schooling. If to this 40.7% you add the 5.8% who have some tertiary education, you come up with a figure of 46.5% Indians above the age of 15 having had some secondary schooling during their life time.

The next point of contention is the interpretation of the three other numbers- the completion rates. Mr. Haq adds up serial numbers 3, 5 and 7 to report that India has a ‘dismal’ completion rate of 23%. Again, this is meaningless. The 23% only means that out of 100 Indians, 23 completed a certain level of education and then did not go to the next level. It does not take into account people who completed their primary (secondary) education and moved on to secondary (tertiary).

For secondary education, Mr. Haq uses the 0.9% (1.3% in the updated version) figure as is to claim that only 1% of India’s secondary school students complete the level. Nitin interpreted it as 1% of 40% meaning that 4 out of every 1000 kids complete secondary school. Both these interpretations are flawed. We’ve already calculated that 46.5 out of every 100 Indians above the age of 15 reached secondary school. Out of these 46.5, 7.1 (1.3+5.8) completed their secondary schooling i.e. about 15% of those who attended some secondary school managed to matriculate. It’s higher than the earlier numbers but it is still shockingly low.

The following summarizes what the BL data for India in 2010 actually says:

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.


http://broadmind.nationalinterest.in/2011/09/23/so-how-many-indian-kids-complete-school/

Riaz Haq said...

Using Siddharth Vij's interpretation, here's how BL data looks for Pakistan:

1. No Schooling 38% vs 32.7% India

2. Prim Total 21.8% vs 20.9% India

3. Prim Complete 19.3% vs 18.9% Ind

4. Sec Total 34.6% vs 40.7% India

5. Sec Complete 22.5% vs 1.3% India

6. Ter Total 5.5% vs 5.8% India

7. Ter Complete 3.9% vs 3.1% India

If you add up serial numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6, you reach 100%. This is the entire universe – each and every Pakistani above the age of 15 is assigned to one and only one of these buckets. 38 out of every 100 Pakistanis (vs 32% of Indians) above the age of 15 in 2010 have had no formal schooling. 22 have been only to primary school, 35 reached as far as secondary school while the rest made it all the way to college...... All that BL tells us is that for 34.6% of Pakistanis (vs 40.7% of Indians) above the age of 15, the highest level of educational attainment is secondary schooling. If to this 34.6% you add the 5.5% who have some tertiary education, you come up with a figure of 40.1% Pakistanis (vs 46.5% of Indians) above the age of 15 having had some secondary schooling during their life time.

http://broadmind.nationalinterest.in/2011/09/23/so-how-many-indian-kids-complete-school/


Another important point to note in Barro-Lee data is that Pakistan has been enrolling 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%.

http://www.barrolee.com/

Unknown said...

i recently saw television sir in which news channel stated that 40% schools here dont have safe drinking water and 60% dont have electricity...this is alarming situation sir....my question is..what is ppp doing to improve the situation..i hope it is taking important steps...

Anonymous said...

I am laughing:)

Ok, Pakistan is ahead of India in Graduation Rates at All Levels.

SO WHAT?? Whats the big deal now? Why to post a comment on this? Is India a benchmark for Pakistan's growth that you have to compare?

In many emerging African countries the enrollment level in schools is much higher than that in India! Do they compare?:P Naturally the underdeveloped/emerging countries will have a higher growth rate!!


Please find some better topic for the post. The post like this one serve nothing!!

Hopewins said...

^^RH: "India Shining and Bharat Drowning"
----

India has more different-world divides than just India and Bharat. Therefore, we must speak of the following 4 distinct 'Indias':

1) India: Rich & Urban middle-class
2) Bharat: North-Indian Poor
3) Hindustan: Dalits & Muslims
4) Intika: South Indians

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 Daily Times on Literacy Day in Pakistan:

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has said the primary school survival rate is 70 percent in Pakistan, while a gender gap still exists.

She said the survival rate for girls in primary schools was 68 percent compared to 71 percent for boys.

She made these points in her message on the International Literacy Day.

She said Punjab, primary school survival rate today was better with 76 percent, but not without a gender gap of 8 percent with the girls’ survival rate at 72 percent compared to 80 percent for boys.

She pointed out the better average per student spending in primary level (ages 5 to 9) in Punjab, which was Rs 6,998 compared to the national average.

She said in Balochistan, although almost the same amount of money, Rs 6,985, was being spent, but the primary school survival rate was only 53 percent. The girls’ survival rate was slightly better with 54 percent than that of boys, which was 52 percent, she added.

She said in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the primary school survival rate was 67 percent, which was lower than the national average of 70 percent. She added that the gender gap also existed with girls’ survival rate at 65 percent compared to 68 percent for boys.

She mentioned that per student education expenditure in primary level (ages 5 to 9) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was Rs 8,638.

Islamabad UNESCO Director Dr Kozue Kay Nagata drew on the point made by Irina Bokova and highlighted its relevance in Pakistan’s context.

Referring to a recent national survey carried out by the Education Ministry, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education, Dr Nagata pointed out that in Sindh, the primary school survival rate was 63 percent. She said the girls’ survival rate was 67 percent compared to 60 percent for boys. Per student education expenditure in primary level (ages 5 to 9) in Sindh was Rs 5,019.

“Literacy is much more than an educational priority – it is the ultimate investment in the future and the first step towards all the new forms of literacy required in the 21st century. We wish to see a century where every child is able to read and to use this skill to gain autonomy.”

Like every year, the UNESCO supported the relevant federal and provincial governments and NGOs working for the promotion of literacy, to organise meaningful events in their respective constituencies to mark this year’s International Literacy Day.

A total of 21 events (two seminars in Karachi, three in Lahore, two in Quetta, two in Peshawar, one literacy walk each in Islamabad and Peshawar, one seminar each in Sialkot, Muzaffergarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan and Hafizabad and one seminar each in five districts of Balochistan, Pishin, Ziarat, Nushki and Qilla Saifullah, were being organised by relevant stakeholders with the UNESCO’s support.

These events include advocacy campaigns on LED digital screens (electronic hording boards) in Islamabad, literacy walks, seminars, speeches and art competitions, and seminars of teachers’ associations.

About nine events were being organised in the rural communities to mobilise the communities to send their children to schools.

Dr Nagata underscored: “Illiteracy in Pakistan has fallen over the last two decades, thanks to the government and people of Pakistan for their efforts in working towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Today, 70 percent of Pakistani youth can read and write. In 20 years, illiteracy has been reduced significantly.”

However, she also emphasised the need to do more to improve the literacy rate in the country and said: “The proportion of population in Pakistan lacking basic reading and writing skills is too high. This is a serious obstacle in the development of the society”


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C09%5C10%5Cstory_10-9-2013_pg11_8

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan Population 196,174,380 (July 2014 est.)


Age structure 0-14 years: 33.3% (male 33,595,949/female 31,797,766)
15-24 years: 21.5% (male 21,803,617/female 20,463,184)
25-54 years: 35.7% (male 36,390,119/female 33,632,395)
55-64 years: 5.1% (male 5,008,681/female 5,041,434)
65 years and over: 4.3% (male 3,951,190/female 4,490,045) (2014 est.)


http://www.indexmundi.com/pakistan/demographics_profile.html

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...

From Higher Education Commission of Pakistan:


Total graduates at universities (including affiliated and Private/External students) were 380,773, 360,807,448,988 and 493,993 during the years 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09.

http://www.hec.gov.pk/insidehec/divisions/qali/others/pages/graduatedata.aspx

Riaz Haq said...

ISLAMABAD: While briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training, this Monday, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that although Pakistan may not have the best educational institutes in the world, the local educational institutions are continuously improving in rankings.

The commission, he said, has been constantly trying to improve the quality of education in the country.

Dr Ahmed said that there were two types of rankings of educational institutions. In the global rankings, National University of Science and Technology (Nust) has been ranked among the top 500 universities of the world.

In the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings for Asia, Pakistan is improving steadily.

Pakistani universities in Asia top 300
Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) - ranked 106
Aga Khan University - ranked 116
Quaid-i-azam University - ranked 123
National University of Sciences And Technology (NUST) Islamabad - ranked 129
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) - ranked 181-190
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology - ranked 201-250
University of Karachi - ranked 201-250
University of the Punjab - ranked 201-250
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad - ranked 251-300
University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore - ranked 251-300
In 2014, ten Pakistani institutes have been included in the list of top 300 Asian universities
“In 2011, there were four Pakistani universities in the list of top 300 Asian universities. In 2013, that number rose to six and the 2014 rankings show that 10 Pakistani universities are among top 300 Asian universities,” he said.

Dr Mukhtar further said that the finance ministry had made a routine of delaying release of funds to the HEC. Pakistani students, who have been studying abroad, have been suffering because of the HEC as they fail to clear the dues in a timely manner.

It is important to note that after the establishment of HEC in 2002, it was decided that Pakistani students will be sent to foreign countries to get higher education on government’s expense.

Hundreds of students were sent every year, to some of the best universities in the world. So far, as many has 7,531 overseas scholarships have been offered for MS and PhD studies, out of which 3,862 students have completed their studies.

HEC ensures that upon their return they find a good environment for research work and jobs.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1119344

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...

There are over 3 million students enrolled in grades 13 through 16 in Pakistan's 1,086 degree colleges and 161 universities, according to Pakistan Higher Education Commission report for 2013-14. The 3 million enrollment is 15% of the 20 million Pakistanis in the eligible age group of 18-24 years. In addition, there are over 255,000 Pakistanis enrolled in vocational training schools, according to Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA).


Pakistani universities have been producing over half a million graduates every year since 2010, according to HEC data. The number of university graduates in Pakistan increased from 380,773 in 2005-6 to 493,993 in 2008-09. This figure is growing with rising enrollment and contributing to Pakistan's growing human capital.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/07/pakistans-rising-college-enrollment-and.html

Unknown said...

Hi riaz,
This is in referenc to your comments-
So you think that preparing code coolies to serve the West is the primary purpose of education in India?

How about preparing people to solve your own dire problems of hunger, poverty, illiteracy, disease, lack of sanitation, etc?

I feel sorry for you!

Would you mind telling me how many patents are filed by your country Pakistan? How many top research papers get published in top notch journals?how many science and engineering university in top 100? Perhaps you forgot that the company you claim to worked at regularly visits my college IITM for placement opening in research profile. Oh and btw how many R&D centres are there in oak?

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...

Project OoSC Launched To Empower India’s 17.8 Million Out Of School Children, The Highest Total Number Of Children Out Of School In South Asia

https://indiaeducationdiary.in/project-oosc-launched-empower-indias-17-8-million-school-children-highest-total-number-children-school-south-asia/

Gorakhpur: Gorakhpur local and the multi-award-wining, international educationalist Amreesh Chandra, has announced the launch of Project OoSC (Out of School Children), a breakthrough initiative with a mission to enrol, educate and empower 127 million children out of school in the Commonwealth nations with a special focus on India’s 17.8 million Out of School Children between in ages 5-13 years, the highest number amongst other South Asian countries.

The project will establish 50 container schools across four states in India in its very first year, with the first container school is being established in the Gorakhpur District of Uttar Pradesh. Gorakhpur will soon see the light of the day as the work on the development of the container school has already begun with the laying down of the foundation stone to commence proposed construction. The container school upon its establishment will benefit hundreds of children in the village who had to discontinue their education for lack of resources and other infrastructural constraints.

The project that is based on the premise that “education is a basic right” goes a step further to ensure education through investing in better infrastructure and resources, such as the use of shipping container classrooms. Thanks to swift assembly and the ability to transport easily, Project OoSC’s use of shipping container classrooms helps to install infrastructure for education and enables more children to attend school. In addition, the project will help to ensure high standards of training to educators to enable the spread of quality education and to spark a literacy movement in remote communities across the commonwealth.

Project OoSC lays a strong emphasis on training teachers to ensure quality instruction in the classroom. Another broad objective of the project is to start a literacy movement amongst communities that are widely ignored. This will be achieved by way of establishing container literacy homes or libraries inspiring young people learn more through providing access to reading material. The project is strongly banking on community participation for its success and the enthusiasm of the people during the launch of the first container school bears a testimony to the potential benefits that it will generate for people in the region.