مولانا محفوظ الرحمن نامی
افسوس ہے کہ ایک طویل علالت کے بعد گذشتہ مہینہ مولانا محفوظ الرحمن صاحب نامی نے وفات پائی مرحوم ایک ممتاز عالم دین، خوش بیان واعظ اور عملی انسان تھے، انھوں نے مسلمانوں کی بڑی مفید علمی تعلیمی اور ملی خدمات انجام دیں، وہ سیاسی خیالات میں قوم پرور تھے، اور ان کا اتنا اثر تھا کہ لیگ اور کانگریس کے اختلاف کے شباب کے زمانہ میں اسمبلی کے انتخاب میں مسلم پارلیمنٹری بورڈ کے ٹکٹ پر لیگ کے امیدوار کے مقابلہ میں کامیاب اور شعبۂ تعلیم میں پارلیمنٹری سکریٹری مقرر ہوئے، لیکن وہ ایک دیندار اور باحمیت مسلمان تھے، اس لیے زیادہ دنوں تک حکومت کے ساتھ نہ چل سکے اور ایک مذہبی معاملہ میں ان کو اس عہدے سے الگ ہونا پڑا، درس و تدریس سے بھی ان کو ذوق تھا، نورالعلوم کے نام سے انھوں نے بہرائچ میں عربی کا ایک مدرسہ بھی قائم کیا تھا، نئے نظام تعلیم میں ان کو مسلمان بچوں کی تعلیمی مشکلات کا ذاتی تجربہ ہوچکا تھا، اس لیے پارلیمنٹری سکریٹری کے عہدہ سے الگ ہونے کے بعد وہ ہمہ تن مسلمان بچوں کی مذہبی تعلیم کی جدوجہد میں لگ گئے، اور درس قرآن کا ایک سلسلہ مرتب کیا جس سے بہ یک وقت ابتدائی عربی، ترجمہ قرآن اور اردو زبان تینوں کی تعلیم ہوجاتی تھی، یہ سلسلہ بہت مقبول ہوا، اور مولانا نے اس کی تبلیغ و اشاعت کے لیے ہندوستان بھر کا دورہ کیا اس غیر معمولی محنت سے ان کی صحت خراب ہوگئی اور ان پر فالج کا حملہ ہوگیا، اور سات آٹھ سال صاحب فراش رہنے کے بعد ۲۰؍ نومبر کو انتقال کیا، اﷲ تعالیٰ ان کی خدمات کو قبول اور ان کو اپنی رحمت و مغفرت سے سرفراز فرمائے۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، دسمبر ۱۹۶۳ء)
Foreign direct investment plays a key role in economic development of all countries. Because of its enormous importance, a large number of empirical studies has focused on finding out the factors determining foreign direct investment. Level of human capital development is one of the major factors influencing foreign inflows. However, earlier studies examining impact of human capital on foreign investment inflows has majorly used literacy rate, school enrolment and government spending on education as its proxies. This paper also examines the impact of human capital as determinant of foreign direct investment. Contrary to earlier empirical studies, it uses cognitive skills as proxy for human capital. Cognitive skills measure the quality of education instead of literacy rate or government spending on education as proxy for human capital. Results indicate that human capital has significant positive effect on foreign direct investment for sample countries. This result is robust to disaggregated data for developed and developing countries. Other factors that determine foreign direct investment inflows are inflation, capital account openness, trade account openness and real income. Based on empirical results, it is recommended that the relevant authorities must make human capital as part and parcel of strategies aimed at augmenting economic growth in the country. There is also a lesson for a developing country like Pakistan to focus more on quality of education instead of school enrolment or education spending for attracting foreign direct investment to boost economic activity (J.E.L Classification Codes: O4, O15, P22).
Assessment enables teachers to assess students' learning and utilizes the information to improve students' learning and teachers' teaching practices (Harris, Irving, & Peterson, 2008). Therefore, teachers' conceptions of assessment have become critical aspects in any educational system because evidence exists that teachers' conceptions influence how they teach and what students learn. The study investigated the relationship between mathematics teachers' conceptions regarding assessment and their assessment practices in private schools of Karachi, Pakistan. Furthermore, this study explored the differences between primary and middle school mathematics teachers' conceptions about assessment and how such teachers' conceptions regarding assessment translated into their practice. A cross-sectional survey using the 'Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment' (TCoA) questionnaire was conducted on primary and middle level mathematics teachers (n=155) of schools which had an ongoing link with AKU-IED in sending their teachers for professional development courses. Data were analyzed using correlations and the non-parametric version of the independent t-test (i.e., Mann-Whitney). Results indicate that teachers' conceptions about assessment were positively correlated (r=.780) with their assessment practices which is statistically significant (p<.001). A further dimension to this study that evolved was its qualitative component which explored the contrasting conceptions of a group of participants regarding their assessment practices. Qualitative data were collected through unstructured observations and discussions with participant teachers. Participants with progressive views about assessment focused more towards improving teaching and learning. However, teachers who had limited conceptions towards assessment focused more on judging rather than improving students' learning. Overall results indicate that participant teachers agreed most with the improvement conception and accountability conception and disagreed with the irrelevance conception. Improvement, school, and student accountability conceptions were positively correlated. The irrelevance conception was inversely related to the improvement conception. Moreover, it was found that both primary and middle level mathematics teachers had positive conceptions towards assessment but no statistically significant differences were found between their conceptions of assessment. Thus, the study suggests that teachers with limited conceptions of assessment can be helped through professional development sessions and short educational measurement courses. The study provides opportunities for future researchers to conduct studies with larger, more representative samples for generalizability.