Akif and Farah
January 22, 2009
Last week my column gave the example of Akif Zeb, a young student from the NWFP, who had his scholarship for a domestic PhD made dormant because the government has not released funds to the HEC. Akif is amongst several hundred individuals with the same plight.
What makes Akif's case interesting is that the back story is so compelling. He is the son of a retired schoolteacher who would not be able to provide for the expenses of Akif's training in research. When Akif was doing his MSc he grew fond of the process of research to the extent that he managed to get a publication out by going to various universities to finish his literature review and collecting samples for his chemistry-oriented topic. Akif had a job, when he thought he was about to receive funds from the HEC for his studies. He quit it to pursue the promise of academics the HEC had sold the nation. Today he teaches pro bono in a school.
Several people wrote to me after that column, and what happened since is both heart-warming and tragic. One individual wrote to Akif and offered to try and rally for funds privately so he could continue his studies. Akif wrote back, refusing the help on the principle that he had contacted the press not so that his personal situation could be rectified, but so that everyone is his position could get what they deserved. This created a set of back-and-forth correspondence that I was privy to.
The individual who offered to help, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been involved with The Citizens Foundation and the hundred thousand students they are pushing through the education system. He did his best to explain to Akif that not all people from a certain economic clique were out to trample the upward possibilities of the less privileged. To all this, it was Akif who offered to help as a volunteer with the TCF. If people like Akif and those who support the TCF are the future, then our country has nothing to worry about.
I wonder what Farah Dogar would make of someone like Akif Zeb, someone who refuses help because it helps him individually and not his cohorts who he doesn't even know personally, but whose rights he champions.
Farah's case may apparently be about 21 marks, and being bumped from a C to a B grade in her FSc, but it is actually about the pretence of a fair educational practice being done away with completely through the interference of her father, the Chief Justice.
Let's forget about the judgment in the case, we have seen how she got 2 marks for a question whose maximum marks were 1, and also some of her scripts and the pedestrian and incorrect answers within.
We need to understand what the consequences of the judgment are for the education system. The Pakistani system only allows for rechecking, which is actually re-totalling of marks. What that means is simply that the only place where one can get more marks out of a declared result is through checking if the mathematics of adding all the marks are correct. Why is this done? Simple, to reduce the all-pervasive influence of the influential to get marks for their wards as desired after they have failed to get them. Not entirely fair, but it ensures some parity in the system and weeds out opportunity for undue influence.
Of course, with the Farah judgment what has been sanctioned is an illegal reassessment that could not even be accommodated through the rules. It has become the NRO of the education sector. Now every scion of the elite will be able to tailor their results post the declaration of the total marks. Examiners are already under immense pressure prior to the declaration of the results, now the cycle will never end.
But the contrast is amazing, and ultimately depressing between the haves and have-nots, between the two Pakistans we have today. On the one side, we have a government which has a minister who defends burying women alive but going out of their way to ensure the daughters of the powerful get what they want.
Somehow, I believe that had one of the lesser privileged, Akif Zeb, been the son of someone powerful, he would not have allowed his father to do on his behalf something that deprives others, just like how he is averse to help today because it benefits only him. Two Pakistans, one invidious, one inspirational.
The writer is a Rhodes scholar and former academic. Email: fasizaka@ yahoo.com
What makes Akif's case interesting is that the back story is so compelling. He is the son of a retired schoolteacher who would not be able to provide for the expenses of Akif's training in research. When Akif was doing his MSc he grew fond of the process of research to the extent that he managed to get a publication out by going to various universities to finish his literature review and collecting samples for his chemistry-oriented topic. Akif had a job, when he thought he was about to receive funds from the HEC for his studies. He quit it to pursue the promise of academics the HEC had sold the nation. Today he teaches pro bono in a school.
Several people wrote to me after that column, and what happened since is both heart-warming and tragic. One individual wrote to Akif and offered to try and rally for funds privately so he could continue his studies. Akif wrote back, refusing the help on the principle that he had contacted the press not so that his personal situation could be rectified, but so that everyone is his position could get what they deserved. This created a set of back-and-forth correspondence that I was privy to.
The individual who offered to help, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been involved with The Citizens Foundation and the hundred thousand students they are pushing through the education system. He did his best to explain to Akif that not all people from a certain economic clique were out to trample the upward possibilities of the less privileged. To all this, it was Akif who offered to help as a volunteer with the TCF. If people like Akif and those who support the TCF are the future, then our country has nothing to worry about.
I wonder what Farah Dogar would make of someone like Akif Zeb, someone who refuses help because it helps him individually and not his cohorts who he doesn't even know personally, but whose rights he champions.
Farah's case may apparently be about 21 marks, and being bumped from a C to a B grade in her FSc, but it is actually about the pretence of a fair educational practice being done away with completely through the interference of her father, the Chief Justice.
Let's forget about the judgment in the case, we have seen how she got 2 marks for a question whose maximum marks were 1, and also some of her scripts and the pedestrian and incorrect answers within.
We need to understand what the consequences of the judgment are for the education system. The Pakistani system only allows for rechecking, which is actually re-totalling of marks. What that means is simply that the only place where one can get more marks out of a declared result is through checking if the mathematics of adding all the marks are correct. Why is this done? Simple, to reduce the all-pervasive influence of the influential to get marks for their wards as desired after they have failed to get them. Not entirely fair, but it ensures some parity in the system and weeds out opportunity for undue influence.
Of course, with the Farah judgment what has been sanctioned is an illegal reassessment that could not even be accommodated through the rules. It has become the NRO of the education sector. Now every scion of the elite will be able to tailor their results post the declaration of the total marks. Examiners are already under immense pressure prior to the declaration of the results, now the cycle will never end.
But the contrast is amazing, and ultimately depressing between the haves and have-nots, between the two Pakistans we have today. On the one side, we have a government which has a minister who defends burying women alive but going out of their way to ensure the daughters of the powerful get what they want.
Somehow, I believe that had one of the lesser privileged, Akif Zeb, been the son of someone powerful, he would not have allowed his father to do on his behalf something that deprives others, just like how he is averse to help today because it benefits only him. Two Pakistans, one invidious, one inspirational.
The writer is a Rhodes scholar and former academic. Email: fasizaka@ yahoo.com
