Pakistan's Universities – Problems and Solutions

I came across this beautiful article written by renowned Dr. Pervez Hoodhboy at Chowk which discusses most of the problems in Pakistani universities at length. He also proposes some solutions which are quite logical. I found most of the article genuinely intriguing and close to reality. I do disagree with some points but Dr. Pervez surely has the facts and figures to explicate his points. The paragraph below is just one example of how relevant his observations are. The link to the complete article is given in the end.

….Because bad teaching quality largely comes from having teachers with insufficient knowledge of their subject, it is important both to have better teacher selection mechanisms and to create large-scale teacher-training academies in every province. Established with international help, these academies should bring in the best teachers as trainers from across the country and from our neighbours. It is hard to see any trainers coming from western countries, although one should try to get them. This effort will cost money and take time – perhaps on the order of a billion dollars over 5 years. These high-quality institutions should have a clear philosophy aimed at equipping teachers to teach through concepts rather than rote learning, use modern textbooks, and emphasize basic principles of pedagogy, grading, and fairness. They should award degrees to create an incentive for teachers to go there and to do well…..

Complete article link: http://www.chowk.com/articles/13507