ڈاکٹر تارا چند
گذشتہ اکتوبر میں ڈاکٹر تاراچند کے انتقال پر ملال سے بھی ہندوستان میں ایک بڑا علمی خلاء پیدا ہوگیا، وہ الہ آباد کے کایستھ پاٹ شالہ کی مدرسی اور پرنسپلی کے بعد الہ آباد یونیورسٹی کے وائس چانسلر بھی ہوئے، پھر حکومت ہند کے تعلیمی مشیر بنے، ایران میں ہندوستان کی طرف سے سفیر بناکر بھیجے گئے، وہاں سے واپسی پر پارلیمنٹ کے رکن نامزد کئے گئے لیکن ان کی اصلی شہرت اور مقبولیت ایک بلند پایہ مورخ کی حیثیت سے ہوئی، انھوں نے ’’انفلوانس آف اسلام ان انڈین کلچر‘‘ پر ایک مقالہ لکھ کر آکسفورڈ سے ڈاکٹریٹ کی ڈگری حاصل کی، یہ ان کی ابتدائی تحقیقی کوشش تھی، لیکن اس سے بہتر کتاب اس موضوع پر اب تک نہیں نکلی، آخر میں وہ ہسٹری آف دی فریڈم موومنٹ کے بورڈ کے اڈیٹر تھے، ان کی ادارت میں یہ کام بڑی خوش اسلوبی سے انجام پاتا رہا، ان کی تحقیقی تحریروں میں دیدہ دری کے ساتھ بڑی فراخدلی بھی ہوتی، وہ ہندی اردو کی حسین آمیزش یعنی ہندوستانی زبان کے بھی بڑے موئد تھے، اس کے کچھ اچھے نمونے بھی لکھ کر پیش کرتے رہے، ان کی نیک نامی اور مورخانہ بصیرت کی وجہ سے ان کی خوشگوار یادوں کا چراغ علمی حلقہ میں برابر روشن رہے گا۔ (’’ص ، ع‘‘، نومبر ۱۹۷۳ء)
In the history of Pakistan, three military governments ruled for a quite long period. Nonetheless, they made no stable policies for the economic development of Pakistan. As a result, Pakistan could not make progress on strong foundation. Economic policies were meant for a shorter interval. Therefore, they only resulted in cosmetic change in the economy. The results of these policies were restricted to a certain class and the public suffered from the negative impact of these policies. Public welfare got secondary importance which resulted in economic inequality. Wealth circulated within a few families. In all the three reigns, no strategy was formed for the paying of external debt. On the one hand, the salvation of Pakistan was put at stake by increasing external debt and aid while on other hand, masses suffered added direct and indirect taxes. In these conditions, common man could not fulfill his basic necessities of life. Pakistan could make considerable progress, if any of the governments might have considered Islamic principles of Islam.
Global environmental issues are increasing due to the rapid developments in science and technology. To address these environmental issues there is a need to create an awareness about environmental education among the masses. This can only be possible through teachers and teacher educators. My underlying assumption is that science teachers are teaching environmental concepts as scientific facts, without creating an awareness about environmental education. The ultimate purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs of a secondary science teacher about environmental education and how his stated beliefs matched with his classroom practices. The study was conducted in one of the co-operative schools of the Aga Khan University- Institute for Educational Development, in Karachi Pakistan. And the sample for this study included one secondary science teacher. The research design was qualitative, which included multimethods. The methods included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, pre-post conferences, document analysis and the teacher's teaching/learning stories. The study employed different data collection tools such as interview guidelines, a classroom observation checklist, teaching/learning stories and pre-post conference guideline questions. The findings of the study suggest that the participant science teacher in this sample believed in teaching environmental education in a science classroom. He also believed that students should be given a free choice to be involved in environmental participatory activities such as environmental management projects in the real environment. However his enacted teacher centred classroom practice was contrary to his stated beliefs. The factors that prevented him from enacting his beliefs were identified as his content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and support from the administration. The study thus suggests professional development programmes and workshops for that employ reflective practices. Moreover, constructivist approaches should be designed to help teachers to enhance their content, pedagogical content knowledge about environmental education, and that should develop them professionally.