Educational Stratification and Nation Building Process in Pakistan

Abstract Pakistan has celebrated seven decades of independence but misfortunately the nation is still divided into several ideologies, believes, ethnicities, regionalism, provincialism, political and social classes. Throughout the world, education plays a significant role in nation building but the terrible upshot in Pakistan is the division of nation in the field of education and learning. There are numerous umbrellas under which our educational system is running. Therefore, current study objects to measure educational stratification and its effect on nation building process in Pakistan. In this regard, this research mainly focuses on four major prevailing educational systems such as; privately managed schools, public schools, army public schools and madarsa (religious educational institution). Data were collected through focus group discussions and analyzed by applying grounded approach theory. Four major themes emerged after data examination. These are uniformity of curricular, equal opportunities, political and bureaucratic involvement and lack of moral education. Study finds that education system is badly lacking in uniform ideology and moral learning. Furthermore, the poor system of education is negatively affecting nation building in Pakistan by enhancing public distrust, discrimination and regionalism. The results of the present study may be helpful in finding the way for uniform educational system which provide learning opportunities to every child without thinking of their caste, religion, language, economic class, political affiliation and ethnicity.

Towards Conducting Effective Clinical Conferences in a Diploma Nursing Programme in Pakistan

The focus of this study was to explore how to conduct effective clinical conferences with Diploma nursing students at The Aga Khan University School of Nursing (AKUSON) a private nursing school in Pakistan. To accomplish this goal I worked with two nursing faculty of year two and year three along with their clinical group consisting of eleven students each. In this situation I worked as a catalyst being a resource person and facilitator, using action research in my attempt to make clinical conferences more effective. Even though students course work comprises of both theory and practice my project focused on the improvement of the process of clinical conferences as it is related to the clinical component of students' learning. Since all existing research on clinical conferences is based in western countries, I have used Wink (1995) and Matheney (1969) as a framework to guide this study and look at their applicability to the Pakistani context. Teachers mostly used students presentation as a strategy to conduct clinical conferences, in the pre-intervention stage of the study. Four out of five teachers asked students to present, although 64% of students admitted that they did not like presentations as a strategy for learning (N=22). During these conferences one or two students presented to the clinical group of 10-12 students. Initially less time was given to discuss nursing, whereas, in the intervention stage the conferences were entirely nursing based. In the intervention stage post-conferences were held using teaching strategies such as guided imagery, role-play, case-studies, debate, nursing rounds, and cooperative learning. Presentation style of conducting post-conferences was modified, whereby students participated, shared experiences, learnt from and between each other. These prototype conferences were rated as highly effective' both by students and teachers. In the post-intervention stage 73% of students (N=22) rated the conferences as ‘good' and ‘excellent'. The students' perception of an effective clinical conference at the post-intervention stage was that it should consists of two way communication involving many strategies to build on clinical practice where everyone participates. During the intervention stage students worked in small groups, the teacher as part of the group, sharing ideas, information and experiences with each other. Time was utilized effectively and the conferences were enjoyable. In this way the teacher helped and encouraged the students in the learning process.