Mods Dont know where it belongs feel free to move it where ever you would like but **not **in the dead forums as Pak2/3 or C&A or Culture.
I am an avid watcher of CNN LouDobbs and Aaron Brown. Actually I watch Lou Dobbs twice just to make sure I didn’t miss anything or he doesnt add anything in the replay. Now either on AB or LD they mentioned that Bill Gates was addressing some group of Politicians or some comittee and said that in order for US to compete in the coming years with India and China (in context of flattening of the world), we will have to redo our school system all the way from Kindergarten to 12th grade. He added that the current school curriculum was designed for workforce of 50 years ago and that the dynamics had changed.
Now that got me thinking. First of all that Indian and Chinese high school education system is better than US. Secondly being a proud ex-paki I felt envious of our neighbors and the fact that while we (Pakis) are #1 in fighting war on terror, when it came to business, education,and other economic opportunities it was our neighbors that took the lead. Now I am not criticizing the Pakistani school/education system at all. Now as I mentioned that Pakistan was not mentioned, and I really am proud to be an American of Pakistani descent, so that sort of irked me. Now I came up with a solution that would help Pakistan and also help the region. The solution is to have a common curriculum of education amongst all three countries, meaning that while the subjects can be taught in the languages that are spoken in the region but content of the subjects is the same.
This would change the dynamics of the region and the views of average citizen within 12 years. In other words this would be a seed that would bear first fruit in 12 years and following that every year. This will also move the region towards economic co-operation, and so on.
So what do you naysayers have to say?
very good idea as far as chemistry, physics, accounting, maths, english, computing etc go...
but differences will start to arise in history, geography, politics, and religious eductaion because all of these countries have been teaching their version of these subjects to their children....so whose version will we accept...pakistan's, india's, or china's
Good idea Verizon, but how do you intend to do this.....
send a letter to the Prime ministers of all the concerned countries...... and they will say, Yes Verizon ...come and do it!
I agree with Homer up there, Verizon you are likely to cause a world war.
Another thing which way will they write, vertical like the chinese, left to right like the Indians or right to left like the Pakistanis.
I Agree that India and China are getting out of the gutter, but cxant you leave the paks where thay are, Im sure they are much happier there!
Ive spoken to Pak students about India and they hate, absolutely hate the idea of anything to do with India......... they need this attitude to be changed before you can do anything.
no he has a very good idea but its not possible....i know we pakistanis need to introuduce good english books in our education system...In dubai I did my eighth grade in an indian school and when i went to the pakistani school in ninth grade the english books were thinner and sucked...9th, 10th grade books were much easier than the english i learnt in 7th or 8th grades...subjects like english can be integrated...believe me the chinese will be thankful for that...subjects like chemistry, physics, bio, maths, computing, accounting can be same...but other subjects it wont be possible....china still feeds its student with marxist principles...my girl friend has to pass a marxixt theory course to complete high school...indians have their own ideology...our system says that indians suck...
i wanna say one thing will indian and pakistani teachers be partial while teaching same history courses?
Actually a friend of Mine a PHd from MIT was tapped by Pakistan Government to conduct a study on education system he compared it with regional curriculums. I dont remember the exact details.He was looking at it from a complete different angles, When I heard it on TV I guess it was in my subconscious.
Homer I meant history, and gerography as well. Actually Science subjects are pretty much the same any where in the world, it was the contorversial subjects that need to be standardized. Religious study should be taken out and if someone has an itch to learn religion give them a voucher to learn it on their free time (if my system gives them free time). If the versions can be standardized that means all the regional kids will now speak-a-the-same-language.
Verizon: I think you are discounting multiple factors..one is regional languages..in Pakistan you have Sindhi which is taught as the language of instruction in Sindh..in Southern India you have Tamil i believe..while Bengalis are particularly fond of their own clture as well..
in addition people who are considered heros in my area are considered villans in others..You mention the name Ranjit Singh to a Punjabi (non Muslim often) and they'll be singing his praises..but his name has a very different context in my area (around Peshawar).
How do you reconcile very diifferent perspectives of history?
Ahmad Shah Abdali ..the founder of Afghanistan and a hero among the pashtun community has been called a "dacoit" by people in Punjab and I am sure he is called far worse by areas where the marhatas originated from...
So in the end you would have to drop out menion of ethnicity for pakistanis and religion for Indians..what would you do about topics like evolution in Biology?
Whole education system in Pakistan is ****ed up. Sharing the curriculum with India won’t do any good. The whole thing needs to start from scratch. Good luck doing that.
Evolution and Biology???? Teach em. I did my Matric from Pakistan and we learnt Darwins theory in 10th grade, I dont see the issue. I hear you about different languages, but laguage is a medium of communication, you can communicate the same history (include china,paki,indi etc) and teach it in respective regional language.
Paki and India are not the only ones where dialects are spoken, Chinese itself has dialects, You know the Schezuan Chicken fron Canton is different than Mandarin.
You wanna call the abdali a dakku ooh actually I left Afganistan out because I really have no interest in them they can align themselves with kazakhaztan and other stans - the Land of the pure, plus regionally speaking I was looking at only China, Pk,In.
Nothing is easy in life. Here is a quote from a young entrepreneur from Pakistan.
"Ideas are unlimited, but it takes balls to implement one".
This is just a thought. Lets send a collective letter to Mush from GS with this if we all agree. I am sure he can talk to Uncle JinTao and Manny Singh and get soemthing going.
Afghanistan isn't an issue for yourself Verizon but for people from my area it is. Ahmad Shah Abdali was born in Multan by the way and his role in the subcontinents history can't be discounted..personally I seriously am against the presence of Islamiat and Pakistan Studies books at higher levels of education..and excessive idealogical baggage in books at the secondary level..the poor kids don't deserve to be lugging around massive numbers of books around..you'd be surprised at how many kids end up all exhausted from carrying twenty books around..
The CHinese comparison i am well aware off..but there is a big difference between China and the sub continent..the sub continent is both religiously, racially and linguistically far more diverse...China has an overall sense of identity ..the sub continent has only had one twice..
^^ Yes I hear you, but what I am saying is to leave all that aside and think globalization and flattening of the world so we can be in the same boat as CHinese and Indians by working side by side and competing with the rest rather than competing within ourselves.
It would be nice to see a car engine made in China, doors in india and assembled in Pakistan, or a piece of code (SW ) developed in Pakistan, GUI interface in India and the Db built in China. Break the barriers and leap ahead, compete with the world collectively.
Verizon, that is going to happen. Indian IT companies have set up shop in China. China will be settin gup manuf facilities in India. India will set up secondary contact centers in Pakistan. Have faith brother...it will happen. Borders are being finalized, the bus service in kashmir is a good sign of establishing permanence to the LOC, to move forward. It will happen, it will take time.
Pakistan can definitely benefit from what will be the largest economies in the world in 20-30 years, look at where the largest chunk of capital for development came to china....not from the US or europe, but Japan, via taiwan, HK, and then directly. As Japan grew in the 60's and 70's, it redeployed capital in China in the 80's and 90's. Pakistan can benefit from having frienly relations with both.
Excellent idea, but DOA (dead on arrival)
(AKUEB) Agha Khan University Education Board is getting whacked in Pakistan by our puritans (Jamaat) for introducing western agenda's, of course this nothing but propaganda and bunch of lies but serves the mulla agenda well. Just imagine, India (secularists & Hindu centric)+Chinese (Marxists) education boards being introduced in Pakistan, man that wud be fun....
Pakistan has parellel economies (black and white) and parallel education systems (Public & Madrassas), we need to get our house in order first. Importing ideas or education systems will fail because the system as it is will not allow them to function or survive.
Verizon, I like the idea, its great. Had there been a seamles society this sud be the route taken.....maybe when we have jettisoned our excess baggage of the last twent years....
