To Award or Not to Award
By Dr Ghulam M Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Not too long ago the Pakistani community in Europe, as well as in Malala’s homeland, nominated her to be the recipient of the Nobel Prize. She has wide support in both the places and had no trouble in procuring the nomination. Her record speaks for itself, in the intellectual as well as among the female circles. She is incredibly popular among the women where her support has mushroomed beyond belief. Owing to the fact that she was able to survive an assassin’s bullet her popularity has skyrocketed.
In Europe she was popular from the day she landed and capitalized on that charisma from the early days. Since that time she has visited many parts of the world including the United Nations in New York. At the UN she gave two scintillating speeches, one included the officials attending the meeting of the General Assembly and the other invited activist personalities. Separately, she gave a talk at the world broadcast of the CNN which was organized for the benefit of the international television network.
Though she is only sixteen years old, and has not completed much of her professional level work, many people thought she was as competent for the prize that others receive. Target groups in Pakistan speculated that the time for Malala had come and she deserved the award. Without knowing about the rules it’s difficult to say what getting the award entails and what are some of the rules. However, Pakistani public remained optimistic about her award until the very last minute.
Regardless, the European Pakistani community gave recognition for an award about two weeks before the start of the opening of Nobel Prize ceremonies. Thus, she has a prize in the eyes of the people who sought to honor her. As far as the people are concerned she has already received the award.
Education is a hot issue in Pakistan mostly because of its neglect by the government and by those in positions of power. People want to learn but the government does not have funds to carry it through. In the past few years despite its neglect most people are beginning to talk about education especially girls’ schooling in disparate parts of the country.
In comparative educational achievement girls’ schooling is behind that of the boys’ and leaves tremendous amount of room for improvement. If private schooling was available girls will have no time in catching up. Because of Malala girls are on the march to bring the women’s schooling to the same level to that of the boys.
Unfortunately, many people are strongly opposed to girls education and regard the money spent on it as wasted resources. In terms of educational attainment females have been left behind and only thirty-two percent of the females go to school as against fifty-four percent of boys. The girls are also behind in mathematics and sciences and are left behind in other subjects as well.
The Taliban movements are particularly opposed to female education and were responsible for the shooting of Malala. They are also opposed to female education, in terms of building schools, and for any infrastructure that is identified as school for girls. There is no similar opposition to the education of boys, though many people prefer that only religious schooling be given to the boys. However, these ideas are changing owing to the impact of technology and boys schooling is beginning to catch on.
Owing to the shortage of universities there are vast gulfs separating the higher and lower schooling.
Funding is always in short supply for the purchase of educational material and books. School children bear the brunt of all the expenses and some of them have to walk for miles to the educational campuses. The funding for education has been somewhat hidden and nobody knows where the money comes from and where it goes.
Getting an award from the Nobel organization would mollify the public though it could be a hard task to pull off. Some publicity in regards to learning would do a lot to conquer the people's mind. At this point in time an educational industry still has not developed and much needs to be done in this regard. Educational writers are a rare thing but it is beginning to develop. In the US and other developed countries all the work in the field of education is done by the private enterprise and people who specialize in learning.
Educational policies are made by the states in America and rarely by the central government. In America education it is largely free enterprise and reflects the will of the people. It is not a document dictated by the government as in Pakistan. However, people are making more and more of the policies so it is becoming more and more of an operation of the people.
But Pakistan has to go a long way before the will of the people is reflected in it. It is quite clear that people want to educate their children, particularly the girls, and want the education to reflect the will of the people. As in the democratic process the public had to pressure on the politicians. Democracy and education had to work in tandem as in the case of the nomination for Malala which was done by the people and not the government.
Boys and girls have to achieve something of value so that it is admired in the world community as well. Awards and prizes could be achieved wherever the school children live. Pakistan must excel in schooling because it is the most admired commodity worldwide, or for that matter, wherever the children live.
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