Tales Told by God: Stylistic Peculiarities of Qrua’nic Narratives.

Abstract The religious seminaries (Madaris) 1 of Pakistan have been a hot topic of discussion in the national and international media. These Madaris are reminiscent of the ancient education system of Islam. They attracted people’s attention during the last two decades and especially after the 11th September 2001 incident of New York. Another aspect of interest was their role in the Islamic insurgence (Jihad) waged in various parts of the world particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. These institutions impart orthodox education based on centuries old syllabus called Dars-i Nizami. The administrators are disinclined to any slight change in the contents of the syllabus thus bringing them to an open conflict with the modem education system and western culture. The Madaris have been divided on the basis of religious sects i. e. Shia, Sunni and Ahl-i-Hadith. Of them Sunnis are further splintered into many sub-sects such as Deobandis, Brelvis, etc. But their adherence to the primitive education, Jihad and abhorrence for the western civilization is almost the same. Despite repeated reference to these Madaris, there are many misconceptions or disinformation about them In the present paper, an attempt has been made to remove these misconceptions and present a true picture. Besides, historical perspective, vital statistics, curricula and problems and prospects have discussed in the paper in hand

A St Tudy O the Effec of E Ctiven Ness O of P Public Priva C Ate Pa Artner Rship in Sch Hool Edu Ucatio in P on Punjab

This research study was designed to access the effectiveness of Public Private Partnership in school education. The objectives of the study were, 1) to find out the availability and utilization of the physical facilities in schools established under public private partnership, 2) to investigate the opinion of different stakeholders about the current situation of public private partnership, 3) to assess the effectiveness of public-private partnership in the development of school education in Punjab, and 4) to compare the views of teachers working in schools established under public private partnership in different regions of the Punjab regarding Community Participation Project. Multistage cluster sampling technique was adopted. Punjab province was divided into three regions i.e. Northern Region, Central Region and Southern Region, having three districts from the northern region, four districts from the central region and four districts from the southern region for the purpose of data collection. The study was delimited to Community Model Schools (CMS) functioning under Community Participation Project (CPP) scheme. Study was also delimited to Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE), Rawalpindi for the purpose of results comparison. Three questionnaires were developed for teachers, heads of CMS, and for managers/ administrators of the Education Department, Punjab. Structured interviews were also conducted to get the opinion of experts/ educationists regarding the current situation of Public Private Partnership in school education in Punjab. 332 CMS were functioning in the entire Punjab. Responses of 124 heads, 248 teachers of CMS and 32 managers/ administrators were collected personally and by mail. A pro-forma was developed to obtain the results of CMS from The Board’s Result Gazettes for the years 2005- 06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations. Chi Square and percentages were applied for data analysis. On the basis of findings, it was concluded that, a) majority of the CMS were functioning as girl’s institutions, b) number of CMS was decreasing on a large scale, c) functioning of CMS was according to process/ procedure given in CPP scheme, d) a number of objectives of The CPP scheme could not be achieved in the entire practice, e) majority of the CMS were closed due to electricity bills, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) affiliation fee, charging of 10% as Farogh e Taleem Fund (FTF) from afternoon school and disputes with morning school management, f) teachers and heads of Community Model Schools were of the opinion that Department of Education has lack of interest in CPP scheme, g) there were no incentives for the students of CMS, h) there were no incentives for the teachers of CMS, i) old fee tariff was still in practice , and j) some of the institutions were collecting additional fee from their students. The recommendations of the study were, (a) implementation strategy may be redesigned in consultation with local administration, (b) 5% of the gross income of CMS may be charged as FTF instead of 10%, (c) there should be separate meters or morning school may be charged for utility bills according to their consumption, (d) provision of Community Model School to head of the same morning school should be banned, (e) students of afternoon school may also be facilitated with provision of free books from the Punjab government, (f) fee structure for the students of CMS may be revised, and (g) CMS may be either exempted from BISE affiliation/ recognition fee or fee may be minimized to affordable cost.