THE 'TEACHING' INDUSTRY

It was almost six years back.I remember it vividly.My classteacher,who was my english teacher also,was making the class do a language exercise.We were consistently getting wrong answers to the questions set and the teacher herself was confused but the class,like the usual pakistani kids,dared not say that 'Teacher!I think we are doing it wrong' AS IT SOUNDED AN INSULT TO THE TEACHER.I ,frankly,knew how to go about exercise and knew where our teacher was going wrong but back then I was extremely shy(Now!I HAVE IMPROVED BECAUSE OF MY EXTRACURRICULARS) and I would not even say that to some guy,let alone the teacher.So,it went that way and we followed the teacher knowing she was making us write wrong answers.
Now,the situation has changed.Let a teacher even show intention to make a mistake and I would go on to tell the teacher my mistake.Maybe because I am more confident now or whatever.BEWARE I NEVER INTEND TO SHOW DISRESPECT TO A TEACHER BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE DAY,THEY ARE OUR TEACHERS!
Now,to come to the more exact topic,what I think has changed in years is not only my confidence level (although it is an important reason) but I guess it is dur to we seeing more and more professionalism in the teachers.Now,we dont see teachers who wouldgo around celebrating student's birthdays just for the sake of it because,franklyand rightfully,they havent got time.They teach and they go.Nothing else.Now that is what I might call professionalism.And for the most part of it,I like it.We get to see some of the best faculty available due to all this competition.You know it is interesting analogy to campare the new professionalism to a market economy where competition prevails,consumers get a lot of choice,better products.Now,NOT TO MEAN ANY DISRESPECT TO ANY TEACHER,but now we have a wider choice of teachers(dont like Mr.ABC,Try Mr.XYZ).We dont get teachers who are lost on the concepts on which their subjects lie and you get to ask as many questions as you like but yeah,call me a moron,but I still like that closely knit family like feeling that the primary school teachers.Yes!I know TEACHERS ARE BOUND TO BECOME PROFESSIONAL AT HIGHER LEVELS BUT I HAVE ALSO SEEN THIS PHENOMENON GROWING TO COVER HIGH AND PROMARY SCHOOL which I can for most of the time argue is a good thing.Well anyway I would always love the teachers who have taught me and each one has indeed had some hand in shaping my personality so TEACHERS YOU ROCK!!

FAREED ZAKARIA AT CNN

Ok now I was watching this lovely show on CNN.Most of you might have heard of it.The 'FAREED ZAKARIA GPS' .Today an interesting topic was on air 'The global recession'.Two prominent economist had been called namely 'Paul Krugman'(yes,the nobel prize winner) and John Taylor (economist at Stanford univesity).While both of them agreed that it was too early to declare that recession was over as though there were some signs of recovery (like banks were getting some credit ) but there were some bad signs and even some signs that showed worsening economic conditions(e.g. unempoyment rate ).They had differing opinions on other matters.While Taylor(if I can trust my memory) was in favour of taxes to finance deficit but Krugman was not.Krugman also believed that what Obama was doing right now was right while they both said that it was not enough and the repurcussions viz the 1.2 trillion deficit in 10 years are considerable.Interest rates were talked about ,Krugman explained that the surge at the end of last week was due to market optimism than anything else and it was upsetting to see the market go down.BUT it was clear that both econnomist were not promising anything about when the recession will end
PS: As I have to rely on my memory,please forgive any misquotation which is purely accidental.However the next time I plan to write the pertinent points down to make it less problematic and PLEASE forgive my typos as I assure you my english is much better than what i type over here.

ROLAND FRYER

Hi guys.You know,I have been thinking for a topic to write about.Tons of interesting topics come in my mind everyday but when I start typing,they mysteriously vanish.Maybe,I suffer from blogger's block.So,today I am going to tawk about a person who I am a great fan of,Roland Fryer,an economist.For,those of you who dont know him.He is a thirty something guy who became the youngest man teaches at t Havard university.Yes,that says something about him but why I really like him is not due to him being the youngest teacher at a world class university.Its the struggle he had to face during his life to become what he is today.Fryer was an african-american. Fryer's mother left when he was very young, and his father, who beat his son, was convicted of rape,effectively leaving Roland to fend for himself.
1998 graduate of The University of Texas at Arlington, Fryer attended college on an athletic scholarship; he graduated in two and a half years while holding down a full-time job. Fryer completed his Ph.D. in economics from Penn State in 2002. He also conducted post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago with economist Gary Becker. Over the past three years, Fryer has collaborated with several other academics, including Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist and author of Freakonomics, Glenn Loury, a Brown University economist, and Edward Glaeser, an urban economist at Harvard
Fryer is currently working as the principal investigator for the American Inequality Lab.(SOURCE:Wikipedia).
These are the people to look up to.I really think he is better than superhero because superheroes are giftes with superhuman powers,it is people like Fryer who, though, ordinary humans go on to conquer the world.Frankly,Fryer is one of the most important reasons I like Havard.Someday,I want to be like him.O! my wishfull thinking starts again!!But coming back to Pakistan,I know we dont have the resources to become a literate nation in a year or two.It would require decades or centuries.But at least we have people like Fryer to look up to and see him as an example of someone who came from an under-privileged background but made it big later on.One day,I would love to see someone from Pakistan to whom people look up to like Fryer

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

I have been travelling by public transport for quite some time but now have become regular as these days due to my busy schedule,I have to travel regularly by local transport.Today,as I boarded the infamous and the ubiquitous toyota,I was appalled by the conditions of the vehicle (as a matter of fact I have always been).The way the commuters are literally crammed in the vehicle most appalingly conjures images of hen squeezed in the dingy poultry farms.And I bet you dont need to ask me whether the buses are air-conditioned or not,do you? Drenched in sweat,I sat between two men which could easily give Sumo Wrestlers a run for their money. This is what I have to bear with.This is Pakistan.This is why I have so frequently and so monotonously empahasized on education. EDUCATION CAN SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS INCLUDING THIS. Most of the drivers and conductors have usually never seen a classroom throughout their life.I would not be as naive as to suggest that engineers from MIT should be imported to drive buses to solve problems.What I merely suggest is that at least these drivers should have basic education.Then,they would know their work ethics (believe me, I have seen and heard a number of things about the drivers and conductors to make anybody's ears stand).They would know their pivotal role in reducing global warming and reducing congestion on roads and hence,would feel a sense of responsibility while doing their work.I think we need to learn some lessons from Singapore and Britain about introducing a world-class public transport system and that is not it.We also need an equally competent labour force to make it work and that can only happen if we have educated people around to do it.using public transport is a merit goods.It has the positive externalities of reducing global warming and reducing road congestion.So,for the greater good,we should improve our public transport and improve our literacy rate,for heaven's sake.

DISAPPOINTINGLY MEAGER

Sorry guys I had gone to village due to somone's death and hence the break in blogging.Today,I had in my mind that I would blog about something about education.I know I have blogged a lot about economics so I know its a welcome change.one of the reasons for few posts for education is though the economy is constantly evolving.The educational front hardly reegisters any major changes and even the changes experienced are excruciatingly slow.Well,so I started doing some research for the educational scene of Pakistan instead of going to my usual stop and shop economics websites.AND to tell you the truth,I AM NOT PLEASED AND HERE'S WHY

'Lets begin by reviewing another popular Government canard, i.e. the state of our education in general and basic literacy in particular. We are told that the current national literacy rate is close to 60%. However, this claim is made tongue-in-cheek. Like Alice In Wonderland redefining words to mean whatever she wanted them to mean, this Government has redefined the internationally accepted meaning of literacy (understood as an ability to read and write) to mean something quite novel. In its lexicon, literacy is defined as the ability to sign ones name in English or any other vernacular. By this definition, my chauffeur who does not know his alphabet, is literate because he has learnt the penstrokes that depict his name Now aren't you glad that we already have the population chart above from which to mathematically derive our real literacy rate? How? Its really simple. All we need to start with is the 5-10 year age group at partition, endow it with a progressively rising rate of literacy to reach what the Government claims is a fact today, i.e. a net primary enrollment rate of 56% (83% gross enrollment rate less 27% dropout rate to account for the 7-8 million children out of school that the Government grudgingly acknowledges). The logic of this derivationis that every 5-years age bracket minus natural mortality in the age-group progressively graduates into the next age bracket as we scroll down through time. Thus, the 4.9 million 5-10 year-olds of 1947 will find themselves among the half a million survivors in 65-70 years old group in 2007, with only 50,000 being literate. The right diagonal triangle of this diagram is blank, and for an obvious reason. Barring the odd old fogey who is still around, these 80 plus years old former citizens of this land of the pure are already six-feet under. According to the irrefutable logic of this chart, by reading left to right against the all-important current year of 2007, we note that literate Pakistanis number 50 million or 29% of total population. However, adult literacy is barely 14% ... placing us in the happy company of the five least educated nations on earth as per the amended EFA data shown below: Country Adult Literacy

Djibouti 39%

Senegal 38%

Gambia 17% Pakistan 14%

Burkina Faso 13%

While I have happily quoted in my earlier post that my country's literacy rate is 54%.Now I have been proven wrong.It is so hurting.The most disgusting thing has to be the criteria set for literacy.What are they thinkingand I agree with the writer,my driver is also someone not to be called literate by the international definition but the government's defiitionmakes him so generously literate.Honestly this makes me think that they are not leaders but con men who deceive people to believe the UNTRUE.GOD SAVE US!

'COSTS' OF BEING OVER OPTIMISTIC????

I was just going through this article where they said that Obama was deliberately offering split verdict of the economy.WHY?? you might ask!Would not be people better off if you tell them that there is nothing to worry about and the recession has almost ended.Besides it would boost consumer's confidence and would go a long way in helping economy especially that of US where consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy.
The answer is not actually the same as this.If you go along with the everything is fine mantra,people who are not seeing things with rosy coloured spectacles ,at least, would notice that you are being over optimistic and even worse,you are lying.They would stop trusting you and wont believe what you say,therefore, causing more harm than good.
President Harry S. Truman whimsically asked for a "one-handed economist." He complained that "all my economists say, `on the one hand ... on the other hand.'"THATS the reason most economists would rather sit on the fence.They wouldnt want being called over optimistic or pessimistic.
Maybe,I have been a littlee over optimistic so i will try to be more of a cry baby from now on:)

ANOTHER ITSY BITSY SIGN OF BRITIAN'S IMPROVED ECONOMIC CONDITION

Britain's unemployment rate hit 7.2 percent in the three months to April as the number of people claiming jobless benefits jumped to 2.26 million, official data showed Wednesday.
"The unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in the three months to April 2009, up 0.7 percentage points from the three months to January 2009 and up 1.9 percentage points from a year earlier," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
"The number of unemployed people increased by 232,000 over the quarter and by 605,000 over the year, to reach 2.26 million."
Both the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed stood at their highest levels since 1997 amid a deep recession in Britain.

ENOUGH OF THE GRUMBLING,BRING ON THE GOOD NEWS.

"The claimant count unemployment data boost hopes that the rise in the number of jobless has tailed off appreciably after surging at the beginning of the year," said Howard Archer, chief Britain economist at the IHS Global Insight consultancy in London.
"Specifically, claimant count unemployment rose by 39,300 in May which was the smallest increase for 10 months. This was down from increases of 49,600 in April, 65,500 in March and 136,600 in February," he noted.(SOURCE:YAHOO NEWS)

YES GUYS,even though the claimant count has increased but it has increased by smallest percentage experienced uptil now.maybe as I said earlier their are good indicators but not sufficient to declare that we are coming out of recession.Prominent economists say that UK unemployment rate should reduce by 50,000 to safely declare it recession free.So,the best thing is to wait and watch and pray for the best.