Cadet colleges in Balochistan Monday, May 28, 2007
QUETTA: The federal government has decided to set up two cadet colleges, one each in Bolan and Noshki districts, official sources told APP Sunday. The provincial government has earmarked the sites for the colleges in Dhadar tehsil of Bolan district and Nokjo town in Noshki district. These colleges will be set up under the special directives of the prime minister. The Balochistan government has prepared a PC-I for the schemes amounting to Rs 220 million for the Dhadar Cadet College in Bolan and it will be soon sent to the federal government for approval. A revised PC-I for Nokjo Cadet College in Noshki has already been sent to the federal government for approval. app
Not all cadet colleges in Pakistan are of the same standard. Pitaro, Jaamshoro and Kohat are not in the same league as Cadet College Hasan Abdal. A great emphasis is put on education there. I don't know about now but when I was there, Hasan Abdal students used to secure around 90 of the top 100 positions in the Rawal Pindi board. And that's out of an entry of 96-100 students! In other words we owned the Pindi board
I agree that cadet colleges produce kids are outstanding academics-results achievers. But the fact unknown to general population is that most cadet colleges ruin personalities of many kids. I emphasize on 'most'.
Are cadet colleges a symbol of development and better education? I've know some where dope and immoral/unnatural acts are bred into young minds.
That's true of all hostel life in Pakistan and is not merely confined to cadet colleges. Just go and visit the bathroom(s) of any good institution (forget the crap ones) in Pakistan be it a cadet college or Aitchison or whatever and see the frustrated minds of our youth for yourselves in the shape of amazing drawings and vulgar poetry written on every wall. What do you expect when the vast majority of our teenagers first come to experience co-ed when they start university life? It perhaps happens more in cadet colleges because of the senior-junior culture although as a former alumnus I can safely vouch that Cadet College Hasan Abdal is infinite times better than places like Kohat and ghora gali (where the head boy (I am talking of late 80s/early 90s) tried an immoral act with one of the juniors and was only saved from the gallows because he was not 18 yet
Only few boarding schools/cadet colleges have still retained their values. Those that I consider in this category also include Military College Jhelum, PAF Public School Lower Topa and PAF Public School Sargodha.
Sadly, I do not wish to speak out the names of the so-called elite cadet colleges where the previously mentioned immoral activities are practiced by immature minds.
There was a news floating that the govt. is making moves to remove the word 'cadet' from the names of such schools. After all whats the rationale in making a 12 year old kid behave like a soldier? With the increase in awareness, the above mentioned colleges/schools are almost demilitarized.
However one still finds dirt stricken cadet schools and pre-cadet schools in the galli mohallahs which make kids wear the khaki uniform with military style peak caps.
Military College Jhelum is the only cadet college which is mostly funded and run by GHQ so in cadet colleges, it has that kind of stature. Cadet College Hassan Abdal doesn't have most of its faculty as serving army officers like MCJ but a lot more emphasis is given on education so much so that at certain level you can say no to games at your will if you want to study instead which is something you don't see in MCJ or PAF College Sargodha. But yeah, Hassan Abdal tops my list for education and for overall grooming and activities, PAF College and Military College Jhelum would be good choices.
Rest of all cadet colleges are private institutes being run by "influential" ex-armed forces or political parties persons so there they go. The discipline is extremely bad.
There would be very few cases of dope and immoral cases in CCH, MCJ and PAF and A LOT FEWER than any good civil college of the same stature KGS, LGS, Aitchison etc... So on that, I think the overall lot that comes out of these colleges have learnt more about the world (academically) in less resources (except CCH which is mostly self-financed so expensive one) than you'd expect from anywhere else.
I am not sure except GoldenAsif, on which basis other people have unleashed their wisdom and opinion or may be the general public really is misled to believe that all cadet colleges are like real cadet colleges. As I said only MCJ, PAF and CCH has more actual armed forces faculty and staff (MCJ has 95% Serving Army Corpse instructors and same goes for PAF) so things are taken a lot more seriously there than any other college. In Cadet College Petaro and Kohat, an influential student can kick some instructor's ass to a greater degree and he can even disobey him in public to a varied degree, but disobeying an instructor in MCJ and PAF (and possibly CCH as well, GoldenAsif?) would result in severe punishment sometimes even withdrawal regardless of your social and army background...
Alright. So let me throw some light on another aspect of the Cadet College life.
It takes you away from your parents. I mean mentally and emotionally. In your mid-teens you start understanding your parents. You start thinking of giving them back what they gave you. But living away from them at Cadet Colleges then becomes a part of life. You do not understand your parents. They become separate entities from you and it takes quite a time to undo the damage.
It could be true but then again how many teens are actually close to their parents one of these days? Yes may be the real middle class but that lot chiefly suffers from real good communication too apart from helping in the home-chores and thus remaining "close enough" to the family. So, I don't see many families who really know how many girl friends you have or what crisis are you really going through and so on.
Like wise, there would be many cadets whose families used to come visit them almost every weekend from Rawalpindi to Lahore. And really, almost every weekend. So, I guess it all boils down to individual though certain environment does encourage and discourage certain habits.