It is an admitted fact that there was no lack of funds and attention for educational purpose during Parvez Musharraf’s reign. Many colleges were given the status of universities and a large number of talented teachers and students were awarded scholarships during his tenure. Most of the scholarships were awarded for completing their research work from any foreign university. Higher Education Commission (HEC) was very active in those days and a large number of students went abroad by achieving scholarships through HEC. These scholarships were conditional and the scholarship holders had to teach in Pakistan for a certain period after completion of their studies. This was a sincere effort from Musharraf’s government, but what has been its result? Have these foreign qualified researchers written even a single theory which is being taught at any level? Neither they are playing any part in the development of their country nor did they ever invent anything. Their contribution in the field of science is almost zero at international level, while our neighboring countries like China and India are showing their significant presence in this field. But as for as Pakistani researchers are concerned they just receive huge amount of salaries and teach just that material to their students which is taken from different foreign books. To prove my statement I want to put forward an example of my own.
I completed my MBA from Virtual University of Pakistan. This university is the single E- Learning institute of Pakistan which is delivering education at Masters and Bachelors level. Majority of the faculty of this university is foreign qualified. These foreign qualified teachers have written books for students with their own names, but in reality, almost whole material provided in these books is taken from the books of different foreign authors and the contribution of our teachers is restricted merely copying of data. Although these books are of high standard but these are written in different context. For example, in our book of “Organizational behavior”, any western social researcher has divided different people in category “A” and “B”. According to this theory, people of Type A are fast, aggressive, hostile and prefer quantity over quality. While people of Type B are relaxed, easy going and do not want to be exposed until it is demanded by situation. It may be true in western societies but this theory does not apply in Pakistan. If we examine our local conditions, the result would be quite different. We will find majority of people in Pakistani society who do not fall in both of these categories. In our society majority of people are lazy, do nothing, but always want to be exposed as hardworking and intelligent person. In which category would you fit them? Obviously in none of the above mentioned categories. But no other category has yet been made for such kind of people because no study has ever made by our Social Scientist, otherwise many other categories of people would have been discovered. By keeping in view this example, one can easily interpret that not all foreign studies in the field of Social Sciences are feasible in our country. The above-mentioned example is just one of them and I can give reference of a large number of more examples of such kind of theories, which do not fulfill Pakistan’s local requirements, but these are imposed on all of Pakistani students. Our so-called highly qualified teachers spend most part of their time in searching for data from different foreign books through Internet and other sources.
There is need to understand that Pakistan’s traditions are quite different from western societies. So instead of spending resources on educating Pakistani students in some foreign countries we should provoke them to study in Pakistan and provide them with proper facilities for this purpose. Particularly in the field of social sciences we are needed research at national level to solve many social evils which are demolishing our society speedily. For example giant of terrorism is engulfing our society in a very rapid speed but I could never see even a single research to stop this curse. This negligence is being shown from all parts of our society, due to which terrorisms has penetrated into a large part of our society.
I suggest that if some foreign universities offer scholarships to talented Pakistani students, they may be requested to spend their funds to provide some research facilities in Pakistan as well. Especially UK can help Pakistan in the field of Social Sciences because they know the thinking of this area’ very well. They can also be requested to send their highly qualified teachers in Pakistan who could help Pakistani students. One point we should settle in our minds that education is the single way of progress of every country and such kind of education would be best for Pakistanis whose syllabus is designed purely through local research. Pakistani government should create research atmosphere at local level and those students should be given proper rewards who make any significant contribution in any field purely by their own. For this purpose students should be provided research environment from the very beginning of their studies.