Introduction

Tounsa Sharif, or Taunsa, is a town of Dera Ghazi Khan district in Punjab province, Pakistan It is located on the Karachi-Peshawar Highway which is also known as Indus high way, it is approximately 975km from Karachi and 600km from Lahore. Taunsa is also the location of one of the headworks on the Indus River called Taunsa Barrage, located several kilometres south of Taunsa city.

Demography

The main language of the area is Sariki and Balochi whilst the city itself contains a range of ethnic groups, the adjacent towns and rural areas in the Tehsil are primarily occupied by Balouch tribes including the Buzdar, Sakhani, Malkani, Qaisrani, Lashari,Mirani, Nutkani, Khetran,Khosa and Kulachi. Most of the mentioned tribes including Buzdar,Khosa and Qaisrani are part of the Baloch tribe, Buzdar is the largest tribe of the Tehsil while Nutkani is the second largest.

Importance

Taunsa is valued mainly for the shrine of Pir Phatan Hazrat Khawaja Shah Suleman Taunsavi ( a very well known scholar of Pakistan). It has the highest literacy in the Punjab province and is known as the ‘Unan-e-Saghir’ or Mini Greece for its high literacy rate. It has produced many scholars, business men, Govt officials and writers. Among its notable personalities is ‘Fikar taunsavi’ , a great writer of his time. The Taunsa barrage is also important for the irrigation system of the koh-e-sulaiman belt and D.G.Khan city. Taunsa is even sacred to some ethnic groups, who visit it for the shrines. Taunsa produced has the largest number of doctors when compared to other areas, especially female doctors. In a recent survey it was known that the people of Taunsa had the highest I.Q level in Pakistan. Taunsa is also important culturally as it holds many festivals annually locally called the ‘Urs’. They are attended by thousands of the followers of the saints especially the Pir Pathan.

Problems faced by the people of Taunsa

Despite its importance, Taunsa is a poverty stricken and deprived area of Pakistan. The city lacks even basic infrastructure and facilities. Although the literacy rate is high, employment rate and job oppurtunities are very low. Many literate boys and girls are forced to work on low-paid jobs despite the fact that they have studied from high class institutions. The main cause of this is the constant political instability due to which very low concern has been shown on industrialization and developing the economy. Another cause is the social restraint and extremism shown by some groups on religious ground especially for female education. The politicians also don’t emphasize on developing the area.

Suggestions for developing the area

Taunsa has the potential to become the most developed area of Pakistan. If the people are given job opportunities which go exactly for their education and the basic infrastructure is developed, the city can contribute very much to the economy of the country. The Govt can earn large amount of revenue from developing tourism in the area as many people visit it for the shrines. Placing industries will increse employment rate ultimately increasing living standards.

Summer School is an academic session held during the summer, chiefly for supplementary and remedial study. Summer School is an enrichment activity which is helpful for addressing the personal, social, psychological and physical well being of children and teachers. Summer School Programs are designed to assist student in accelerating their learning during the condensed period of time. These programs also emphasized particular curricular areas, such as science, social study, language or a particular performing or visual art form. These programs emphasize learning as an enjoyable activity and provide each student with an experience that is designed to create a desire to learn for the sake of learning. It is an opportunity for expended learning for children, their parents and teachers. Teachers act as facilitators or coaches, using classroom presentations or individual instruction to help students.

Summer School Program further support and strengthen the journey to quality of education. The program involves such activities that not only boost up the professional development of teachers but as new ways of learning for students with open heart and happiness. Summer School program is incorporated in ITA’s main activities to enrich school education through different hand-on activities and project based learning.

Summer School Program involves awareness, understanding and comprehension based knowledge, practical hands-on activities and project based learning. These enrichment activities reinforce conceptual clarity, learning abilities and life-skills of the students.

For all the summer activities a planning meeting was held in ITA’s office on 21^st May 2008.

Objectives of the Summer School Program:

§  Enhance learning through integrated/holistic approaches

§  Promote a mixture of creative activities for encouraging creative expression amongst children (drama/art/project learning/essays etc)

§  To develop interaction between teacher-teacher, student-teacher and student-student.

§  Acquiring the capacities of understanding, appreciation and expression through word and act.

§  To make children self-confident and self –dependent.

§  Correlation of curriculum with productive activity and intellectual and group environment.

§  Enhance motivation of the children & teachers for a meaning full and joyful learning

§  Improve IT skills of students ( Power-Point Presentation)

§  Create a healthy / positive environment in school.

§  Promote Quality Education in Government Schools

Project-based learning:

The use of classroom projects, intended to bring about deep learning, where students use technology and inquiry to engage with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives. These classroom projects are used to assess student’s subject matter competence compared to traditional testing. The project was the main component to be used as teaching tool/aid. Project method is based on the following principles:

1. Learning by doing
2. Learning by Living
3. Children learn better through association, cooperation and activity.

Purpose

Basic objective of the project were:

Ø  To introduce ‘Project-Based Teaching’ to the teachers;

Ø  To introduce the children to joyful learning. To facilitate the teachers in using the project as a tool of teaching or AV Aids( audio visual)

Ø  Students form their own investigation of their own group which allows students to develop valuable research skills.

Ø  The students engage in design, problem solving, decision making, and investigative activities.

Ø   It allows students to work in groups or by themselves and allows them to come up with ideas and realistic solutions or presentations. Students take a problem and apply it to a real life situation with this project.

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To listen to these in-depth audio programs (each is 8 to 9 minutes in length), you may wish to use headphones on your computer. If you are in Lamson Library at Plymouth State University, you may borrow headphones from the Information Desk.

Series Overview: The Urban Frontier – Karachi

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91009748

Page with links to the 10 shows in this series on Karachi

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91083375

Thanks to Gary McCool for this post.

To: Assistant Secretary of South and Central Asia

From: David Chorney

Subject: U.S policy towards Pakistan

Date: 02/22/08

Executive Summary

• The United States needs a consistent foreign policy towards Pakistan to increase trust between the two nations, stop the terrorists gaining a strong hold in the tribal areas, help stop terrorist recruiting, and to promote a growing democracy.
• Policy One: Is a combination of democracy and allying itself with Pakistan’s military. No Sanctions. Create an equal relationship with the civilian government and the military.
• Cost Benefit of Policy One: Major costs are money and time. Promoting democracy may result in an election of a leader that is part of an Islamic movement or anti-American.
• Benefits: Look at the past and the al Qaeda leaders captured with good relations with Pakistan. Greater Stability in Pakistan. Liberal theory says democracies are more peaceful and work better together.
• Policy Two: Build up infrastructure. Reform Pakistan’s educational system to decrease the number of students going to radical Madrassahs. Proven evidence from NGOs this will work. Also look at how stabilization helped China’s economy.
• Cost of Policy Two: Make sure aid is used for the educational reform. Do not need another Abdul Qadeer Kahn. The problem arising from empowering a mass of people. Building up infrastructure could create more competition.
• Benefits: A lot of potential. Diminish the amount of recruits terrorist groups can choose from. Direct correlation between uneducated people and terrorism. Education will help stabilize country and modernize economy. Look at India’s young educated skilled workers.
• Policy recommendation three: Give aid to military. Develop tribal areas. Restore political legitimacy in Pakistan. Short term answer.
• Costs of policy three: Money and the reaction of the army to a civilian government. Cost of Musharraf not accepting a civilian government or power sharing agreement.
• Benefits of policy three: In tribal areas ends reliance on terrorist groups. Legitimizes government and political system and gives power to choose back in the people. Helps develop economy. Promotes good working relationship between U.S army and Pakistani army. Short term solution to problem put increase troops on border of Pakistan in Afghanistan.
• Recommended policy: Combination of Policies two and three. Educational reforms coupled with the economic development of the tribal regions. Also military aid and political reform to restore legitimatization.

The lawn in front of Mary Lyon where we squeeze in a bit of cricket

Samuel Read Hall Hall -No, it’s not a typo, the hall was named after S.R. Hall! This will be your home during your stay here.

Rounds Hall – The symbol of our campus

View of our Student Union Building

It was very pleasant to receive a mail from you. Being among the fortunate to attend the summer programme offered by the PSU- PELI 2008, I would like to tell you just a little about myself.

At 30, I am a well settled Teacher Educator, a wife and a full time mother. My husband and I have been happily married for four and a half years now. Chantelle Venetia Faria, our daughter who will turn four come October is our pride and joy.

I am representing the Aga Khan University- Institute for Educational Development, Karachi where I am working as a Professional Development Teacher in the Citizenship, Rights and Responsibilities Pakistan (CRRP) Programme. Here I am currently involved in teacher development, conducting research, workshops and training, curriculum development at the national level, teaching and learning material development and advocacy in the area of citizenship, human rights and peace education.

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As a teacher, I see myself as a knowledge seeker, who is always striving to acquire new knowledge to update myself and bring change in my classroom teaching in order to facilitate the learning process of my students. Today, therefore, I am a part of the PEHLI because of my continuous aspiration for professional development.

I am eager to attend the PSU Pakistani Teachers Summer Institute as I feel attending the course will help to develop my conceptual understanding of the concepts of cultural heritage and preservation in relation to active citizenship and its implementation by integrating it through the teaching of Science, Mathematics, English and Social Studies.

I am looking forward to a rich learning experience from PSU-PELI by interacting with the people and wish to promote the same on my return to Pakistan.