تفسیر القرآن از سر سید احمد خان کا تحقیقی و تنقیدی جائزہ

Sir Syed Aḥmed Khān belonged to a famous family of the subcontinent during the late Mughal and early British colonial period. He was famous for his close relations with the colonial government. He served many years in the judiciary. In recognition of his services, he was conferred upon with various titles such as Sir, The Imperial Advisor, etc. He is the founder of the educational campaign which was later known as the Aligarh movement. He was worried about the future of Muslims in India. This worry forced him to produce various literary and Islamic books to uplift the political, cultural, educational and social status of the Indian Muslims. One of his famous contribution to Islamic literature of Quranic exegeses is his Tafsīr al-Qur’ān. His tafsīr is influenced by western thoughts. He, instead of following the traditional methodology of Quranic exegeses, tried to understand the Quranic verses rationally. This led him to deviate from many established concepts of Islamic doctrines. He went against the Muslims’ affirmed beliefs in his exegesis. He mistrusted some of the basics of Islamic thoughts and tried his best to make new parameters of writing & reading of the Quranic exegesis on human logics. In addition, some of his views show certain relevance to the Mu'tazilites school of thought. The aim of this paper is to present an analytical and a critical evaluation of the exegetical opinions of Sir Syed Aḥmed Khān, particularly on the issues where he deviated from the mainstream Islamic thoughts in his exegesis, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān.

New Reform in Teacher Education: An Investigation of the Implementation of 4-Years B. Ed. Hons. Elementary Programme in Four Selected Teacher Education Institutions in Sindh, Pakistan

Over the past many decades, teacher education remained focus of the government. The national education policies since 1947 proposed for reforms in teacher education to improve the quality of education. Similarly, the National Education Policy (2009) recommended for reforms in the teacher education with a particular focus on pre-service teacher education. In line with recommendations, the Higher Education Commission and provincial governments have introduced a 4-year B.Ed. (Hons.) Elementary programme with the support from United States Agency for Internal Development, Pre-Service Teacher Education Programme (USAID, Pre-STEP) to improve the quality of education in Pakistan. This study sought to discover how is the B.Ed. (Hons.) elementary programme being implemented in the four selected teacher education institutions (TEIs) in Sindh, Pakistan. A mixed method research design was employed, which helped in collecting the data in breadth and depth to understand various aspects of the programme implementation. The quantitative data were collected from 120 prospective teachers and 30 faculty members through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire to know about their views and experiences of the B.Ed. (Hons.) elementary programme. The qualitative data were collected through interviews and focus group discussions (FGD) from 45 research participants who comprised of key informants, department heads, faculties and prospective teachers. The groups for FGDs comprised of 4-6 research participants. This study found significant changes in teaching practices, use of ICTs and assessment tools and practices as an outcome of the interventions made. Moreover, the study found that the USAID, Pre-STEP played a significant role in implementation of the programme. However, many factors hampered the implementation especially in the post project period. These factors include; lack of updated reference materials and equipment including ICT, lack of qualified human resources, the mismatch with ground realities as well as between students' background and the specialized courses offered, lack of coordination, needed infrastructure and continued struggle for sustainability of actions after the project. The study also found that the Government Elementary Colleges of Education (GECEs) face greater challenges in terms of sustained enrolment as compared with university departments. This study suggests that the policy makers and programme implementers need to ensure conducting proper needs assessment and institutional analysis prior to starting a new programme and develop a proper sustainability strategy for post project period. The TEIs need to be equipped with the required resources. The revised recruitment policy (2017) need immediate implementation to ensure induction of qualified and performance-oriented staff to