Displaying items by tag: Education

"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom". That epigram from E.O. Willson captures the dilemma of our era. Yet the solution of some folks is to disdain wisdom. "Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?" Rick Scott, the Florida governor, once asked. A leader of a prominent Internet firm once told me that the firm regards admission to Harvard as a useful hueuristic of talent..................Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

The infamous Boko Haram sect erupted on the world stage in 2009 with their aim to establish an Islamic State. Since their subsequent radicalisation resulting from harsh treatment at the hands of State security forces, they degenerated into harassing  innocent civilians, especially schoolchildren. Boko Haram’s approach is aligned with certain influential opinion-makers in the Muslim states, who teach that receiving a modern education is evil and forbidden as the popular name of “Boko Haram” implies............ Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

 

I have been a mariner for many years and what makes me stand in awe of the creator is the realisation that the planets and stars consistently do what they are doing so that the navigators (on ships) of the world can navigate safely from one point to another. The elevation of the stars above the horizon, its bearings, its time of rise and set have all been tabulated. The heavenly bodies can only be tabulated by man if there is a power that holds and directs them all together with such precision............. Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

There is an old saying that God Almighty has created three kinds of beings: angels with reason but without passion; animals with passion but without reason;and men with reason and with passion. If passion prevails over reason, then animals are better than men, but if reason prevails over passion, then men are better than angels. Nearly two centuries ago the German  philosopher Immanuel Kant predicted that eventually the world order would come about either through intellectual or moral insights or through the experience of chaos. We are still in a position to make that choice............ Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

 

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis.I read Shakespeare, which was fine, but no Allama Iqbal - the national poet of Pakistan. The class on Islamic studies was not taken seriously, and when I left school I was considered among the elite of the country because I could speak English and wore Western clothes........... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

ON the eve of the formation of the nation state, the government set up a committee under Datuk Abdul Razak Hussein (later Tun) to come up with a national education policy after the first federal elections in 1955. Its 1956 Razak Report stated that the national education policy's main objective was national unity. Until the present, parents have never considered nation-building a priority in education. Even education authorities have spoken more of the importance of science and technology, while the system increasingly has given priority to examinations.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)