Voice Of Children

Karachi—As a part of its on-going teacher training programme, the Oxford University Press (OUP) is organizing workshops on its popular textbook series.

An OUP Pakistan official said here on Monday that these include New Oxford Modern English, Sound English, Oxford Reading Circle, New Oxford Social Studies for Pakistan, New Oxford Primary Science, and Art and Craft for Pakistan written by Nicholas Horsburgh, an ELT expert, educational consultant and resource person.

The workshops, to be conducted by Nicholas Horsburgh himself, are being held in Karachi on January 9 and 10 , in Lahore on January 11 and 12 and in Islamabad on January 13 and 14.

It was pointed out that the New Oxford Modern English is a complete English course for primary and secondary classes which provides a clear, structured progression from kindergarten to class eight. The series is the revised edition of Oxford Modern English, a popular English-course used successfully for over two decades. Child-friendly and infused with energy, humour, and enjoyment, the series covers different aspects of language such as grammar, syntax, structure, and punctuation with the help of text and related tasks.

Sound English is a series of five phonic books for kindergarten and for classes 1 to 5. The books have been designed with graded reading tables to help a child associate sounds with various patterns of letters.

The series aims at familiarizing the child with the phonic rules of the English language in stages.

Oxford Reading Circle is a graded series of nine readers designed for pupils of kindergarten to class eight. It contains a representative selection of classical and contemporary prose and poetry pieces of some of the most highly regarded authors in the world. The writings are based on themes that are value-based and environment-friendly and the books contain exercises designed to enhance the pupil’s language skills and word power.

New Oxford Social Studies for Pakistan is a comprehensive social studies course for pre-primary and primary classes. This popular series has been revised in response to user demands and to meet current information needs. The series covers topics from geography, history, civics, economics, culture, and religion. The gradual progression of topics helps children learn social values and be responsible citizens.

New Oxford Primary Science is a comprehensive science course written by Nicholas Horsburgh for pre-primary and primary classes. The second edition of the series seeks to give pupils skills and tools to enable them to ask questions, and to evoke interest in the subject. It retains the strengths of the previous edition, improves upon it and provides a fresh approach to teaching core scientific concepts.

Art and Craft for Pakistan is a course of five books designed to ensure that primary school children in Pakistan acquire clay modelling, print-making, weaving, painting, and calligraphy skills. These also include the cross-curricular skills of problem-solving, observation, visual and tactile coordination and the manipulation of materials.—APP

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), in association with the Ministry of National Heritage and Integration, on Monday organised a puppet show to entertain children at the National Art Gallery (NAG).
The puppet show at the PNCA hall has been a regular feature of the council, presented by the National Puppet Theatre (NPT), while the PNCA has announced to hold this puppet show on every Monday at the same venue and time.
The puppet show depicted five folk tales and skits to entertain and educate the children regarding social problems, including health, education, and environment.
The children attended the show along with their parents, who termed it a good source of entertainment for the kids. “The NPT has showcased the skills of its puppeteers featuring vibrant costumed puppets and presented folk tales, skits, regional dances and national songs to provide informative entertainment. It also highlighted various social issues that will surely help children to be a responsible citizen to work for the prosperity of this country,” said the mother of a boy, Oheed Ahmed from G-6/4, who had come to watch the show.
Besides providing entertainment, the puppet shows educate people as children as well as the adults gain knowledge and inspiration from the moral and historical stories acted out by puppets. Many common social problems have been the themes of these shows, which aim at creating awareness, better civic sense and patriotism among the audience. Besides these themes, filial obligations, family ties, healthcare, cleanliness and environmental issues are also presented in an entertaining manner, but with an underlying sobriety and seriousness of the message.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Children Art Workshop (CAW) and NPT Director Zulfiqar Ahmed said that the puppet show was a regular feature, held on every Monday evening. “Over the years, the NPT team has developed entertaining stories with didactic themes.
One of its most popular dramatic programs is the ‘Story of Pakistan’, which has been presented before many heads of states and other dignitaries and has been highly commended,” Zulfiqar observed.
He said that the NPT had recently held shows in various parts of Punjab for 20 days to create awareness about the spread of dengue fever and natural calamities such as floods and earthquake.
“The PNCA also organised shows that entertained audiences in Sargodha, Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh,” Zulfiqar said, adding that children were usually most enthusiastic part of the audience, expressing their appreciation of the puppet shows overwhelmingly.
He said that through colorful puppets, children could learn about the social problems in a unique way and popular folk tales, skits and national songs were a great medium to educate them, while exciting their imagination.
The NPT has also introduced folk dances in their puppet shows and it was a delight to watch those performances, he concluded.

The incidence of private tuition-taking in rural Pakistan among children studying in both public and private schools is high. The private tuition-taking prevalence increases with the ability to pay but the average spending on tuition is roughly the same for poor and rich households though it imposes a double burden on the poor.
This case was presented by Dr Monazza Aslam, a researcher at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Education, University of London, while giving a presentation on “The ‘Shadow’ Education Sector in India and Pakistan: the determinants, benefits and equity effects of private tutoring” at a seminar. Titled “Trends in privatisation of education and shadow schooling in Pakistan,” the event was organised by South Asian Forum of Education Development (SAFED) and Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan this past week.
Dr Monazza, a Rhodes scholar, said the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010 survey report revealed that some 15.7 per cent children of 3-16 years age cohort in rural Pakistan take tuitions and pay Rs293 per month. This is over and above what parents spend on general schooling — government or private.
Stating that the ASER survey had covered more than 900 villages, more than 19,000 households and more than 54,000 children aged 3-16 across the country, she said investigations suggested that children in government schools taking private tuition and especially those belonging to the poorest classes appeared to perform better than those who
did not take private tuitions. She said the situation hinted at the hugely inferior learning the poorest children were receiving in government schools in rural regions. It also suggested that private tutoring did appear to substitute for poor quality schooling for the children in Pakistan.
She said expansion of private schooling in Pakistan had assumed the proportion of an industry and changed the dynamics of education provision. “Most significantly large effects of taking tuition on learning occur in reading.”
She said the children in the poorest and richest quintiles appear to benefit equally. For instance, she said that “taking tuition increases the likelihood that a child in the poorest quintile would be able to read a story text.”
ITA Director Programmes Baela Raza Jamil spoke about dimensions of privatisation of public education. Referring to a study conducted in Rawalpindi and Peshawar in 2011, she said the number of private schools in both cities’ selected urban and rural areas had witnessed a massive growth.
She said 61 per cent children were identified as enrolled in private schools, 38 per cent in government schools and one per cent in madrassahs.
She said the survey of private schools revealed that 62 per cent of institutions were English medium and 83 per cent were co-educational. She said the private schools’ enrolment was highest (66.5 per cent) at primary level. She said 65 per cent of the primary enrolment in private schools was in the low-cost schools, while in rural areas in both cities the ratio stood
at 80 per cent.
She said more than 50 per cent of the teachers in rural and urban Peshawar were paid less than Rs5,000 per month.
Ms Jamil said the study revealed that almost 84 per cent of the tuition-takers take regular lessons to supplement their school learning, while meagre one per cent uses tuitions to prepare for entrance tests.
She said 68 per cent of the students stated that grade improvement was the main motivating factor behind the decision to take up private tutoring. “Peer pressure by friends, parents and even teachers is another major factor stated as a reason for taking up private tutoring.”
Ms Jamil said: “The study informed that facilities in private schools were slightly better than that in public schools and they offer more choice to community. However, the cost of education in private sector is high forcing some households to choose which children or gender to send to which school.”
She said the use of relative benchmarks to measure the quality of public and private sector show that both are bad; private sector is just lesser of the two evils.
Discussant Dr Yaqoob Khan Bangash, assistant professor of history at Forman Christian College University, said more and more children were going to private schools, while the government had just failed to enact any rules to regulate the ever-growing private sector.
He said it was unfortunate that students were more interested in scoring high grades instead of learning and for this reason also they take up tuitions.
Open Society Institute senior adviser Dr Faisal Bari said the implementation of Article 25-A would be a tough job as the government would be required to take all children up to matriculation level. This endeavour, he said, would also change the meaning of examinations.
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THE University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences’ photographer, Basharat Ali Khan, has won “Honourable Mention” for his photo print at the 72nd International Photographic Salon on Japan organised by the All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies (AJAPS).
The photo print “Spiritual Journey” has won the position from amongst 9,410 works including 6,125 received from 42 countries and region. Of these works, 130 (80 overseas and 50 Japan) works were selected.
The winning pictures will be displayed at an exhibition at Canon Open Gallery at Sinagawa, Tokyo (Japan) scheduled for April 10 to May 8, this year.
Mr Khan said he had taken the “Spiritual Journey” picture at Sharaqpur, while devotees were going to Shergarh near Pakpattan. — mansoormalik173@hotmail.com

MUMBAI: Dabangg's Chulbul Pandey or Bodyguard's Lovely Singh, Salman Khan has managed to win hearts across the borders. Under the Aman Ki Asha campaign, three children from Pakistan were brought to India by the Make-A-Wish Foundation to meet Salman Khan.
Hubaiba Rizwan (15), Anas Ateeq (16) and Shehroz Ateeq (13) are thalassemia major patients whose biggest wish was to meet Salman Khan.
Said Ishtiaq Baig, founding president, Make-A-Wish Pakistan, "These children are terminally ill and we wanted to fulfil their wish. They are excited to meet Salman. He is popular in Pakistan. This meeting will send a good message to the people of both the countries."