Dr Tariq Rahman puts forward the results of his survey to research militancy andtolerance among students and teachers, according to gender, in Pakistani schools.
In December 2002 and January 2003 I carried out a survey of the opinions of students at the 10th class level of Urdu-medium schools, English-medium schools and madressahs. The same questionnaires were also given to teachers in these institutions. The overall results of the survey have been described earlier (Dawn, February 23).
This article presents the genderwise breakdown of the survey. As the female students and teachers of madressahs were not available for the survey, only the responses of the students of English and Urdu-medium schools are shown in the tables accompanying this article.
The number of students and teachers are shown in tables 1 and 2, showing that the sample size in the case of Urdu medium schools was almost twice that of English medium schools. There were questions pertaining to whether non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan should be given the same rights as Muslim citizens, especially as far as giving them jobs was concerned. There was also one question which asked respondents whether men and women should be given equal rights. The students were told that ‘equal rights’ meant rights as defined as being equal in Western countries.
Extremely interesting. Peace is the main alternative. Honestly i am shocked. I guess i am too militant for many people's tastes. I would have voted for either war or jihad. Prefering the Jihadis, over an open war. Peace is to flighty an idea for both Pakistani and Indianis, esp. over Kashmir.
As for the results on minorities. What can i say, people seem to be stepping outside the negativity of socio-religious stereotypes.
Interesting survey for sure... Thanks for posting it up. i can't say i am too surprised that females tended to be slightly less militant, but i admit i was surprised that they were less tolerant than males vis-a-vis Hindus. Very interesting survey, thanks for posting.
a very interesting study. basic, simple survey, what would be good to know is how the teachers biases affect the students?
additionally the difference bwtreen teachers and students response for english medium schools was explained thru teh statement that students come from more liberal families.
How would one explain the differences among urdu medium schools teachers and students? could it be that the new generation as a whole is more tolerant than their elders?
I would have been very interested in seeing the responses from madrassa students and teachers. as much as i believe that an overwhelming majority of madrassas are trying to do a good job, aside from a small number of trouble makers, but i still think that due to lack of trained educators a standard curriculum etc the students are in many cases learning from untrained "educators" and that the biases would be higher on the average there.
hmmm...i dont think they are more liberal. Rather if you gave them a list of the things they prioritize above all, Kashmir wouldnt be in the top 20. The newer generations, Generation Y is not at all anti-indian. Rather it is the parents and grand parents that have suffered in India - right or wrong assumption who cares - or remember the wars, they are the ones that feel the need for kashmir to be brought up.
Rather 2 things would be a priority. The Economy and Jobs.
As for the differences, "liberal" families could indeed be a reason. Another could be more say westernized ie born and brought up abroad for a period.
As for Urdu Medium schools, i would say it was or the reasons listed in the first paragraph. Ie economy and jobs and lack of feeling for Kashmir.
I read the complete survey Tariq Rehman( he writes real well and sounds like a very well intentioned person) Published included a section on comparison between Madrassah/Urdu Medium/regional language and English Medium. Whats disturbing about it is that it shows how schizo Pakistani society has become because of the different school systems.
zakk but its not just pakistani society that has issues due to the education system. compare inner city school students, to suburbanites and to private school students here in US and you will see a startling difference.
CM
as far as the liberal issue goes. The peopel going to those schools in general are from more well off families and have access to information sources to see more than whats just in the local books papers and news. I would even suggest that the parents of these kids are probably less militant as well.
education is just part of the issue here, but diff socio-economic groups probablyhave much varied views anyways. true pretty much anywhere but with our large divides between rich poor and a smaller middle class, the gulf in opinions is probably more evident.
This is disgusting. Here is an open public survey that clearly admits that Pakistan has been training and sending cross border terrorists and killing people of Kashmir. No further b.s about moral support is needed.
Isn't it time Musharaf and others stopped lying about this?
Beyond that, I hope the English medium students are encouraged further and the others are also brought into the fold of modern peaceful thinking on subjects such as this.
IMHO, the survey should actually be about government vs. private schools, and NOT about English medium vs. Urdu medium schools(because of the fact that majority of the government schools are Urdu medium). Private schools in Pakistan have computers and foreign curricula, compared to the government schools, where the children are still being taught text books from the 70's, and not to mention no access to computers. I think the bottom line comes to that the Pakistani government needs to spend alot more money on education than we are currently spending, and the complete over hauling of the education system.
the discussion was about the difference on the poerspectives of kids in diff typses of schoolk and not on the appropriateness of questions so those who responded stayed within the spirit of the discussion. but you are looking for outrage.. okay here gfoes.. some questions were kinda idiotic.
This sounds like one of those "let's get the format and the process right and not worry about content and results" type of attitude! How can you not be outraged when young kids being asked whether cross border terrorism by their governmnet should be continued or not? What kind of message does that send to the kids? Isn't that how a whole generation of kids in Palestine became bomb belted souls without future?