Terrorism in Karachi, Sindh Pakistan: A Case Study of Safoora-Incident

Terrorism is contentious issue. It has affected the lives of people across the country. This paper analyses the factors for incidence of terrorism in Karachi city which has great economic importance for country. The city represents all communities belonging to various parts of the country. Migration of people from other provinces has significally changed demographic profile of the city. This study presents statistics about various offences committed in Hyderabad and Karachi. It describes important facts about the militant groups involved in the acts of terrorism in Karachi. It has been argued in the study that in some cases the acts of violence were politically motivated and in other cases terrorism acts were sponsored by religious groups. In order to understand the complex phenomenon of terrorism in Karachi, this study investigates the root causes of terrorism including economic deprivation. In most cases marginal sections of society have been found involved in the acts of terrorism. Thus, this study creates need for social reforms, poverty alleviation and provision of quality education. Further capacity-building of Law Enforcement Agencies to cope with this situation has been emphasized in this study. This paper also recommends some proposals for dealing with the issue of terrorism.

An Evaluation of Teaching of Chemistry at Public Secondary Schools in Pakistan

This mixed study evaluated the professional teaching of chemistry through learners’ perspective against the criteria of B.Ed at public secondary schools in Pakistan regarding eight aspects: general professional teaching skills, lesson planning, teaching methods, audio-visual aids, students’ classroom activities and formative assessment, and course coverage of theory and practical. I collected quantitative data through self-developed questionnaire of 70 items using stratified sampling of 350 students from boys-only, girls only, boys in co-education, and girls in co-education across rural and urban schools; however, qualitative data involved 20 students’ semi-structured interviews. A panel of experts and pilot testing refined the tools. The overall Coronbach’s alpha stood at 0.9 and 0.8 for professional teaching and test-items respectively. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression, correlation, independent samples t-test, and ANOVA analyses revealed the failure of existing professional teaching of chemistry. The qualitative thematic analyses and triangulation confirmed it: Dictation of questions and answers as dominant teaching method, and constantly locked science laboratories and equipments emerged as the major themes. Laboratory experimentation, audio-visual aids, chemistry theory, and teaching methods strongly predicted students’ test-scores with 41.7% surety. However, demographic variables: Students’ favorite subject, home study, parents’ income, and students’ gender weakly predicted learners’ test-scores. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA analyses revealed that EVALUATION OF TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY 2 students devoting more time to home-study and tuition, especially in natural sciences, and students’ from separate schools for gender, and parents with higher earning and rank got significantly different test-scores; however, gender and parents’ education had no significant differences. I presented feasible and realistic recommendations to the concerned stakeholders. Key words: evaluation, chemistry, professional training, teaching, secondary schools