Archive for April, 2011
Problems Deteriorating Education in Pakistan
Various research studies have indicated the psycho-social problems of the students, teachers, planners and managers working in the public and private sector of education in Pakistan. These problems can be studied under in three domains i.e. home-centered problems, community-centered problems and school-centered problems.
Although, the Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in his message delivered in the first Education Conference 1947, categorically stressed on taking practical steps in reshaping the whole education system of the country, yet the situation regarding the education sector of Pakistan has been very uncertain and critical till yet. The commissions and policies till the recent years have beautifully worked out various strategies and plans for enhancing and changing the curriculum, giving quality education, preparing standard textbooks, resolving the problem of medium of instruction, streamlining the planning and management of the institutions, but due to the policies and reforms without implementation, the mismatch in public and private systems, the teaching of languages only and the polarization and existence of pressure groups have weakened not only the whole education system of Pakistan but the other institutions and organizations also.
Moreover, it is a fact that the attitudes of teacher, the response of student and the behavior of manager do have a crucial role in making the personality of the individuals and social progress, but in addition to this some physical problems that still exist here are the overcrowded classrooms, inadequate teaching materials, poor staffing, absence of equipped libraries and laboratories, and lack of physical facilities like playgrounds, drinking water, washrooms, recreational, common, medical and retiring rooms and furniture etc. This alarming situation has caused an awkward backwardness of the education system in the country.
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Tradition Versus Change in T M Aluko’s Novels
A popular preoccupation in the earlier literature from Africa was the impact of western civilization on the African tradition. The earlier African writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wathiongo, Elechi Amadi portrayed the negative or positive impact this new incursion had on the society. But generally they yearn for the bliss and peace of the lost traditional world. For them, western civilization brought with it evils such as social and economic corruption. This clash of tradition and western civilization is at the centre of most of T.M Aluko’s novels as well. It will therefore be interesting to see how this is brought out in four of his novels: One Man One Wife, One Man One Matchet, Kinsman and Foreman and His Worshipful Majesty.
T.M. Aluko was born 14th June 1918 in Ilesha, Nigeria. He trained as a civil engineer and town planner both in the University of Lagos and at Imperial College in London. He held several administrative positions in Nigeria rising in the public service from colonial officer in 1950 to Director of Public Works in the Ministry of Works and Transport when departing from the civil service in 1966. He then pursued an academic career on to retirement, in the process earning for himself a doctorate in municipal engineering in 1976. He also received several awards and honors including an OBE in 1963 and Officer, Order of the Niger in 1964.
Aluko’s short stories appeared in the late 1949′s. But he only started attracting general interest when his first novel One Man One Wife was published in Nigeria in 1959. The book is a controversial invective on Christians in conbat with traditionalists in southern Nigeria. Inspired by its modest literary success he produced his outstanding novel One Man One Matchet which satirizes the colonizer’s programme for rural economy and social integration.
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FBI Investigated George Lee’s Murder; Suspects Never Tried
As it turned out, the FBI did investigate the murder of the Rev. George Lee of Belzoni, and records show the agency built a circumstantial murder case against two men.
But a local prosecutor refused to take the case to a grand jury.
Peck Ray and Joe David Watson Sr., the suspects, were members of the small town’s white Citizens Council and both died in the 1970s.
Interviewed by Newsday years later in 2000, Ernest White, a close friend of Lee’s, said that he always suspected that Ray, a local handyman, and Watson, a gravel hauler, were involved in Lee’s murder. “We suspected them because of their reputation,” White told reporter Stephanie Saul.
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