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.

Conflict Management Strategies in Higher Education Institutions H. E. Is : Survey of Public & Private Sector Universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

In Pakistan, universities have been experiencing conflict at alarming rate during the past few years. A number of conflicts have reached the court of law thus by losing a lot of time in litigation. Martial Law was imposed for more than half of its life in the country. The study of conflict management in this budding democracy is most relevant and appropriate. Within educational institutions especially, the influence of conflicts has affected the relations i.e. interpersonal and intergroup. The purpose of this research is to gain an insight into the conflict management in the Higher Education Institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Other variables were also included in the research to obtain a clear picture of conflict experience, types, sources and formal mechanism for the resolution of conflicts. A self-administered questionnaire with five point Likert scale was used. The data was then tabulated and analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA, Correlation and Regression. The most striking finding was that there was no formal mechanism at place in the HEIs to resolve the conflicts, which is making the conflict management a distant dream. Results indicate that conflict is intense in the public sector universities; Interpersonal conflict is more prevalent in public sector while task conflict is high in the private sector universities. Findings indicate that faculty in both types of universities use integrating, compromising and avoiding styles simultaneously in case of conflict. There is no significant difference in the conflict management strategies of both types of universities. Results of this study indicate the need for effective training on conflict management for educational administrators which will improve the conditions in the departments of HEIs. The study also revealed that the exercise of conflict management strategies hinges upon a variety of variables. Examples of these include gender, qualification, designation, age, experience, position and type of university.