Students take a break from studies Colourful funfair held at Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG), F-7/4

Islamabad The Annual Funfair was held at the Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG), Sector F-7/4, on Thursday. The chief guest on the occasion was MNA Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Khan.

The chief guest took a round of the stalls along with Principal Qudsia Fatima, Vice Principal (College Section) Maimoona Zafar, Vice Principal (School Section) Aliya Durrani and Activities In-charge Nuzhat Fayyaz.

Principal Qudsia Fatima, while speaking to ‘The News,’ said: “It is our annual event in which students take a break from their studies and enjoy themselves to the fullest. The best attractions of the funfair are swings, song dedication and talent hunt in which girls enthusiastically participate.” She said that the funds generated through funfair goes to the betterment of the staff working under Class-IV, including peons, guards, ayas, gardeners and sanitary workers. “We generate enough funds for their betterment through such activities,” she added.

The students namely Manahil, Laiba, Feroze and Momina who participated in the ‘lucky dip’ were awarded by the chief guest.

The cultures of the country were depicted at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir stalls that showcased their traditional handicrafts, culinary delights and cultures.

There were many stalls selling handicrafts, jewellery, gift items, crochet dresses and shawls, barbeque, burgers, soups and salads. There were also stalls of nail art, face painting, hair spray, new and old books and first aid in the funfair.

A painting competition was also organised for young children. The students were thrilled to see swings in the college and thoroughly enjoyed taking rides in merry-go-round and Ferris wheel installed on the ground.

The second session of the funfair included a spectacular concert by renowned singer Falak Shabbir. The concert started in the afternoon and continued till the evening. The girls were thrilled to attend the concert in which the singer sang songs from his recent album.

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How to recruit and attract savvy students – five tips

The role of marketing in higher education has never been more important. In an era of higher fees, universities need to work even harder to differentiate their offering from that of their competitors.

Having worked as an advertising executive in the private sector, the idea of creating something that stands out from the crowd is instinctive for me. But moving into higher education, I saw the sector had been slower in realising the potential impact creative marketing can have on student recruitment.

In the last year alone, my own institution, Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), has seen a surge in Ucas applications – 15% ahead of its competitors. And what is our secret, I hear you ask? Well, the five simple tips below are my own humble “how-to” guide to producing similar results.

1) Be clear about who you are. Without sounding like a marketing manual, this is the key to unlocking what makes your organisation unique. By giving it some thought, you can start to build a solid brand identity.

When deciding on the things that set our institution apart, we identified AUB’s maker culture – the idea that AUB is an institution defined through the act of making. This may sound simplistic, but it helped us to distil an identity that lends itself to creating stand out marketing campaigns that are relevant to and understood by our target audience of aspiring young creative talent.

2) Go against the grain. Remember there is always a place for subversion. Without subversion there is no progress. This same logic needs to be applied to university marketing. We need to challenge its norms to discover what works best when trying to attract students. For example, the distribution of cumbersome, information-heavy prospectuses at Ucas events probably won’t cut it with the creative young people you’re trying to win over.

Today’s young people are inquisitive, curious and want their information to be easily digestible, as well as fun. It was this insight, combined with our brand identity of making things, that led us to creating a prospectus that can be assembled into a house of cards. This may seem far out to some, but it had the desired effect when it came to engaging and ultimately recruiting.

3) Draw on the talent around you. The advantage of working in higher education is that you are constantly in contact with talented individuals. For a university marketer this has huge advantages.

Marketing teams need to talk to students in order to find out what makes them tick. By doing this regularly, your department will have its finger on the pulse of what trends, fashions and subcultures they can tap into in order to engage prospective applicants.

At AUB we’ve gone a step further and invited students to take part in a number of marketing initiatives. Our students have also been at the core of department planning and consulted on the design of marketing materials.

4) Resist the urge to sell. This might sound counter-intuitive to some, but refrain from selling your brand to people. What you need to do is engage them.

It’s well recognised that young people are suspicious, even cynical, of the marketing noise that surrounds them. With this in mind, marketers need to ensure that they have a strategy in place which allows potential students to get under the skin of their brand before making a commitment to it. The better a potential applicant understands your brand, the happier student you will have.

Most recently we launched an app called the kscope. It contains scant information about our offer. Instead it allows users to create a unique kaleidoscopic still image or short video through the lens of a mobile phone, upload to an online gallery and share. The purpose of this project was to start a conversation with young people and engage them in making something – we now have nearly 50,000 of them to date.

5) Get help from outside the sector. When considering the options in your quest to increase Ucas application numbers, don’t feel bad if you or your team haven’t got all of the answers. As a relative newbie to the higher education sector, I was able to bring a fresh perspective to my own department.

But if you’re struggling with creative block, why not seek help from outside your sector? Consult with friends who may work in private sector marketing, or even contact a marketing agency who often have reasonable consultative rates for universities.

Simon Pride is head of marketing and communications at Arts University Bournemouth – follow him on Twitter @SimonPride1

Add any tips you have on how to attract savvy students in the comments below.

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Lesson observations: exploring the new Ofsted guidance – live chat

 New Ofsted guidance clearly states that inspectors must not favour a particular teaching style.

At the end of December last year Ofsted published new guidance on what inspectors should be looking for when observing lessons.

Some of the changes to the handbook for inspectors were hailed by teacher Andrew Old as a “Christmas miracle”. In a post on his blog Scenes From The Battleground he said he was excited by the strong and abundantly clear message that inspectors “must not favour a particular teaching style”. And he celebrated how Ofsted backed this up with specific examples of what teachers could not be criticised for – from talking for too long to not having a wide enough variety of activities in a lesson.

Andrew believes that the new guidance is an important move towards ensuring that teachers are not penalised for their teaching style and we’ll be discussing what this means for teachers in our live chat.

The changes to the handbook have also added fuel to the already heavy debate on how Ofsted operates. One of the key issues currently being discussed is what the future holds for the inspection body.

Recently Mike Cladingbowl, the organisation’s national director for schools, wrote a piece on this for our network. He said: “We all know that when it comes to education, there is nothing permanent except change. That’s why over the last few months, we’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what the future of inspection might look like.

“It’s not about shifting the goalposts again. It’s about evolution. It’s about asking some fundamental questions about the direction we should be taking in this new world.”

How then might lesson observations change in the future? And, if the organisation truly doesn’t favour a particular teaching style, what opportunities does this open up for teachers?

In his post, Andrew Old talks about how teachers have been forced to move away from a traditional style of teaching, because Ofsted was against the approach. Do the changes mean that we will now see an increase in the number of teachers adopting more traditional methods? And what other teaching styles might become more popular?

We’ll be discussing all of these questions in our live chat on lesson observations. Join us on Thursday 13 February, 5.30pm to 7.30pm, to debate what Ofsted’s new guidance for inspectors means for teaching and learning in schools.

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Foreign investors interested in Pakistan Talking to mediapersons, at Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI)

RAWALPINDI: Special Adviser to Prime Minister on Oversees Investment Javed Malik said on Thursday that foreign investors were ready to invest in various sectors in the country.

Talking to mediapersons, at Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), Mr Malik said that foreign investors were eager to explore in minerals, energy, banking and other sectors in the country.

Flanked by heads of various multinational companies and investment firms, the special advisor to PM said that an MoU in energy sector had already been signed with a foreign company that would help generate 660 megawatt electricity in the country.

Mr Shahal Khan, head of Royal Partners Energy and Colt Resources Inc, on the occasion said that Pakistan was the focus of foreign investment due to friendly attitude of the government, hoping that massive investment in energy sector would soon help resolve power outages in the country.

Members of business community had swamped the building of RCCI, prior to the arrival of the heads of five foreign investment companies, in order to exchange views on what should be explored in the country.

When asked why would the investors dare to invest in a country plagued by terrorism, the PM’s adviser said that the federal and provincial governments had assured security to foreign firms arguing that the firms were willing to invest.

“It is up to government to maintain law and order. Our job is to explore resources that could benefit the people of Pakistan and generate income and job opportunities for people,” Nicolas Perrault, Director Calvalley Petroleum, replied to a query.Earlier, President RCCI, Dr Shimail Daud, said that Pakistan anxiously needed oversees investment, claiming that foreign investment was pre-requisite for the economic uplift of the country, which he said was not satisfactory in Pakistan.

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Girls in Pakistan village given pioneering sex education lessons

 A teacher displays a flashcard during a sex education class in Shadabad girls’ school in Johi, Pakistan.

Sitting in neat rows, a group of Pakistani schoolgirls in white headscarves listen intently as their teacher describes how their bodies will change during puberty. When she asks what they should do if a stranger touches them inappropriately, the class erupts. “Scream,” says one. “Bite,” suggests another. “Scratch really hard with your nails,” says a third.

Sex education, common in western schools, is taking place in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, a largely Muslim nation of 180 million people.

Approximately 700 girls are enrolled in eight schools run by the Village Shadabad Organisation. The sex education lessons begin when the pupils turn eight and cover puberty, rights issues, and teaches them how to defend themselves from attack.

“We cannot close our eyes,” says Akbar Lashari, head of the organisation. “[Sex is] a topic people don’t want to talk about, but it’s fact of our life.”

Public discussion about sex is taboo in Pakistan. Few institutions provide organised sex education, and in some places it has been banned. However, the teachers operating in Johi village, in poverty-stricken Sindh province, say most residents support the scheme.

Lashari says most of the girls in the village used to reach puberty without realising they would menstruate; some married without understanding the mechanics of sex.

The lessons teach the girls about marital rape – a revolutionary idea in Pakistan, where forcing wives to have sex is not a crime. “We tell them their husband can’t have sex with them if they are not willing,” Lashari said.

The lessons are taught alongside more traditional subjects, and parents are informed about the curriculum before their daughters enrol. None has objected and the school has faced no opposition, Lashari says.

The eight schools received sponsorship from BHP Billiton, an Australian mining company that operates a nearby gas plant, but Lashari says sex education was the villagers’ idea.

Sarah Baloch, a teacher whose yellow shalwar kameez brightens up the dusty schoolyard, says she hopes to help girls understand what growing up means. “When girls start menstruating they think it is shameful … [they] don’t tell their parents and think they have fallen sick,” she says.

Teachers show a card depicting a girl undergoing a medical checkup, as they describe ways to deal with sexual harassment. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Baloch teaches at a tiny school with just three brick classrooms. Three girls cram into each seat made for two and listen attentively. Baloch holds aloft a flashcard which shows a girl stopping a man from touching her leg. Others encourage girls to tell their parents or friends if someone is stalking them. The girls are shy but the messages are sinking in.

“My body is only mine and only I have the rights on it. If someone touches my private parts I’ll bite or slap him in the face,” says Uzma Panhwar, 10.

The lessons also cover marriage. “Our teacher has told us everything that we’ll have to do when we get married. Now we’ve learned what we should do and what we should not,” says Sajida Baloch, 16.

Many of Pakistan’s most prominent schools, including the prestigious Beaconhouse school system, have been considering the type of sex education practised in Johi. “Girls feel shy to talk to their parents about sex,” says Roohi Haq, director of studies at Beaconhouse, one of the largest private school networks in the world.

But there is certainly great demand for such knowledge. A Lahore-based doctor, Arshad Javed, has written three books on sex education and says he sells about 7,000 copies each year. None, however, have been bought by schools.

Not everyone agrees with sex education lessons, partly because tradition dictates that young people should not have sex before adulthood. Recently, the government forced the elite Lahore grammar school to remove sex education from its curriculum.

“It is against our constitution and religion,” announced Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which represents more than 152,000 institutions nationwide. “And besides, what’s the point of knowing about a thing you’re not supposed to do? It should not be allowed at school level.”

In neighbouring India, many government schools formally offer sex education, but Pakistani government schools have no such plans. Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the education minister for Sindh province, was shocked to hear of the lessons. “Sex education for girls? How can they do that? That is not part of our curriculum, whether public or private,” he said.

But Tahir Ashrafi, who leads the Pakistan Ulema council alliance of moderate clerics, says such lessons are permissible under Islamic law, as long as girls are segregated and the teaching confined to theory. “If the teachers are female, they can give such information to girls within the limits of sharia law,” he adds.

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Tug of war won’t topple universities, says Oxford professor

 The game is not up: universities have, and will, continue to adapt during times of change.

UK universities are being buffeted by “feverish” contradictory claims that, on the one hand, they cannot survive the present turbulent economic times and, on the other, that they can fix all the country’s problems, a leading academic will warn at a Guardian conference on Wednesday.

Professor Sir David Watson, principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and the university’s professor of higher education, will reject the view of some critics that “the game is up” for the traditional model of the university. He will argue that institutions have ridden out previous panics over their role in society – such as fears over expansion of student numbers in the 1960s and, more recently, the dawn of the internet age – and will again adapt to new demands.

But, addressing the Guardian University Forum in London, he will warn that institutions are having to change against a background of contradictory expectations. The government requires them to be at the top of global league tables, while simultaneously tackling national demands such as serving business needs and addressing social mobility.

Watson’s defence of universities’ ability to evolve comes amid warnings that established UK institutions will go bust within a decade unless they adapt radically and urgently to the pressures of globalisation and new technology. A report published last year by the Institute of Public Policy Research, ominously entitled An Avalanche is Coming, said UK universities were responding too slowly to a changing environment and could be swept away.

But Watson will turn to history to argue that universities have a centuries-old track record of successful adaptation. He said: “Somehow universities managed to absorb major external shifts in the past – humanism and the Reformation, the scientific revolution, industrialisation, the internet. Universities haven’t ‘done avalanches’ – they have proved extraordinarily adaptable.” Unlike businesses, which have folded and reopened, higher education institutions have relied on “progressive adaptation”.

Even ideas that appeared to be innovations, such as the emergence of Moocs – online courses aimed at unlimited participation – which some critics argue will destroy the traditional university business and teaching model, are in fact part of a long line of innovations in distance learning that universities have absorbed.

However, while offering a robust defence of universities’ ability to survive change, Watson will also stress they are being pulled in different directions by contradictory government demands.

National and local strategies for higher education require them to demonstrate teaching quality, service to business and the community, concern for the public interest and a role in increasing social mobility. Yet ministers also want UK institutions to top worldwide league tables that are now “popularity polls”, reflecting elements such as media profile and “whether the prime minister went to that particular university”.

In their quest to respond to global change, UK universities would do well to look at new institutions emerging in the southern hemisphere, Watson will add. These newer, often less well-funded institutions lack a “comfort zone” and respond more closely to society’s needs.

Follow the Guardian Higher Education Network‘s live blog and tweets (#gdnuniforum) for the latest comment throughout the day.

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Students get awards for excelling in academic, co-curricular activities FG Postgraduate College for Women, Kashmir Road,

Rawalpindi To commend the consistent efforts of students who excelled in academics and co-curricular activities during the academic session 2013-14, the annual prize distribution of FG Postgraduate College for Women, Kashmir Road, was held here on Thursday.

The chief guest was Professor Kousar Jahan, an eminent artist, former head of the Fine Arts Department and the proud recipient of ‘Sitara-e-Imtiaz’. The ceremony started with recitation of the Holy Quran by Mehwish Lodhi. Iram Shabbir presented ‘Hamd’ and Hira Abdul Karim presented ‘Naat Rasool-e-Maqbool’. Nairus, Surriya, Kainat, Aisha and Hira presented college anthem.

Principal Nasreen Mirza presented a brief synopsis of the achievements of students during 2011-13.

In various inter-regional competitions organised by the FGEI Directorate and other inter-collegiate contests, the college students won laurels by securing 70 individual prizes and 14 trophies. “We have been the recipient of the FGEI C/G Trophy for Best Performance in Sports and Co-Curricular Activities for four consecutive years, i.e. 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, she added. Two talented students, Nadia and Aleena Khan, secured 1st and 3rd positions in the Inter-Collegiate Athletics 2013-14 held by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Islamabad.

“Our science students excelled in science competitions organised by the FBISE. Saman Shamraiz and Shameen Nasir secured 1st position in Chemistry project and Sana Sharafat, Iqra Amjad and Maham Atif secured 4th position in Biology Project Competition. Our fine arts students secured 2nd and 3rd prizes at tehsil and district level and won a cash prize in the Punjab Youth Festival.”

The much-coveted Begum Salma Masud Award was bagged by Urooj Anwar of BSc for academic excellence and Afia Mushtaq Bhatti of BA for Best Performance in co-curricular activities. Saima Saleh was awarded for being the ‘Best Behaved Student in the Hostel’,” she said.

The chief guest, Professor Kousar Jahan, distributed prizes and certificates among the position-holders in college, board and university examinations. An exceptionally brilliant student, Urooj Anwar received four subject prizes in Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Pakistan Studies and 1st position in BSc (Botany, Zoology Group). Rida Rafaqat clinched three subject prizes (Mathematics, Physics, Statistics) and 1st position in BSc Computer Group (Mathematics, Statistics, Physics). In FSc, Zainab Iqbal proudly received her prizes in Chemistry, Biology and English Compulsory, whereas Sania Seemab bagged three prizes in Physics, Islamiyat Compulsory and Pakistan Studies. In FSc (Evening Shift), Saman Khan received three prizes in Mathematics, Physics and English Compulsory, whereas Fareeha Sadiq secured prizes in Biology and Chemistry. In Punjab University Examination 2013 of MA English, Naadia Shah secured 1st position. Reena Shakil got 1st position in MA Urdu.

The students awarded for top positions in BA-BSc included Shagufta Tariq (BA), Sana Afzal (BSc Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Comp Group), Amna Tariq (BSc Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics Group). In Federal Board FA-FSc Examination 2013, the girls who topped their groups and won medals were Amina Aiman (Pre-Medical), Ayesha Wajiha Aslam (Pre-Engineering), Hafiza Wardah Abdul Rasheed (General Science) and Shumaila Boota (Humanities).

The girls who were awarded certificates for their best performance in co-curricular activities were Mehwish Lodhi (Qirat), Hira Abdul Karim (Naat), Ammarah Shoaib (English Speaker), Afia Mushtaq Bhatti (Urdu Speaker), Samra Iqbal (Fine Arts), Iqra Alam (Sports), Tehrim Javed (Dramatics), Ayesha Niazi (Mushaira), Iram Shabbir (Singing) and Haleema Javed (Dress Show).

In her speech, Kousar Jahan referred to the highest level of academic excellence enjoyed by the college. She also referred to her golden days spent at the CB College (from 1966 to 2000) both as a student and a teacher. “Education is not merely reading books and having degrees. It shapes and forms our character,” she said. Picking some very unique and intimate examples from her memory attic, she enthralled and illuminated students and faculty members by the dedication, creative genius and passion for work of students and teachers in her days. She emphasised on the active, positive and creative role-played by women in the progress of a nation, as the researchers say that 75 per cent works of the world are done by women. With our sincere committed efforts, strong will and above all “a spirit of unification” we can do marvels. We must feel proud of our nation, our culture and realise our rightful place in the world positively and hopefully.

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Do baby boomers deserve a better rap? | Conor Gearty

 Baby boomers did the world a lot more good than is generally recognised.

Are the lucky postwar generation of baby boomers responsible for the plight we are all in today? Missing the wars that destroyed so much of the lives of their parents and grandparents, they went on to enjoy unprecedented levels of prosperity and security – but left what exactly to the rest of us? The baby boomers stand accused of bequeathing a world to the young that is blighted by climate change, record youth unemployment and soaring bills for housing and higher education. They have wrecked the lives of the generations that follow them. Justice demands they pay a price.

In the second of LSE’s unique series of public prosecutions, to be held later this month, the charge sheet will be pretty extensive.

The prosecution’s opening statement will no doubt explain how the horrors of the second world war inspired the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later international covenants, but, by their actions, the baby boomers have been multiple violators of those fundamental rights for generations X and Y, and all the others still to come.

The jury will be told that the resources of the world have been so plundered that the basics of a decent, human-rights-respecting life – water, food, fresh air – can no longer be taken for granted. Nor even can a habitable world be assumed for many already alive who have the misfortune to be born at the wrong time. By neglecting the planet, the baby boomers have breached the trust they owed to the world’s peoples coming after them.

The baby boomers’ defence will, though, be surprisingly powerful. They inherited a world laid waste by war and rebuilt it, staying clear of further war despite the power of the weapons they had to hand. They evolved a welfare state to provide security for all their people, and brought freedom to their colonies the world over. The world they handed over was in decent shape and they have endeavoured to keep it that way by acknowledging climate change as a key policy issue and negotiating legally binding international limits on emissions of the six major greenhouse gases.

The baby boomers will also no doubt argue that, with their compulsion to embrace the market, their lack of any kind of social solidarity and their failure to think imaginatively and together to solve the issues that confront them (much smaller than anything they faced) it is generations X and Y that are the true culprits for the mess they are in.

So who is right? At this public trial, cases will be put by barristers from Matrix and Brick Court chambers supported by expert witnesses from the world of journalism and public affairs. Expert witnesses will include (in defence of the baby boomers) the granddaughter of Winston Churchill, Emma Soames. The audience will give their vote before and after it has heard the arguments but a specially selected jury of young and old will give the final verdict and – if guilty – decide on the remedy the world is entitled to today.

So are the baby boomers guilty? Either come along and have your say, or give us your verdict in the comments below.

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Sharia’s attributes in the Quran in two words — Rahman and Raheem ANWAR ABBAS

SALVATION and grace cannot be regarded as the monopoly of any one faith, any one sect or any one people. No one can achieve it merely because he (or she) is a member of any particular religion or fiqh, because God’s infinite beneficence is open to all who do good deeds.

This attribute is summed up in the Quran in two words — Rahman and Raheem — that envelop the entire universe.

None can claim that the Almighty will be partial to them. Islam frankly recognises that amongst the Muslims (and non-Muslims) there are both persons of deep and sincere faith as well as persons whose faith does not go beyond lip service.

While the interpretations of Sharia vary from one culture to another, in its strictest definition it is the infallible law of God, as opposed to human interpretation of the divine law. There are two primary sources of Sharia: the precepts of Quranic verses and the examples set by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The introduction of Sharia is a long-standing goal for Islamic movements globally. But attempts to impose Sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence and even warfare.

The differences between Sharia and secular laws have led to an ongoing controversy about whether the two are compatible.

To recognise what Sharia means we must understand that religion has been a continuous unbroken movement in human history in the quest of a good life and that all great religions owe their inspiration to the same divine source.

Hence the founders and prophets, as also their places of worship, deserve our highest respect and tolerance and appreciation of other faiths is a duty enjoined on all men, in particular Muslims.

But many Muslims have forgotten this significant truth and have tended to adopt a narrow-minded attitude towards other religions. Some historians, poets, scholars and divines have even extolled Muslim rulers and men in power who showed intolerance in religious matters which was quite clearly repugnant to the real teachings of Islam.

It is therefore necessary to remind the Muslims of their heritage and have them reaffirm their faith in the high tradition of tolerance.

There is a good deal of misunderstanding on the issue amongst the Muslims due either to ignorance or the intolerance shown by some Muslim rulers, or indeed the ill-advised attempts of some non-Muslim scholars to present Islam in an aggressively unsympathetic light.

Islam starts with the postulate that all religions derive their original inspiration from God and there can be no basic contradiction in it.

The Holy Quran declares (21:25) “And we have not sent any messenger before thee but have given them the inspiration that there is no God but I, therefore, worship Me.”

Undoubtedly there are doctrinal and incidental differences in methods of worship, but these can be traced to different periods of history or different places and environments. Also, we must consider later accretions made by priests and divines to preserve their power and authority or rulers who wanted to reinforce orthodoxy to guard what they felt was the special identity of their religion.

The Quran, on the other hand, has taken the view that all messengers of God have preached basically the same message, stressed the same values and truths, that the deen (spirit of religion) is the same while the Sharia (the way of realising it) may differ.

Nothing can be more foolish than to ignore the unity underlying different faiths and start quibbling over the methods prescribed for the practice of the faiths.

The differences among religions are marginal and only in the details while their commonality has greater significance. If God had willed to create a world in which all humans were alike in every way they would have followed the same religion, spoken the same language and evolved an identical pattern of culture and conduct. But He did not do so.

The messengers of God emerged out of the community for whose guidance they were sent and spoke the same language. Interestingly, few who belonged to the rich or the ruling class identified with common men.

To win over followers, messengers did not rely on the power of armies or offer material temptations. They relied, instead, on the power of love, service and sacrifice. Yet mankind stands divided. According to the Quran there is one link that can reunite humanity — devotion to God.

God’s time is cosmic time and He is very patient and forbearing. He gives men the grace of time so that they may return to the right path. If they fail to do so, His laws bring about their undoing and replacement by others more amenable to receiving His grace and guidance.

The writer is a freelance contributor with an interest in religion.

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‘Paying interns is so in this year,’ say protesters at London Fashion Week

 King’s College London student union protests at London Fashion Week against the use of unpaid internships in the fashion industry.

It wasn’t just the bizarre outfits that attracted curious stares at London Fashion Week on Friday morning. A banner flung out of the window of Somerset House, overlooking the catwalk tents and fashion week crowds, declared: “Paying interns is so in this year.”

But is it?

Students from King’s College London (KCL) and the campaign group Intern Aware were raising awareness about the continued use of unpaid interns in the fashion industry.

“Fashion companies and the fashion industry are notorious for employing students as unpaid interns,” said Anthony Shaw from KCL’s student union, who held one end of the banner suspended from the window.

“London Fashion Week now occurs every year on our doorstep. This was a perfect opportunity to go out and raise awareness of the issue. Unpaid internships aren’t just an issue for King’s students but for all students. They are illegal and demonstrate the exploitation that students face when trying to get into work.”

Holding the other end of the banner was Areeb Ullah: “Unpaid internships have a massive impact when it comes to access to certain careers, particularly for people from low socio-economic backgrounds.

“The reality is that in most cases unpaid internships are against the law, but fashion designers recruit unpaid interns on sometimes a monthly basis.”

King’s College student union vice presidents with their banner, that was hung out the window at Somerset House, East Wing. Photograph: Libby Page/The Guardian

This time last year, I joined Intern Aware and the University of the Arts London in a protest not dissimilar from this year’s demonstration. We wore “pay your interns” T-shirts and handed out “goody bags” containing information about the national minimum wage.

I’d expected stilleto-sharp stares from the fashion week attendees, but was surprised by how warmly we were received. “Yes, this is an important issue,” people said.

So has anything changed much in the past 12 months?

Last year’s protest at London Fashion Week, against the use of unpaid interns in the fashion industry. Photograph: Ben Lyons

Campaigning against unpaid internships has been stepped up, not least at KCL. “At the union we’ve taken a moral stance that any interns we recruit we pay them the Living Wage, because internships should be an investment in people rather than free labour.”

Several arts universities have taken a stand against unpaid work, refusing to advertise opportunities that do not pay at least minimum wage.

The banner was removed by security within minutes. Photograph: Libby Page

But, says Shaw, it’s a practice that still happens in the industry. “We have had students who have had to do year-long full-time unpaid internships while working a part-time job to support themselves, which is completely unacceptable.”

Each year students help out behind the scenes at London Fashion Week, often unpaid.

Chris Hares, campaigns manager at Intern Aware, says: “It is shocking that the fashion industry still doesn’t get it when it comes to unpaid internships. There is a culture of taking young people for granted stitched into the fabric of the industry. We have reported several adverts for unpaid work to HMRC to investigate.”

The protest banner that was hung overlooking the Somerset House courtyard was removed by security within minutes. It looks as though, for now at least, payment for interns is still off-trend in the fashion industry.

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Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) makes mess of class VIII scholarship exam

ISLAMABAD: Mismanagement by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) not only led to the cancellation of the computer science paper of class VIII scholarship examination but also caused trouble to hundreds of students on Thursday.

The scholarship exams are being held in nine centres in the federal capital in which around 900 students from 200 private and government schools are taking part. Each school selects the best students to appear in the exam. Moreover, students have to attend the exams in centres other than their schools to ensure transparency.

On Thursday, after handing over the question papers to the students, it was realised that the questions were out of course and had been taken from an old book. The management then cancelled the paper and asked the students to go home.

But most of the students were left in the lurch as neither the school managements where the centres had been set up informed their parents to pick them nor allowed the students to use the school phones to contact their parents. And students who had no mobile phones had to return home on foot.

A schoolteacher requesting not to be identified said: “After the students were given the question papers, they said the questions were out of course.” After consultation with the FDE it was confirmed that the question paper was out of course so it was decided to cancel the exam.”

Shabbir Ahmed, the father of a student, complained: “I dropped my son at the exam centre at G-7/3 in the morning and went to my office. I had to pick him at noon, but at about 11am my wife called me and said the child had reached home as the exam was cancelled,” he said.

“My son returned home at F-6/1 on foot because he did not have money and mobile phone to call home after the cancellation of the exam. The distance from my house to the examination centre is around six kilometres but my son had no other option but to travel home on foot. Any incident or mishap could have happened with him on the way.”

He said the management of the FDE and CADD should take strict action against the officials responsible for the blunder.

Another citizen requesting anonymity said his son also had to travel on foot from F-7 to his home at sector F-6.

“Schools should have ensured that the students are handed over to the guardians,” he said.

A teacher of computer science said last year the computer science book for class VIII was changed. “There is a lot of difference between the old and the new books. The old book was easier as it was mostly about input devices and languages which have become irrelevant now,” he said.

The students who have studied the new book cannot solve any question from the old book. In the new book, most of the topics are about networking and other issues, he said.

A member of the advisory committee which changed the book told Dawn that three months back an officer of the FDE had approached him to ask from which book the question paper should be prepared.

“I told him that it should be from the new book because it is being taught in the schools at present. But I have heard that the question paper was from the old book,” he said.

When contacted, Director General FDE Mehmood Akhtar Malik said it was just a matter of misunderstanding.

“In fact, two different question papers were prepared for the students of government and private educational institutions and the question paper meant for the private schools was handed over to the students of government schools,” he said.

The question paper was much easier as compared to the book being taught in schools. Some students attempted it without complaining but some refused to solve it. These students will be allowed to solve another question paper from the new book,” he said.

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Fergie’s favourite teacher beat him

Sir Alex Ferguson retired last May after 26 years in charge of Manchester United Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says his favourite teacher was a “fierce woman with an incredible drive” who used to beat him.

The 72-year-old, who grew up in Glasgow, says he keeps the belt he was hit with in his study at home.

Sir Alex said Elizabeth Thomson was an “inspiration”, who gave him his drive and determination.

He named her as his favourite teacher in an article in the latest Times Educational Supplement (TES).

She taught him at Broomloan Road Primary in Govan in the 1940s and 50s.

It was only in 1987 that corporal punishment was banned in British state schools.

Clearly bearing no grudges for the times he was hit, “usually for fighting in the playground”, Sir Alex said his teacher passed on an attitude of “never give in”, which helped shape him.

‘Absolute agony’

He says she made contact with him when he was playing for Rangers and that the two stayed in touch until she died, when her family sent him the belt.

“I couldn’t go to the funeral because Manchester United were playing abroad, but months later I received a parcel,” he told the TES.

“She had bequeathed her belt to me. Her nephew sent it to me along with a letter that said: ‘You’ll know more about this belt than anyone.’

“It’s in my study,” he added.

“My grandchildren are terrified of it. Six from that belt and you were in absolute agony. I used to try to draw my hand away.

“But that was the sort of punishment you had if you stepped out of line.”

He says his teacher commanded great respect from her pupils and that, as an 11-year-old, he and five friends travelled across Glasgow – “to the posh side” – to go to her wedding.

“When I think about her now, I realise it wasn’t all about education,” he said.

“Mrs Thomson endeavoured to make you want to be the best you could be.”

The Scot retired as Manchester United’s manager last May, after 26 years in the role.

He was known for disciplining players with his “hairdryer treatment” – shouting in their faces.

He is a patron of an education charity, Shine.

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Drunk on power about structures of domination AASIM SAJJAD AKHTAR

IT is said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I am generally suspicious of such adages but in some cases they are unerringly accurate. Our security establishment is one such case. For our self-proclaimed holy guardians, the exercise of untrammelled power has become almost second nature.

Generally, when most of us think about structures of domination we focus on individuals and decisions made in the highest echelons, or what are often called, the corridors of power. After all three military generals have ruled this country for half its existence.

More generally the military top brass has cultivated and sustained monopoly powers for the best part of six decades, with pro-establishment politicians and high-ranking civilian state functionaries fulfilling secondary roles.

What distinguishes the coercive apparatus of the state from politicians and civilian state institutions is its so-called command and control system that, in theory at least, makes the establishment a cohesive machine with tentacles spread out far and wide.

In other words, functionaries at the lowest levels of the military institution are as important to the smooth functioning of the machine as those at the other end of the spectrum. Indeed, it can be argued that it is the former that truly inculcate fear in the hearts of ordinary people by making themselves conspicuous as the eyes and ears of a coercive state.

The lowest ranking policeman at a checkpost can strike the fear of God into a passer-by, and often does, with petty bribes the only means of preventing excesses. Even scarier are the proverbial ‘agency-wallahs’ who do their bidding in plainclothes. It matters little whether the spooks that knock on people’s homes late at night or harass them on the streets are privy to the grand designs of their bosses. What matters is that they can act in the name of the state virtually with impunity.

The Baloch long march enters the garrison city of Rawalpindi today. Enough has been said about the march and its background. However, it is worth dwelling on what the marchers experienced in the last few days before reaching their destination, if only as a microcosm of the tribulations to which the military establishment and its intelligence agencies subject political dissidents in this country.

As one might expect with a protest movement of this kind, the marchers have relied on everyday forms of support from the communities they have encountered along the way. This has extended to arrangements for night stays.

From the time they entered Gujarat district, they found volunteer offerings of a place to sleep hard to come by. The knee-jerk explanation would be that Punjabis have refused to express common cause with the Baloch protesters. In fact, the unwillingness of local communities to give of themselves is explained by the fact that ‘defenders’ of the public interest, in plainclothes, of course, have made the lives of everyone with even a remote connection to the marchers a living hell.

The state personnel — uniformed and otherwise — that have ‘accompanied’ the marchers through their travels in the Potohar region have also performed the role of principal harassers whenever the onlookers and video cameras have faded from sight. The TV media was even forced to report an incident post-facto near the town of Sara-i-Alamgir in which the marchers were subjected to verbal abuse and accused of fabricating the entire missing persons issue to undermine Pakistan.

In the event, the participants of the long march have not flinched and now appear to have made it to their planned destination. Will they achieve their objectives? Anyone with an iota of political savvy knows that thousands of disappeared Baloch are not going to be returned to their homes anytime soon, and that the military establishment will continue to do as it pleases in Balochistan for the forseeable future.

So what will it take for the spooks and their paymasters to be cut down to size? How many more East Pakistans and Balochistans do we need to create before we come to terms with the fact that those who demand their democratic due are not ‘enemies of the state’?

I wish there were an answer to this question that was not indeterminate, and hopeful to boot. That there isn’t cannot be explained only by the actions of the most powerful components of the establishment. Instead we need to recognise that the many functionaries of the coercive state apparatus who do the so-called ‘dirty work’ are just as drunk on power as those they serve.

Straightforward it is not, but undoing this structure of power is imperative. Those who have given up everything deserve nothing less.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

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Second vaccination drive in Bara in five years door to door in parts of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency

LANDI KOTAL: Health workers on Thursday went from door to door in parts of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency to vaccinate children against polio.

The current vaccination campaign is the second in five years in Bara, which has reported the most polio cases in the country during two years.

The officials said anti-polio drops were administered to children in Alamgudar, Mandai Kas, Speen Qabar, Ajab Talab, Dogra, Al-Haaj Market and Gud Malang, which were previously considered inaccessible for health workers.

The health officials said of the 20 polio cases from Bara last year, 15 were reported in the inaccessible localities.

Last time, health workers had done anti-polio vaccination campaign in the middle of 2013.

The tehsil has been inaccessible since 2009 when security forces launched a military operation against the local outlawed militant groups.

“The door-to-door campaign began in the erstwhile inaccessible localities on February 10 and it is still underway,” Agency Surgeon Dr Rehman Afridi told Dawn.

Prior to the start of the campaign in inaccessible areas of Bara, security forces give clearance to health teams for administer anti-polio drops to children either in a school, in a hujra or at any other protected facility in light of militant groups’ threats to target vaccinators.

Dr Rehman said he was satisfied with the foolproof security provided to his health teams by the local political administration throughout Khyber Agency.

The local administration and health authorities had to suspend polio vaccination in Jamrud when two health workers were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in December last year.

It later imparted necessary training to khasadar and levies personnel for polio vaccination as most health workers, especially schoolteachers, refused to run the campaign over militant threats.

“The current campaign is going on smoothly and we have so far achieved over 90 per cent of our target in Landi Kotal and Jamrud,” Dr Rehman said.

He said the campaign was underway in Ghundi, Sur Kamar, Tabai, Gharheeza and New Abadi.

The agency surgeon said no vaccination refusal case had been reported even in far-off localities, including Malagori, Brag, Alacha, Karamna and Bazaar Zakhakhel.

“The remaining localities will be covered in the next two days,” he said.

The health authorities have formed 336 teams to administer anti-polio drops to 127,000 children in three subdivisions of Khyber Agency.

Meanwhile, Fata Social Sector Secretary Sardar Mohammad Abbas paid a surprise visit to Jamrud on Thursday to oversee the ongoing anti-polio vaccination campaign.

He also visited various wards of Jamrud Civil Hospital and inspected facilities offered there.

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No let-up in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) employees protest

Islamabad The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) employees’ protest against the upgradation of their hospital to a medical university entered fourth day on Thursday.

Shouting slogans and holding placards, scores of employees led by Sharif Khattak of PIMS Employees United Action Committee said they won’t compromise their principled stand and continue fighting for the detachment of their hospital from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University to ensure that they continue to be part of the federal government.

In March last year, then President Asif Zardari signed into law an Act of Parliament that granted a degree awarding status to PIMS by turning it into the medical university.

By and large, the organisation’s changeover didn’t sit well with the hospital employees, totalling around 3,000, who felt insecure about their jobs.

They insisted they would like to remain the employees of the federal government instead of being part of the university as the varsity would have to generate money for own expenses in the next fiscal besides looking towards the cash-starved Higher Education Commission for funds and therefore, their future seemed bleak.

Sharif Khattak said the PIMS employees were not opposed to the establishment of the medical university in the capital city and instead, they wanted that educational institutions to be established at places other than their hospital.

He praised PML-N MNA for floating a bill to amend the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University Act to separate PIMS from the university and urged parliamentarians to approve it for enactment.

According to the bill, the PIMS and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University will be two separate entities having no concern with regard to the use of their infrastructure and financial resources.

On Wednesday, the House had refereed the bill to the relevant standing committee for examination and recommendations. It will later be sent back to the National Assembly for voting.

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Fake pub will test drinking habits in South Bank University study

 London South Bank University’s fake pub is staffed by the psychology department’s students.

From the flock wallpaper, bar stools and beer pumps, it looks like a regular, if a little dated, local.

Except this is a Big Brother-esque bar where a drinker’s every move is captured on camera to be scrutinised and analysed in the name of research.

Room J-407, on the fourth floor of London South Bank university’s main block, is an elaborate set, built at a cost of £20,000 by the psychology department; a lab bar, where customers are guinea pigs and the contents of bottles are definitely not what it says on the label. As for its cheery bar staff, they are all psychology students researching the effects of alcohol on behaviour.

Bar labs have been used for conducting research at a handful of US universities, but this is thought to be the first in the UK.

Dr Tony Moss, head of psychology, recreated the feel of a proper pub in order to test reactions in as authentic a setting as possible but where conditions could be completely controlled.

Lighting, music, even the pre-recorded background chatter played through hidden speakers, go toward convincing those participating in experiments that they are in a real bar, “rather than in a lab room with four grey walls”, said Dr Daniel Frings, senior lecturer in psychology. It even smells like one, as glasses are lightly rubbed with a small quantity of ethanol.

Order up a beer, however, and you may end up with a placebo.

“The glass will smell of alcohol, but whether there is any actual alcohol in the drink will depend,” said Moss.

His specialist field is the cognitive aspects of addiction and the application of decision theory for understanding the onset, maintenance and offset of addictive behaviours. Research such as this, he said, is crucial in gaining better understanding of why, and how, people drink.

Every experiment has to be rubber stamped by the university’s ethics committee. The amount of alcohol dispensed is carefully controlled up to the drink-drive limit.

Props include a fruit machine, to test risk-taking behaviour, and wire loop games will test eye-hand co-ordination. There will, eventually, be a juke box to determine what kind of music makes people drink more quickly.

Hidden CCTV cameras will relay behaviour in real time to students in nearby rooms. Breathalysers are stored under the bar. Mobile eye tracers – where participants wear Google glass type equipment – will monitor precisely where a person is looking. This is particularly useful in determining whether people actually look at and read posters with information about how to safely consume alcohol, said Moss.

“It is not the sort of research you can conduct in a real pub. There are too many other influences and a lack of experimental control”, he said.

The beer pumps, too, are a prop. They are not hooked up to actual beer kegs. “We are not going to be serving beer every single day and it goes off fairly quickly,” said Moss.

As yet, room J-407 has no name. It also has no licensee, as the booze is free. “I would love my name above the grey door,” joked Moss. Oh, and there is also no giant TV screen showing sport. “I just hate that in pubs. So, not in my pub,” he laughed.

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Gender responsive budgeting mechanism discussed Human Capital Management Institute (HCMI) & Noor Pakistan, collaboration with (ELLA),

Islamabad The Human Capital Management Institute (HCMI) & Noor Pakistan, in collaboration with the Evidence and Learning Alliance (ELLA), arranged a lobbying session with the parliamentarians of Pakistan, says a press release.

The session was attended by Mehreen Razaq Bhutto (PPP), Siraj Khan (PTI), Aisha Syed (JI), Dr. Asma Mamdot (PML-N), Surya Jatoi, Shahida Rahmani, Mussarat Mahesar, Mujahid khan and Shams u Nisa.

HCMI Chief Executive Syed Naeem Athar Abbas briefed the audience on the Gender Responsive Budgeting Mechanism in Pakistan. He said: “This session has been organised to create awareness among the local and international audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps in Pakistan and the opportunities created by reducing them.”

He further commented on the reports published by ELLA on Gender Responsive Budgeting mechanism in Pakistan and said Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfilment of women’s rights.

He proposed 3 goals first was the change and refinement in government budgets and policies to promote gender equality, second raising awareness and understanding of gender issues and impacts of budgets and policies and third was making governments accountable for their gender budgetary and policy commitments. He said: “it is every important for a country to have the phenomena of gender responsive mechanism to contribute to the upbringing of the country. Women are victimized in Pakistan and continue to face disparities in access to and control over resources Gender disparities are more accentuated in the rural areas of Pakistan”.

These gender-based inequalities translate into greater vulnerability and inaccessibility of the equitable share of women in the flow of public goods and services. Naeem further contributed that an initiative and mechanism has to be developed and we are working on it which will be soon shared with the concerned authorities. He said with respect to other countries gender responsive budgeting is practiced on a very small scale in Pakistan, which should be improved and women and girls should be given equal rights to participate in all forms of activities. Gender Budgeting should not be limited to the social areas such as education, employment and welfare, in fact it should also focus on the gender mainstreaming and improving the allocation of resources to women. It can be used to contribute to a more informed view of policy options and impacts that are not usually valued in money. GRB should not confine to women related ministries or departments, but should be introduced to other departments like Industrial and Labour department and Science and Technology. After the presentation a queries session was kept in which the parliamentarian’s fully participated and expresses their views regarding the gender responsive budgeting practiced in Pakistan and the work women parliamentarians are going without all the discouragement and other duties they have to perform. They are dedicatedly working but there is no appreciation for them from any side.

In the end of the session, they hoped to work together in improving the Gender Responsive Mechanism in Pakistan, which will adversely bring an increase the economy and work on the initiated measures for gender responsiveness for the government budgetary processes which need to be further consolidated and some major initiatives need to be taken to capacitate affected individuals to participate in the budget process.

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Closing of the Pakistani mind showed me a class four Pakistani textbook from the 1960s. FAISAL BARI

A FRIEND showed me a class four Pakistani textbook from the 1960s. It was on famous personalities. In the first section there were four chapters, including one on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Others included Gautam Buddha, Hazrat Issa and Baba Guru Nanak. In the second part of the book were chapters on a number of political/temporal leaders from various parts of India. Apart from many Muslim kings and leaders, it included chapters on Ashoka as well as Raja Ranjeet Singh.

Recently, I visited a school in Lahore. A group of students presented a power-point presentation, as part of an exhibition of the school’s extra curricular/co-curricular activities, on outstanding human beings from across the world. The presentation had some of the same names given above. But, one of the patrons of the school mentioned that there had been other guests at the school who, after seeing the presentation, had said that it should not be chronological and that the Prophet should come first. One eminent jurist, it seems, even suggested that there was no need to cover any other personality.

Later I interacted briefly with the students. When I asked them about some of the more recent personalities that had impressed them, they could only come up with the names of Jinnah and Iqbal. They had not even heard of Dr Martin Luther King. And Gandhi was not a hero to them or even a notable enough personality.

It is not only the content that is changing, the way we educate ourselves and our children is changing as well. The ‘O’-Level course starts in pre-‘O’-Level classes, just to buy more time. Examinations are taken in two to three subjects a year to get better grades. Rote learning, irrespective of one’s level, is more common than it was 15 years ago, even in elite schools.

Reliance on guides, notes, help-aids and summaries is higher. Engagement with the classics and original thoughts of the great writers and thinkers of the past is more limited. Reading is narrower. And this is true at both school and university level. I often ask my students how many read newspapers regularly: very few do. For many, Facebook updates from friends are the only outside information that they get regularly.

At one point Pakistan Television, the only channel around at the time, showed English-language movies and serials regularly. I still remember that there used to be a cartoon in the early evening and a serial/comedy programme at prime time almost every day. A late night movie was telecast three to four times a week. A lot of those movies and serials were very good and had been carefully selected for a Pakistani audience.

I learnt a lot about the world, how people lived, their beliefs and moral systems from these programmes. My love for English language and literature also owes something to these programmes.

PTV does not do this anymore. One can argue that there are a lot more channels available that show movies and programmes from around the world. DVDs too have made access to such content easier. All of this is true. But at the same time since PTV does not do this anymore, and a lot of people still watch PTV, it is a loss.

More importantly, the issue of choice becomes crucial. Who chooses content for children now? Are children doing it themselves? But the choices children make need not be the most optimal. They might choose entertainment over education, and easy listening/watching over effort and engagement. They might even choose content that, in terms of language, pictorial depictions or even the values that it exhibits, is not appropriate for their age. More freedom of choice for children when much content of poor quality is available is not necessarily a good thing.

The way we acquire information is also changing fast. From reading we are moving to listening and watching. Reading allows deeper engagement. You can read, re-read and come back later to what was read. Reading requires attention. We listen while other activities also go on and we multi-task. Watching has similar dynamics.

We get our news more from the television and radio now than from newspapers. Our engagement with the thoughts and actions of others is more through the computer, television and radio than personal interaction or even reading. All of this narrows our interaction and makes it shallow.

Our attention spans are getting shorter. Even when we read, it seems that books and longer articles are getting rare; we want the gist of the argument given in as brief a manner as possible. Television and radio are ideally suited for shorter attention spans. And they encourage the tendency towards shorter spans. We surf the channels, and even on the same channel we only need to focus attention between advertising breaks. News is mostly a ticker running at the bottom of the screen.

Much of what has been written here are clearly global issues. But they are affecting us locally. It is our students, our children and our citizens that we need to worry about. All this is narrowing the mindset of the people and making them poor thinkers and citizens. And we are seeing the results. The counter strategy needs to be at the micro level as well.

The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.

fbari@osipak.org

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English declamation contest at Inter Collegiate Competitions, at IMCG (Margala),

Islamabad An English declamation contest was held on the third day of Inter Collegiate Competitions, at IMCG (Margala), F-7/4, here on Wednesday, says a press release.

Dr Tayyaba Siddiqui, a renowned educationist and winner of ‘Aizaz-e-Fazeelat’ for her efforts in the field of education, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Ten teams from different colleges of Islamabad and Rawalpindi participated in the event. The declamation topics were: 1). Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you will land among the stars; 2). Life is one world, life shown on television is another and 3). It’s time to find hope in disappointment.

Saaleka Durani, Federal Government Postgraduate College for Women, Kashmir Road, Rawalpindi, Uzgay Saleem, Palwasha Kanwal, Fauji Foundation College for Women, New Lalazar, Rawalpindi and Kiran Fatima, IMCG(PG), F-7/2, won first, second, third and consolation prizes respectively.

Trophy was awarded to Fauji Foundation College for Women, New Lalazar, Rawalpindi.

Chief guest, Dr Tayyaba Siddiqui, in her address appreciated the hard work put in by the organisers and participants of the event and the discipline of the audience. She further added that the topics for the declamation were selected very thoughtfully and participants did justice to them. She also said that the audience must realise their potential and have faith in Allah as He never denies hard work.

Dr. Tayyaba Siddiqui gave away prizes to the winners and presented souvenirs to the worthy judges of the day. At the end the college principal presented the college crest to the chief guest.

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Employment: a fifth of UK jobs ‘need only primary education’

 The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said that 30% of workers were overqualified for their jobs.

The UK has a higher proportion of low-skilled jobs than any country in the OECD except Spain, with more than one in five roles requiring no more than primary education, it has been claimed.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said that 30% of workers were overqualified for their jobs, and there were far fewer graduate jobs than graduates, “meaning that too many people’s skills are being under-utilised in the economy”.

The research commissioned by the CIPD found that 22% of UK jobs required no more than primary education, compared with less than 5% in Germany and Sweden. It said this had a led to an increase in in-work poverty and a huge benefits bill.

The institute said businesses had been given conflicting messages by successive governments which had “in practice encouraged businesses down the low road of competition based on low cost, while also exhorting businesses to take the high road of innovation, efficiency and higher skills”. It said the issues were “major factors in the UK’s poor productivity levels”, and called for a workplace commission to redress what it said were three decades of misaligned skills policy.

Its chief executive, Peter Cheese, said: “We’ve been down the road of simply increasing the supply of skills without increasing UK productivity or the number of skilled jobs in the economy. We now need to improve skills utilisation and stimulate demand for higher level skills through increasing the number of higher skilled roles available.”

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Chief scientist warns PM against taking practical marks out of A-levels

 A boy in a chemistry practical, vital to scientific education, David Cameron has been told.

The government’s chief science adviser has warned the prime minister that the next generation of British scientists risks being deskilled if marks for practical experiments stop counting towards final grades for A-levels in physics, chemistry and biology.

Sir Mark Walport, who was appointed last year, told David Cameron that the proposed change risks further downgrading practical skills, at a time when Britain is in what the PM has described as a global race for economic success.

The educational qualifications body, Ofqual, wants performance in science practicals and laboratory work to be separately reported so that they do not affect a student’s headline grade, under A-level reforms due after 2015.

Ofqual is proposing the change in response to a call by the education secretary, Michael Gove, for a crackdown on grade inflation. There is a belief that students have been picking up easy marks in practical exams.

In a letter to Ofqual – copies of which were also sent to Cameron, business secretary Vince Cable, Gove, universities minister David Willetts and cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood – Walport writes: “There is a risk that the proposed arrangements will lead to a further downgrading of practical skills, as schools and colleges conclude that theory is all that matters to get a good grade.”

Walport was writing as co-chairman of the Council for Science and Tech-nology (CST), the prime minister’s strategic science advisory body, on which some of the country’s most eminent scientists sit.

In the letter, he says the CST was already concerned that pupils were not being well enough prepared for undergraduate science courses. The latest changes could be a big blow to students’ skills base.

Walport, a medical scientist whose research has focused on immunology and the genetics of rheumatic diseases, writes: “We were very concerned to see that, under your proposal, practical skills will not contribute to a candidate’s overall grade in A-level physics, chemistry and biology.

“We understand that this is to address the current malpractice whereby teachers tends to give their students over-inflated marks for the practical component of these A-levels. We understand that the proposal is to show a separate, teacher-assessed grade for practical skills, alongside the main grade. Universities handle a large number of applications, and will find the complexity of a two-grade system difficult. To simplify matters they are likely to concentrate on the main grade and overlook the practical grade. In any case t This grade will be of little use unless teachers’ malpractice is addressed by exam boards.”

Sir John Tooke, head of the school of life and medical sciences at University College London, who also sits on the CST, told the Observer he was concerned that students’ understanding of theory would be damaged.

He said: “Experimentation is core to the scientific method. There is a clear sense that reducing exposure to practical classes that are designed to inculcate the requisite skills, rigour and approach would damage the student’s understanding and development.

“To achieve these aims practicals need to be more than ‘recipes’ but rather challenge the students to pose research questions and design and execute the means to answer them.”

In a response to Walport’s letter, Ofqual said it would consider his points ahead of any firm decision on A-levels. Glenys Stacey, the chief regulator, added: “Any school that concluded – as you suggest – that theory was all that mattered would be wrong. Their students would not receive a rounded scientific education. They would not have the practical experience to help them in demonstrating their understanding of experimentation in the exams, and they would be more likely flounder in the practical assessments.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said the issue was a matter for Ofqual to decide which is expected to publish its conclusions on A-level reforms in the spring.

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Worshippers of Lord Shiva call for love and peace between India and Pakistan at Katas Raj,

CHAKWAL: Thursday was a charged day at Katas Raj, which witnessed a rare hustle and bustle. A unanimous and highly emotional cry for love and peace between India and Pakistan emanated amidst the Shivaratri festivities which are going on at Katas Raj, the holiest site of Hindus. The rituals will end Friday night.

As many as 157 Hindu pilgrims from India and almost 100 local Hindus got ishnan (bath) from the holy water of Amar Kund (a holy pond) to wash their sins. After which they worshiped Shiva, the Lord of the lords, on Thursday.

The mystic and historic temple complex of Katas Raj kept on reverberating with bhajans (hymns) and prayers on Wednesday night, which was termed as The Great Night of Shiva.

After worshipping and paying obeisance to Lord Shiva, the pilgrims tasted prasad (holy food), made of various kinds of sweets. Then they moved to the Amar Kund where they offered rituals. They also fetched the holy water in bottles so that their families back home could also benefit from it.

While addressing a ceremony in the honour of Indian pilgrims at Katas Raj, R. P. Bhardwaj, who is the leader of the jatha (caravan), made a passionate call for love and peace between India and Pakistan.

“Today I’m very much impressed the way the function has been organised. The love and respect that we received from you (the people of Pakistan) is unparalleled,” he said adding: “Nature does not bear any discrimination, why are we caught in the snare of discriminations.”

He urged the governments of Pakistan and India to make special arrangements for pilgrims of both countries so that they could visit the holy sites without any hurdle. “The stability and prosperity of both the countries only lies in cordial and peaceful relations,” he said.

Another leader of the Hindu pilgrims, Mr Vipan Mehta suggested the government of Pakistan to improve the facilities at Katas Raj Temples. “A priest should be appointed permanently at the temples so that the temples could remain opened throughout the year,” he said.

“My parents migrated from Pakistan after being forced by the backlashes of partition. Today I’m happy to visit my ancestral land,” he said.

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Environmental water samples from Peshawar area tests negative for poliovirus Sehat Ka Insaf programme

PESHAWAR: Environmental water samples taken from Shaheen Muslim Town in Peshawar have tested negative for poliovirus for the first time in the last 20 months.

Officials said that Sehat Ka Insaf programme launched by the provincial government played significant role in the achievement. They said the area had emerged as polio-infected for which World Health Organisation declared Peshawar a world polio reservoir.

Officials at health department told this scribe that the environmental samples taken from sewerage lines of Shaheen Muslim Town tested negative for poliovirus. The site remained positive for poliovirus since July 2012 and transported poliovirus to Afghanistan and other countries, officials said.

“This is a big achievement in the current scenario since Peshawar has attracted global attention for being the source of transportation of virus to the countries previously declared polio-free. It is a big leap forward and a positive step towards the goal of worldwide polio eradication,” officials said.

According to them, it is a phenomenal achievement for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which along with Federally Administered Tribal Areas is facing daunting task of eradication of polio. Both the province and Fata had reported 75 and 10 polio cases out of the 93 cases last year and recorded all 22 nationwide reported cases in 2014.

Fata recorded 19 polio cases, all from North Waziristan Agency, while three cases were registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including two in Peshawar and one in Bannu, officials said.

The development is also significant because other big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sukkur and Hyderabad were emerging negative for the wild poliovirus while Peshawar had showed no progress.

Besides Shaheen Muslim Town, water samples collected from areas in formerly infected cities had also been tested negative but Peshawar posed continuous threat to polio efforts, officials said.

“On the basis of uninterrupted circulation of wild poliovirus in water, Peshawar was declared as polio hub by WHO in January 2014,” they said.

They gave credit to Sehat Ka Insaf initiative for coping with the public child health issue. Officials said that it was due to political ownership of the immunisation programme that district management, health department and above all the community accepted and cooperated in implementation of Sehat Ka Insaf activities in Peshawar.

“The model adopted by the government to deal with vaccination of nine childhood ailments including polio has come under national and international spotlight. The Sindh government has been contemplating to replicate Sehat Ka Insaf in Karachi, another polio-endemic city,” officials said.

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Michael Gove risks becoming caricature of himself, says outgoing head of Ofsted

 Sally Morgan, a fomer aide to Tony Blair, will continue in her post until the autumn.

The outgoing head of Ofsted has accused the education secretary of becoming a caricature of himself in his efforts to act tough.

Michael Gove last week declined to renew Sally Morgan’s contract as chair of the school inspection service. His move has been criticised by Labour and some Liberal Democrats.

Lady Morgan said: “Michael has become a caricature of himself. He has developed this ‘I’m tougher than tough’ and it’s running ahead of him and it’s become his public persona and it’s really damaging.

“My scars-on-the-back experience of public sector reform is you have got to bring a body of people with you.”

Morgan said she was the victim of a “determined effort from Number 10? to appoint more Tories. Morgan is a former aide to Tony Blair.

Her contract ends this month but she will continue until the autumn to allow Gove to find a replacement.

Gove said Morgan had been an effective chairman of Ofsted but he wanted a new person in the role.

Morgan was responding to comments by the former Conservative blogger Tim Montgomerie on the BBC Radio 3 programme Free Thinking broadcast on Thursday.

Montgomerie, who now edits the Times comment section, had suggested that Gove was excessively “pugnacious and confrontational” in his dealings with the teaching profession.

“All the international evidence suggest that teacher quality matters, that’s what make the big difference to children’s lives.

“At the moment you have an incredibly demoralised teaching profession who think that they are undervalued by the people who run the education system,” said Montgomerie.

“We need to take the teaching profession with us in these reforms.”

On Wednesday, chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw urged Gove not to remove Morgan.

Wilshaw told MPs that Gove consulted him before making the decision.

He said: “I did say to the secretary of state that I wanted her to continue in post. She has been a very good chair and we had a very good working relationship.”

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Projects displayed on different topics science, history & geography at SLS Montessori & School, Peshawar Road Branch,

Rawalpindi A display of projects prepared by students on different topics related to science, history & geography was held at SLS Montessori & School, Peshawar Road Branch, Senior Section, says a press release.

The purpose of the exhibition was to add excitement and thrill as these subjects as quite dull and boring for students, yet are indispensable parts of their learning and to release the students of all the piled up mental pressures while at the same time promoting a scientific approach, a spirit of creativity and a sense of healthy competition among students.

Around 30 different projects prepared by groups of students from classes 4 to 7 under supervision of the teachers were put up on display in a most organised and extravagant manner. All projects were based on scientific experiments and knowledge, historical events and geographical facts which were prepared after a hard work of one month.

The event was conducted by Aimen Ayub and Zainee Tariq, students of class 7, who welcomed the visitors and explained to them the purpose & importance of organizing the exhibition and described all the projects in most enlightening manner.

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British High Commissioner is organising a photo exhibition at British High commission Diplomatic enclave Islamabad

Photo exhibition

British High Commissioner is organising a photo exhibition at British High commission Diplomatic enclave Islamabad at 16 pm on Friday.

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Unpaid intern takes on British fashion house Alexander McQueen

 British fashion house Alexander McQueen is accused by a former intern of not paying four months of wages. Photograph:

The fashion house founded by the late designer Alexander McQueen is being sued by a former intern who worked unpaid for four months.

Rachel Watson – not her real name but the one her lawyers want used – is claiming up to £6,415 in “lost wages” and says the fashion house broke the law by not paying her the national minimum wage.

Watson’s internship in 2009-10 included drawing artwork for embroidery, repairing embellished clothing, and dyeing large quantities of fabric.

Watson’s lawyer, Wessen Jazrawi, from Hausfeld & Co LLP, says that when interns do “real work under a contract”, they should be entitled to be paid at least the national minimum wage.

Watson says she accepted the internship because she saw “almost no other way into the fashion industry”. In a statement through her lawyers, she says: “I quickly realised I was being exploited. How could I confront my employer at the time when they held all the cards to my future in the industry?”

Watson eventually decided to approach the campaign group Intern Aware, which has in the past helped interns secure payments from Sony, the Arcadia group and X Factor.

Last year Alexander McQueen’s fashion house was forced publicly to apologise about an unpaid internship, after University of the Arts London student union president Shelly Asquith brought attention to its advert for a “talented knitwear student” to work five days a week for up to 11 months, without a wage.

McQueen said the advert was “issued in error and was not in accordance with our HR policy”.

About the Watson case, a spokesperson at Alexander McQueen says: “We understand this relates to an intern who was with us four years ago. We had no idea until now that she had any concern about the time she spent at Alexander McQueen.

“We’ve paid close attention to the debate in this area and we now pay all our interns.”

The case was filed on Friday, the first day of London Fashion Week, as King’s College London students protested at Somerset House against the use of unpaid interns in the fashion industry.

Chris Hares, campaigns manager at Intern Aware, says: “Fashion is a competitive industry with high profits, and the idea that one of the most profitable companies in the world could have people working for free is shameful.”

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MPAs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly complain about high fees of private schools, colleges

PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday complained about the growing fee in private educational institutions, including medical colleges, and urged the government to take action against all those violating the laws in this respect.

During the assembly’s session here, opposition leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan said there was no regulatory authority for private educational institutions, which charged fee at will and operated like an industry.

He said some schools and colleges had a chain and used their name as a brand to exploit the public and thus, forcing parents to sell properties for payment of children’s fee.

The opposition leader said only few medical colleges fulfilled the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council requirements for operations.

He asked the government to establish a check and balance system and a proper fee structure for the educational institutions to stop the parents’ exploitation.

Health Minister Shaukat Yousufzai said a private medical college in the province charged Rs1 million from every student as donation.

He said the reserved seats mean for overseas students were filled in by local students, who paid heavy fee.

The minister, however, said no one would be allowed to fleece the people in the name of education.

Earlier, a question regarding teaching hospitals of the province was referred to the relevant standing committee for comments.

PML-N MPA Akbar Hayat said the primary healthcare initiative had employees in surplus.

Nighat Orakzai of PPP said the local bomb disposal unit was short of necessary equipment and that there was a need for the early creation of a health regulatory authority in the province.

Local Government Minister Inayatullah Khan expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of different development authorities, which, he said, were busy in sale and purchase of plots and were doing nothing for the people’s welfare.

The treasury and opposition benches hurled accusations against each other in the provincial assembly over the distribution of development funds which caused uproar in the House.

Lawmakers started debate in the assembly on the allocation of funds for development schemes after two days break. Opposition benches alleged that government had ignored them in the annual development plan and treasury members had been given priority.

Remarks of Senior Minister Sirajul Haq, who also holds the portfolio of the finance, stirred commotion in the house by saying former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf had diverted development funds from the militancy-ravaged Malakand Division to own constituencies in Multan and Gujar Khan respectively.

He said the National Accountability Bureau had begun inquiries against former prime ministers, who had appeared before courts in corruption cases against them.

The minister said the coalition government in the province had hired consultants to eliminate corruption in development schemes.

He said the provincial finance commission would distribute funds among districts on the basis of poverty.

Mr Haq rejected the opposition’s allegations that he had allocated funds for the construction of 60-kilometre roads in his constituency.

MPA Nighat Orakzai said Sirajul Haq, who considered himself pious, had diverted funds to his constituency, while members of the opposition had been given Rs10 million only for development schemes.

She said the government had violated the Constitution and breached the privilege of the house by the act.

Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan said the government believed in the equal distribution of funds and that opposition members had been allocated more funds than those of the treasury.

He said local council funds had not been released for certain technical reasons.

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FGM petition calling on Michael Gove to act reaches 200,000 signatures

 Fahma Mohamed, 17, who is leading the campaign backed by the Guardian against FGM.

The campaign to persuade the education secretary, Michael Gove, to help end female genital mutilation by telling headteachers in England to educate parents and children about the practice has gathered more than 200,000 signatures in eight days.

The Change.org website says a petition on the issue, backed by the Guardian, is one of the fastest growing it has seen in Britain. Thirty-three MPs have so far supported the campaign via an early-day motion in the House of Commons. The Scottish government has already promised to write to heads.

Gove has agreed to meet the campaign leader, the 17-year-old student Fahma Mohamed, a Bristol teenager from a Muslim Somali family, who wants the issue to be flagged up in schools before this summer’s “cutting season”. Although many girls are being taken abroad to be cut, others are being mutilated in Britain, according to campaigners.

Teachers and former teachers are already urging Gove to follow suit. Heather Sidery Clarke, from Hastings, said: “Apart from being such unnecessary and primitively barbaric behaviour, genital mutilation is, in this day, a violent crime.

“I have witnessed the results of this assault on children, as they would return to school in the UK after a ‘trip home’ during summer break.

“The little girls were transformed from being happy, confident people to sullen and uncomfortable with themselves … A kind of ‘shame’ overhanging them. Not conducive to learning and downright unhealthy.”

Kate, who described herself as a headteacher in London, wrote: “I feel really strongly about supporting this campaign to keep girls safe. I am in the process of beginning that discussion with staff and families that I work with and agree that this needs to be addressed and schools can be instrumental in this.”

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School place lotteries ‘increasing’

Parents in England will soon find out to which state secondary their children have been allocated More schools in England are using lotteries or “banding” pupils by ability to allocate places, an educational charity says.

The number using the methods – intended to get a broad mix of pupils – is small but growing, says the Sutton Trust.

With the “banding” method, schools take some pupils from each ability group.

The trust says the growth is because more schools are becoming academies – state-funded but independent schools that can set their own admission rules.

Some schools use both lotteries and banding systems.

‘Balanced intake’

According to research for the Sutton Trust, carried out by the London School of Economics, the number of schools using banding increased from 95 in 2008 to 121 in the past academic year.

On top of that, 42 schools were using lotteries – also known as random allocation.

However, there are more than 20,000 schools in England, so as a proportion, the numbers are small.

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Access to the most popular comprehensives should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium on their mortgages or rents”

End Quote Conor Ryan Sutton Trust Conor Ryan, from the Sutton Trust, said: “It is encouraging that more schools and academies are using banding and ballots as a way to get a more balanced intake.

“Access to the most popular comprehensives should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium on their mortgages or rents.

“We believe that more urban schools should use such methods, but for them to be most effective, they should develop them in partnership with other schools and local authorities.”

There have been claims that some high-performing state schools are dominated by middle- and high-income groups.

Earlier research by the charity said the proportion of children on free school meals in top comprehensives was far below the national average.

‘Disgusting’

Its report calls for more schools to introduce ballots or banding systems and suggests that where banding is used, a common test should be developed for all schools in a particular area so that pupils only have to sit one paper.

But some parents are unhappy with the idea of their child’s school place being left to chance.

Campaign group Parents Outloud is against the use of lotteries.

Founder Margaret Morrissey said: “To reduce our education system to a lottery system to provide school places is disgusting. Children and parents deserve better”.

She said she was tired of hearing about “middle-class strangleholds” and that every parent had the same right to want what was best for their child.

“This will cause many knock-on effects with regard to travel and practicality of taking a family to more than one school if you do not have school places in your area,” she said.

“And children thrive having other school friends who live near them.”

Siobhan Freegard, founder of the Netmums parenting website said many parents felt this type of lottery was one they could only lose, not win.

“Though lotteries may look like a fair way to allocate places, they can end up making the situation worse,” she said.

“And parents with several children may end up with them scattered at different schools.”

Next week, parents of 10- and 11-year-olds in England will find out at which state secondary school their child has been given a place.

Lotteries and banding systems are used in schools that are very over-subscribed, particularly in London.

Schools that set their own admissions rules have to follow guidelines set by the government, aimed at ensuring systems are fair, which are known as the Admissions Code.

Oxbridge applicants

Dunraven School in Streatham, London, uses banding.

Principal David Boyle said: “We started banding to make sure we had a properly comprehensive intake at our school.

“We wanted to represent the area we serve and that’s only possible if our student body reflects the ability range in our area.

“Banding has not stopped us being a community school, it’s made us a better school for our community.

“Everyone is better off now – we cater for Oxbridge applicants as much as those who face educational challenges.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “More and more parents have the choice of a good school place thanks to our reforms – the number of children in failing secondary schools has fallen by a quarter of a million since 2010.

“The new Admissions Code is clear that all school places should be allocated in a fair and transparent way.”

The NASUWT teaching union says allowing schools to determine their own admissions policies “leads to a chaotic system in which children, families and the taxpayer may lose out”.

General secretary Chris Keates said: “Whilst selecting pupils on the basis of banding or a lottery may seem, at first glance, fair and attractive, it masks a number of potentially adverse consequences in a system in which there is a free for all for schools to set their own admissions arrangements.

“What is needed is an overarching, coordinating body, a role traditionally played by local authorities, to ensure fair admissions across a large area.”

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