SDGs in schools
AFTER the Millennium Development Goals failed to yield satisfactory results, the world needed a more holistic approach that could provide solutions sustainable in nature and that would have a global…
When schools close, inequality widens
Whenever something happens in Punjab, the government’s first response is to close educational institutions. In a province with the highest number of out-of-school children in the country, and where students…
Public Mis-service Inc
THROUGHOUT my profession, I have closely engaged with government ministries, agencies and departments, both at the local and federal levels. In my younger days, the calling of the public services…
Whither public service?
IN the past two decades that the country has been in the midst of various economic and service delivery crises, nearly all solutions proposed by economists, policy professionals, and even…
Drugs in schools
OUR schoolchildren are at risk. It is not the system of education that makes them vulnerable to social evils such as drug addiction (substance use disorder, or SUD in medical…
Texas Republicans take aim at climate change — in textbooks
The scorching summer in Texas this year was the second hottest on record — but students in the southwestern US state might have a hard time understanding why. That’s because…
What ails public-sector education?
I asked 12 year-old Sultan (pseudonym) to read from his Urdu textbook. He struggled to read a simple sentence (“more sher ki tarha jungle kaa badshah hai”). While he eventually…
What is the One Percent Republic?
Last week, Dr Miftah Ismail initiated an important debate by terming Pakistan a “One percent Republic” – a society that works for the few and reproduces elite privilege over time.…
The ‘One Per Cent Republic’
IN a Tedx talk I gave last year, I argued that Pakistan shouldn’t be called the Islamic Republic but rather the One Per Cent Republic. Opportunities, power and wealth here…
The forgotten schools of Islamabad
Discussions about education often broadly categorize institutions in our local school education sector as public schools, private schools (with the most expensive segment among them referred to as ‘elite schools’)…
