Education: The only way to move forward

Every major social change comes from wanting something better and the driving force for positive social change is education. An educated person knows that to build his life and ensure a safe future, he needs to avoid chaos and think rationally to find solutions irrespective of the enwrapping dire circumstances.

Our country Pakistan is in a quagmire of complex social problems which will not be sorted by dead-end protest rallies, but by an active effort to shake the cogent issues and haul them towards plausible solutions.

Renaissance Pakistan is such an effort. It proposes a target for change; A school in the Kachi Abadi, opposite Metro, in Islamabad. Impoverished family backgrounds, inherited poverty, uncongenial circumstances can no longer stand in the way of our youth but a healthy thinking mind is what we propose to incite a tangible change in the society as whole.

Education, unlike food aid, monetary support programs and other gifts, equips the people to save themselves by doing-it-themselves. It offers the power of possibilities; steadies the mind and directs it towards ways to get out of the aforesaid boxed misfortunes.

The children in the Kachi Abadi have already witnessed the possibilities available to the educated class. Better life standards, healthy physiques and optimism enshrines in their eyes while they watch big cars drive to the massive store to purchase things they can only dream about. With each passing automobile, these children watch reruns of a lifestyle elevated from their own. It gives them something to aspire towards; a goal they are in favor of. And that solves one of the major problems facing aide workers in general: motivation.

Even with an abundance of good intentions, it is very difficult to help people who do not want to help themselves. Big NGOs focus their resources in multiple places and mostly prefer to allocate them in far off areas removed from major towns and cities where basic facilities are nonexistent. The isolated people who have not seen the benefits of education will be less dedicated towards it, than those who see it pass them on roads several times a day (like the children in the Kachi Abadi). From the psychological point of view, the stage is set for success for Renaissance Pakistan’s school as children in the Kachi Abadi opposite Metro want to study and we wish to make it a feasible option for them.

Renaissance Pakistan’s primary school venture has the potential to help the children go all the way. Strong primary education will ensure strong learning fundaments and Pakistan’s only decent public service, i.e. higher education on merit and quota system, can be utilized.

Pakistan is one of the few countries that offer subsidized higher education. But very few of the deserving children from impoverished backgrounds make it on these merit lists. Because of poor primary education, they cannot compete with those with a better educational upbringing. Strong primary education can equip the deserving with a fighting chance to win seats in good government colleges for Matriculation, Intermediate, Baccalaureate, Post Graduation and even Post doctorate (PhD) programs.

The children who will eventually attend Renaissance Pakistan’s primary school will have the opportunity to step on the hierarchical ladder of success and a better lifestyle, a chance they deserve.

Education transcends generations, even if an impecunious child does not make it to higher education, he or she will definitely emphasize to educate their offspring as the taste of knowledge is contagious and a powerful temptation compelling the individual to get more and more of it. So the educational experience of one generation can serve as an impetus to improve the next one, and generate a long lasting positive change.

The donors will be able to witness this change. Renaissance Pakistan’s primary school is at a location where it will be easily accessed and monitored, right opposite to the upper middle class grocery shopping mall, Metro. The efforts of everyone involved in this venture will be transparent, because it is sited at the periphery of the nation’s capital. This situational transparency gives Renaissance Pakistan’s project an edge, while various NGOs cater to offside places donors have rarely heard of. But now, the donors will be able to see how much their contribution has achieved.

Renaissance Pakistan is a student project. Young people dedicated for the betterment of the country will be involved. A student best understands the problems facing the current generation and the limitations and possibilities of the educational system as he experiences it in his everyday life. Youngsters will be able to form programs that answer to the system’s restrictions and expand its potentials. Ultimately it is these young people who will contribute the most towards the direction of social change in Pakistan.

Out of numerous cries of “We will fix the world” Renaissance Pakistan’s cry, though quieter, is surer because it is limited to a single part of their immediate sphere. Projects like this, which attempt to fix a problem piece by piece, have a greater chance of achieving everything they set out with as they complete one thing first and then move forward towards the other. Various NGO’s lose money trying to diminish a scattered evil in a broad manner achieving bare scraps of their big plan. The need is for concentrated effort, dedicated to a specific pin point.

We expect your wholehearted support and appreciation… ARE YOU WITH US?

Written by: Fatima Tuz-Zahra

Bsc. Accounting and Finance, Alta Vista College, Islamabad.

Edited by: Aiman Amjad

Post graduate student at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

Is confusion considered a virtue in women?

Is confusion considered a virtue in women? Are all girls and ladies expected to get intimidated and disarrayed at the slightest notion of doing- it-themselves? Maybe driving to the nearby market place crossing 6 straight roads; receiving unexpected guests; at the sight of a mouse in the larder; encountering an ogling guy anticipating your eye or perhaps submitting admission forms unchaperoned?

Now THAT'S inspiring isn't it? I've never been able to demonstrate such bravery!

I am unaware of the prospects regarding the first few actions but being the victim of the last clause, I assure my readers that regardless of what potent feminists preach, the society is in a state of mental-inaction. We are made to believe that women have rights and are not underestimated. Let’s talk about democracy. Let’s urge the incarcerated fair-sex to topple the glass structure of discrimination, breathe the atoms of emancipation and move forward as a human being who is ready to upholster herself as a productive unit in the economy and state.

Well said, it deserves applause… now the seminar has come to its conclusion and the guests are requested to replenish their bellies with the much awaited lunch. The anti-climatic end to every woman empowerment/ woman day/ woman rights conference => food. And then they want us to expect that “kitchen” is “not” our destiny. How tempting.

"Oh! Interesting lecture on woman empowerment, wasn't it Becky!" "Indeed! I felt so shattered at the sight of those poor darlings walking all the way in the scorching heat to get fresh water!" "Do you suppose we could give them..errmm..umbrellas?" "Oh how lovely! How sweet you are Mrs. Nonsense". ♥

I wish the guests were made to apply the aforesaid rhetoric on the common man who expresses his astonishment at a 5 feet 3 inches girl, walking in his office and managing her affairs ALONE. How shocking right? Alone! Or the man who doesn’t accept money from a girl only because she had a hundred rupee note and he wished to help the damsel in distress.

Bemused or confounded? I’ll explain.

I am a fresh graduate who is yearning for a place in University to continue studies despite her unwillingness (the parental insistence is too much; you see I always preferred sleeping). After months of waiting, I finally had the opportunity to submit my documents and swing myself forward in the ocean of expectant applicants. My father was busy and I like doing things, my way. I entered the clerk’s office and on my turn presented the required credentials. A shadow of amazement clouded the officer’s countenance but I was nonchalant as I filled the undertakings. And then curiosity killed the cat, he asked me:

“Are you a student at this University?”

“No”, I replied looking up, quite bewildered at the magnitude of his foolishness.

“How can I be? I am ‘applying’ and ‘submitting’ my ‘newly retrieved’ documents”, I continued.

He asked no more and I understood. No college going girl could muster the courage to cross the threshold of this patriarchal society unguarded by her male relations; maybe an overshadowing brother, a grave looking father or even a little toddler 10 years her junior would suffice. But a male it has to be.

Would notoriety dog my footsteps if I prefer to manage my affairs without intertwining a male pedestal of holiness? Walk confidently, straight shouldered, no haunch, feeling glorified as there is no one who can do my role in life better than me; move forward , never look back (unless I drop something of course!) and choose not to subjugate my free-will to the underrating eyes of others.

And for the first time I feel intimidated to accept the truth…my heart sequesters the rational reply from my mind. What does your heart say?

Revisiting our heritage

I thought I should share something amusing. I read it on the love of my life, twitter. =P It was an article about a gathering which was conducted in remembrance of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and displayed through the eyes of a renowned poet, Zehra Nigah.The latter accompanied Faiz through most of his years and bears evidence to the atrocities flung on the maestro of Urdu poetry for being subversive in a subjugated society ruled by elites who had detoured from the Pakistan ideology.

 

 

A Pakistan which Faiz was promised after 1947 was lost somewhere in the dusty sunshine; where a road could be seen but no leadership for proper guidance available. While reading this article, I was not enthralled to notice how the “youth took no notice of the speech delivered by Zehra Nigah”. Maybe Karachi-tes have seen so much death that poetry and past seem “non-pragmatic”. I can’t help but agree with them in theory, however I still believe that youngsters are much more competent than our seniors at ruining the country by adhering to the Western fallacies.

Anyways, here is the link if you might want to see it.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/194118/remembering-faiz/

 

In my opinion, the best anecdote shared was this:-

 

 Faiz was renowned for having many female fans. Yet according to Nigah, the humble writer was not always at ease in the company of all his admirers from the fairer sex. Zehra Nigah recalled a female devotee of Faiz once called at her residence and expressed her earnest desire to meet the revolutionary poet that very evening. Nigah recollected, “Faiz seemed eager to meet this unknown woman too and I thought I should leave to make tea and let the two spend time together in the park.” “But when the lady arrived, she turned out to be much older than Faiz!” told an amused Nigah. At the sight of the elderly woman the disappointed poet sheepishly requested Nigah sit with the aged woman, while he went to make tea for them.

 

Ultimate conclusion:  

 

A man remains a man even after achieving heights of fame and credibility. <3