A voice from H-12 Hostels .

Email from someone in the hostel of H-12 .

"I can withstand all the weirdness of nust. I can understand the reason of constructing barbed wires around schools and café`s. I can forgive the rector protocol. I can compromise not wearing sandals in my school. But I cannot withstand Hostel attendance. `Come one is this a boarding school`. Hostel attendance!!` Where in the earth this happens in universities`. I swear now I feel im in a kind of concentration study camp. Where there is nothing accept study, study, study. No no sports and above all no freedom. You cannot even have a cigarette. The environment is getting on my nerves. As night falls the place turns into a ghost town. And  for a retreat if you go to your MAMU`s you get phone calls from the warden who threatens you of an unknown case. There are other universities in Pakistan with good maintained discipline with freedom. Like lums, the whole university is open for you for the whole night. Not just for u but even your outside friends. And at nust you’re not even allowed to spend a night with your cousin in the other hostel block.

Until and unless we are not getting rid of army administration things not gonna change. Army just making this beautiful place even funnier and weird. Now why are there barbed wires inside nust even around café`s."

The truth about engineering in our part of the world.

You know I still remember how everyone pampered me everywhere that you will be an engineer and you will design these big machinery and buildings one day. And my question was always do all engineers design? The answer was always, “of course, engineers design and technicians operate”. Some couple of months earlier I found myself a job. The post designated to me was of an electrical engineer. And two weeks into it , I quitted . I quitted because I saw all my dreams (yes I am a dreamer) shattering in front of me second by second. I used to sit in the office whole day long awaiting something to happen. Nothing really did happen. What most one was to do was to “Operate”, ”Configure”. None of this stuff is wrong or “evil”. Everyone should do this, but there should come a point where you move from configuring to designing and I did not see that happening ever.  

When I left the job, I thought maybe I got stuck in the wrong place. I started looking around me and voila, I realized that most of what everyone was doing was very similar and they were enjoying doing that. The problem was of course related to the paradigm followed by many countries. As I reside in the gulf, the heavily oil dependent economy was the criminal. The gulf works like this : the governments gain revenue by selling oil , they then, through government entities, initiate projects , using of course the oil revenues. There is nothing wrong with this. The thing wrong is that this is the only thing they do ! The rest is taken care by western engineering and technology firms who have offices over there. These offices are primarily for sales purposes only. All the designing keeps taking place in their homelands. And this is where an individual like me, starts to observe the “contradiction” of being an engineer in our part of the world. The case is a bit better in Pakistan as the economy is not oil dependent (which also means they don’t have cash).  But whatever the scenario the truth is you are better of being a technician rather than an “engineer”. You do some certifications and you will work better than most engineers can. You keep learning, irrespective of the degree and you will see you have gained valuable knowledge that’s pretty relevant to what you want to do. Obviously the society does not fall in love with the term “technician” as it does with the term engineer, but who cares , Right ?

I guess the only way out of this mess is to change yourself and those around you and perhaps keep telling other people. But hey, don’t we all want to make a good living and support our families?

Yes we do and that is why we are still the way we are!

The road often less travelled by, is difficult but with a little wisdom, you know its the cure.

My Experience with the Education System of Pakistan

Hello everyone. I am Farrukh Hijaz and I will be writing on this blog from now on. To start with, I will be writing a 3 part article series on Education System of Pakistan. Today’s article will be about my own experience with the system. It will be followed by a general overview of the pre-university education available in Pakistan and the huge divide in the different systems implemented in the country. Finally I will be looking into the university education systems. In the last article I will discuss the differences between different universities and something more specific to my own university i.e. NUST-SEECS…

I remember when I was a kid, I used to go to school and learn things by heart. I memorized questions and answers and aced exams after exams. Advancing through the classes, I just did the same i.e. memorized things for a short period of time and passed my exams in flying colors. Our school had a computer subject from class 6 onward till class 8. We were taught QBASIC in those classes. I remember that we even memorized the computer programs (which were around 10-15 lines each). Time went on, I reached class 9. It was time for Board Exams. We were supposed to understand and solve the paper. I can easily claim that a huge majority of the class just memorized whatever came in their way and reproduced it accurately during the exams. I was one of them as well. Although I did understand Computer Science and Maths pretty well, I just memorized all the proofs in Physics without knowing what it really meant. And then we got into college. By now our minds were supposedly mature enough to grasp the knowledge and basic concepts. It was time for us to understand and gain knowledge and leave behind the “Rata System”. But, it was all the same. The exams were made in such a way that you got to memorize stuff and only those people got marks that were able to reproduce the stuff as it was written in the book or notes.

I have a friend who has done O/A-levels. I used to discuss the education system with him. I realized that we have a lot to learn from their system. Their course is made in such a way that the student have to understand the concepts. The exams are made such that it tests the basic problem solving ability and main concepts of a student. We can easily sit down and analyze what’s wrong but I doubt anyone is willing to do so. We need to realize that we are doing something wrong and that we need a change. Let’s hope that we live long enough to see that much needed change.

A new era began for me when I got admission in NUST. I was lucky enough to be taught by one of the best Calculus teacher present in SEECS. Thanks to him, I was able to cover the deficiencies in Maths. But then there still was room of huge improvements in other subjects. I saw different kind of teachers here at NUST. Some brilliant while other just OK and there were some from whom I never gained any knowledge. Some of the teachers taught us real knowledge, made us use our minds while others just kept on going with the same old system i.e. memorize and reproduce…

One thing that I noticed was that I never felt a problem in getting good grades in those subjects in which I had developed interest. But getting a good grade in subjects in whom I had no interest was a gigantic task. Now, I realized that my interest in a subject was heavily dependent on the teaching style of the teacher. I was lucky that I got very capable and qualified teachers in most of my relevant and core subjects. But others were not so lucky… During my bachelor’s studies, I felt that too much emphasis was given on getting grades rather than learning, too much emphasis was given on theory rather than practical skills. I think more emphasis should have been on lab work and projects. Also, the marks division should have been such that it should have forced the students to concentrate more on their practical skills.

This is what I feel about the education system that I went through. Pakistan has got a lot of talent, a lot of untapped brain power. BUT it is all going to a waste. We need to change our education system or face the music. The world today, as it stands, is controlled by those who have knowledge. Our progress and prosperity is solely based on educating our next generation, THE RIGHT WAY. So, let’s start thinking about how we can bring about a change. We can start by spreading awareness. So let’s spread the word and start working towards a better Pakistan…

Comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcomed in the comments sections…

An email from an ex-gikian visiting NUST .

Its EMAIL time again! These past few days have kept me gelled to my inbox which, by the way, I rarely opened in my university time . I must admit I am getting "obsessed" with emails these days. Side-effects of joblessness ? Maybe...

Its been a long time since I engaged in the never-ending childish debate of the "BEST UNIVERSITY" of Pakistan. But after so many years, does anyone really "still" care out there about this?

The answer to that is apparently yes! We have over here an email forwarded to me by a friend (ex-Gikian) and written by a proud, proud gikian.

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To: giki-alumni@yahoogroups.com

From: ********************************** { I am keeping the email address private }

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:32:23 +0500

Subject: [alumni] THE BEST UNIVERSITY OF PAKISTAN.

Friends,

Today I had the oppurtunity to visit NUST open house on behalf of my company where I was advised to hire an intern for our deparment. Over the past few years, I have heard rumblings to the fact that how NUST has overtaken and left giki far far behind. So here is the story of today.

I reached NUST with the images of grand function and grand project I must confess that i was really really afraid that open house would be something amazin.

However to my initial relief, open house was being held in a "tambo", As i tried to enter the tambo open house and i was promptly asked to remove my behind from there as the arena was not "officially" opened by the Chief Guest and I was promptly shipped to another "tambo" where chief guest was being received. Made to sit there for about 20 minutes the chief guest finally arrived. Everyone stood up and rushed to receive the "Chief Guest". Then the Dean in his welcome speech went on and on about how his 'hollyness' the chief guest had graced the occasion by coming. Bored by all what I called "School Standard Parents Day speech by the Principal" , I decided to go out for a Cigarette.

As i stood there having my cigarette, finally happy that i was away from the nauseating buttering of the chief guest, i was accosted by a sombre looking person and was asked in these exact words and slightly rudely.

Person: "App Kaun hai "

Me: "Ji mein BHP Petroleum se aya ho for open house

Person: "Acha Acha. Pur baat yeah ke app under ja ke bethay"

Me: Cigg pe kar jata ho

Person: Nahin App abhi jai

Slightly embarassed and little angry, I was shipped once again to the tambo. Well, after listening to about 30 minutes of ********* (censored) from the Dean and then the Chief Guest we were finally allowed to enter the "tambo" where supposedly the projects of the open house were being displayed.

Well to my amazement only two stalls were allocated to final year projects while the rest of the space was taken up by NWO, NESPAK, NLC, GUNJ GLASS, etc etc. I decided to go ahead and talk to the student with final year projects, as my objective was to hire an internee for this year. While I was standing on one of the two stalls allocated to the students, I was once again accosted by another somber looking person and was told in these words.

Person: "App Zara yaha se hut jai kyu ke chief guest ab is stall pur ana walay hai"

Extremely pissed i decided to give this person piece of my mind . After which I left the tambo open house and nust altogether and came back without hiring the internee.

Now you all must be thinking who this VVIP chief guest was so here is the last kicker. He was the Rector of NUST.

So u can guess which is still the best uni in pak and what is over hyped military *********.[censored]

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And there we have it ! After eons and eons of futile bragging , we still cant get over the euphoria about studying in GIKI, NUST etc. In reality, a great school is that that helps you learn, really learn, something constructive irrespective of the hype . Plus it "may" help you find a job as well!

This email, however, has some valid points and some exaggerations. I have always talked and written about how NUST events lack the glitter, opulence and marketing which is required by a leading University. Perhaps that is something NUST can learn from LUMS, but seriously not Giki. Its also a reminder to how we should treat people from the industry when ever we arrange an open-house. This guy perhaps visited EME and not H-12 which is a bit more friendly to civilians.

However we also have an email from a very energetic Nustian who replied:

"Nothing is wrong with NUST. Its just that Mr. Shah Hussain was having a very bad day!

And we should not promote/support propaganda against NUST as this guy has done by posting it on the yahoo group (giki-alumni@yahoogroups.com).Every university has certain problems and short comings, and we are still the number one university of Pakistan. Mr. Hussain should approach PEC/HEC, if he thinks the rankings are wrong.Proud to be a NUSTian." Ahmad Mustafa .

Ahmad bhai, its always good to highlight your weaknesses and improve them and not sit in a fool's paradise. But I agree no one is perfect, not even us.


And I request all to take this email as satire and not an invitation for a brawl ;)

Wasalaam

Usman