مسٹر گارنر
مسٹر گارنر، جن کی وفات کی خبر حال میں شایع ہوئی ہے، ایک مشہور سیاح تھے، جنھوں نے سالہا سال افریقہ کے جنگلوں کی خاک چھانی تھی، آج سے تقریباً تیس سال قبل انھوں نے اس دعویٰ کا اعلان کیا تھا کہ بندروں میں بھی باہم ایک طریقہ کی گفتگو ہوتی ہے۔ ۱۸۹۲ء میں وہ مقام گیبون میں مقیم ہوئے، جہاں بندروں کی سب سے زیادہ ترقی یافتہ صنف گوریلا کی بکثرت آبادی ہے، یہاں کئی مہینہ تک انھوں نے اپنے تئیں ایک بڑے قفس آہنی میں ایک چمپانزی کے ساتھ مقید رکھا، اور اس کے ذریعے سے بندروں کی باہمی ’’گفتگو‘‘ سنتے رہے، لیکن ان کے اس دعویٰ کو سائنٹفک حلقوں میں زیادہ مقبولیت نہ حاصل ہوئی، اور جمہور محققین کا فیصلہ اس وقت یہ ہے کہ نطق و گویائی کی قوت انسان کے لیے مخصوص ہے، جس میں بندر وغیرہ کوئی صنف حیوانات اس کی شریک نہیں۔
(اپریل ۱۹۲۰ء)
The progress of nations lies in the hands of educated youth. Presently, our Muslims youth are facing numerous challenges. This include western propaganda against Islam as a threat to peace, moral degradation, lacking spirit of inquiry, internet addiction, blind following of western norms and cultures and various kinds of social problems such as violence, gambling and pornography. Our Muslim youth is wandering in identity crises and have forgotten the true spirit of Islam and the achievements of our forefathers. Majority of youth are copying and adopting the western style of life and cultural involvement. One reason for this may be the education system that we have inherited from the colonial masters. This is also replicated by electronic media and the Western propaganda against Islam that we don’t take pride to be staunch Muslims otherwise; we will be blamed as extremists. Our education system has also failed in instilling the spirit of inquiry, critical thinking and moral judgment in our youth. In order to develop the potential of our youth to reform our society and not to be led by baseless beliefs, the role of teaching is very important. With this goal in mind, the students should be empowered through argumentation skills. This requires teaching students through argumentation method by involving/guiding students to make a claim then write justification for their claim and finally counter argument to support their claim. The essence of argumentation is not new as the Holy Qur’ān repeatedly stressed the believers to use their intellect, to critically observe their surroundings and avoid baseless information. Practice with argumentation will help in developing critical skills in our youth and in making informed decisions. They would not blindly follow western norms and would be able to answer western propaganda through solid arguments and valid justifications.
The study aimed to explore the current status of library and information science education regarding program offerings, faculty, students, curriculum, and infrastructural resources. It further explored the challenges faced in imparting quality education and the future prospects. A mixed methods research design (convergent parallel strategy) combining quantitative and qualitative methods was used to achieve the objectives of the research. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire survey from nine universities where LIS departments were well established and regularly offering academic programs with a 100% response rate. The qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from 17 faculty members purposively selected to obtain their real perspective on various aspects related to the research questions. The findings of both strands have been converged and discussed along with the review of the existing literature in the ‗Discussion‘ chapter. The major drifts and concerns identified were a lack of planning, dearth of physical, financial and technological resources, inadequate curriculum contents, lack of faculty, intake of weak students, the absence of quality assurance system, scarcity of collaboration, and low social image and visibility of the departments. The expansion of academic programs to encompass a broader ‗information‘ landscape, inclusion of ICTs into the curriculum, imparting a balanced blend of subject, research, technological and generic skills, were the major challenges to prepare future professionals. Moreover, the availability of competent faculty with PhD degrees, increased competition from other disciplines (i.e., management, computer science, communication studies) and building employers‘ confidence were also discussed concerns. The development of a quality assurance mechanism through accreditation, rebranding the profession to uplift its social image and initiatives for national and international collaboration were the challenges to ensure future sustainability of academic programs in the country. Moving towards ‗information‘, a trend of obtaining a doctoral degree among the available faculty, increased research output, expansion in the academic programs level, focus on curriculum innovation and quality, expanding job sector other than library and above all positive attitude of faculty about the future of academic programs were the promising prospects of LIS education in the country. The study‘s recommendations primarily focused on moving towards information, redesigning and revising the curriculum to accommodate new trends and offering need based specializations to capture the job market. Enticing competent and diversified faculty by involving experts form related fields, attracting intake of good students by revising admission criteria, and accrediting academic offerings were considered vital for ensuring LIS education to remain relevant.