NSF Enables Pakistan to Connect to Global Research Community through New High Speed Link

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) applaud the creation of a functional U.S.-Pakistan network connection. This connection was "inaugurated" last week during the Internet2 Emerging National Research and Education Networks ("NREN") session at the Fall Internet2 meeting in New Orleans.Representatives from the HEC in Pakistan participated in the meeting via a 155Mbps connection from Islamabad to the TEIN2 network, the NSF- funded TransPAC2 network, and the Internet2 network. The virtual participants from Pakistan were joined by virtual participants from Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt, India, Ecuador, Chile and Sweden. "This represents a major milestone in the development of physical network connectivity between Pakistan and the global scientific community," said Arden L. Bement, Jr., director of the National Science Foundation. "I applaud the diligent and sustained efforts of technologists and governments in the U.S., Europe and Pakistan needed to make this vision a reality. Now we must continue those efforts toward our true goal of enhancing global research and education collaborations."

EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Education is important for Pakistan's progress. Despite recent achievements, the country still faces numerous challenges to raise the education of its population to the standard of its South Asian neighbors, and to meet its own social and economic development needs

WORLD BANK SUPPORT

The World Bank is assisting Pakistan to overcome these key challenges effectively, efficiently, and transparently across the education sector. Improving Education Quality: Other reform programs in Pakistan are now emphasizing teacher professional development, textbooks development, and examination/assessment with the view to improving student learning and classroom environment. Monitoring of student learning through regular assessments is now happening with a National Education Assessment System supported by the Bank. Emerging analytical work includes a Learning and Educational Attainment in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) project which is based on extensive surveys conducted in three districts of Punjab, Impact Evaluations of specific interventions (including public private partnerships) for their potential scaling up (The impact of female stipend program, the evaluation of assistance to primary education) and a planned Education Sector Review. Supporting Sectoral Reform: Since 2004, the World Bank has supported education sector reforms through development policy credit operations in Pakistan's four provinces (Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province, NWFP). Development policy credits promote public financial reforms and devolution of roles to local communities, making service providers more accountable. The operations also assist provincial governments with teacher recruitment, monitoring of teacher?s presence, targeted stipends and free textbooks to increase girls? enrolment, infrastructure improvements, and opening up textbook development to the private sector to improve the quality of learning materials. Increasing Access to Schools: The World Bank supported the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program through a series of four one-year education development policy credits (1st project, 2nd project, 3rd project, and 4th project). It yielded substantial increases in enrollment in government primary and middle schools–especially among girls–in 15 districts identified as having the province’s lowest literacy rates. (See more on impact here and access the formal impact evaluation here.) Other Bank-supported reforms in NWFP (1st project and 2nd project) and Sindh (1st project and 1st series of projects), introduced similar measures to improve educational access and outcomes. Gross primary enrollment among girls increased by 11 percent between 2001/02 and 2004/05 - likely the result of concerted efforts to recruit more women teachers. Improving access and quality of primary education is also the objective of the project in Balochistan under implementation. In Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh, the World Bank is supporting the low cost private sector through education foundations to expand access to education in districts with large numbers of out of school children. Reforming Higher Education: The World Bank’s Analytical support for the Higher Education Sector has been completed and a Higher Education Support Program is under preparation. Work is also underway to support college sector reforms

Pakistan Education

Pakistan has very varied scenery from coastal beaches, lagoons and mangrove swamps in the south to sandy deserts, desolate plateaus, fertile plains, dissected upland in the middle and high mountains with beautiful valleys, snow-covered peaks and eternal glaciers in the north. The variety of landscape divides Pakistan into six major regions the North High Mountainous Region, the Western Low Mountainous Region, the Balochistan Plateau, the Potohar Uplands, the Punjab and the Sindh Plains High Mountain Region. Pakistan, officially Islamic Republic of Pakistan, republic in south Asia, bordered on the north and north-west by Afghanistan, on the north-east by Jammu and Kashmir, on the east and south-east by India, on the south by the Arabian Sea, and on the west by Iran. The status of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of dispute between India and Pakistan. Pakistan became an independent state in 1947. Until December 1971 it included the province of East Pakistan (previously East Bengal), which, after its secession from Pakistan, assumed the name Bangladesh. The area of Pakistan is 796,095 sq km (307,293 sq mi), excluding the section of Jammu and Kashmir under its control. The capital of Pakistan is Islamabad; Karachi is the largest city. Population 129,808,000 (1995 estimate) Population Density 163 people/sq km (422 people/sq mi) (1996 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 32%Urban 68%Rural Largest Cities Karachi5,103,000 Lahore2,922,000 Faisalabad1,092,000 (1981 census) Ethnic Groups 48%Punjabi 13%Pashto 12%Sindhi 10%Saraiki 8%Urdu 9%Other including Baluchis and Afghans Languages Official Language English National Language Urdu Other Languages Punjabi, English, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Baluchi Religions 97%Islam 3%Other including Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism Only 65 percent of adult Pakistanis are literate. The constitution prescribes free primary education. While enrollment rate in primary school is high for boys, less than one-half of girls attend school. Five years has been established as the period of primary school attendance. In the 1996 school year 81 percent of primary school-aged children were enrolled in school, while only 30 percent of secondary school-aged children attended. In the early 1990s, 336,600 students attended institutions of higher education. Among Pakistan’s leading universities are the University of Karachi (1951), the University of the Punjab (1882), in Lahore; the University of Peshawar (1950); the University of Sind (1947), in Dadu; and the University of Agriculture (1909), in Faisalabad

Education

Education in Pakistan is divided into five levels: primary (grades one through five); middle (grades six through eight); high (grades nine and ten, leading to the Secondary School Certificate); intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to a Higher Secondary School Certificate); and university programs leading to graduate and advanced degrees. All academic education institutions are the responsibility of the provincial governments. The federal government mostly assists in curriculum development, accreditation and some financing of research. The Government has decided to introduce 'English Medium Education' on a phased basis and to substantially end the right to 'Mother Tongue Education'. This new policy which is termed 'Education Sector Reforms (Policy decisions)', states that "English language has been made compulsory from Class-1 onwards." and the "Introduction of English as medium of instruction for Science, Mathematics, Computer Science and other selected subjects like Economics and Geography in all schools in a graduated manner." Caretaker Minister for Education Mr. Shujaat Ali Beg declared Jan 25, 2008 that eighteen colleges of the city of Karachi would be made "Model English Medium Colleges,"

World_Education_Foundation

United States of America Pakistan U.S. Department of Education Education in Pakistan See America Site Pakistan Tourism Government of Pakistan

Uniform System of Accounts for Heating Utilities Prescribed by the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Illinois

Authors Illinois Public Utilities Commission, Public Utilities Commission, Illinois Publisher Illinois state journal co., state printers, 1918 Length 115 pages

Pictures of old books: Two shelves of antiquarian books

I used the image of the double shelf of books to illustrate a call to action of like minided sister and brother scribes to refer me to any agents or publishers they know for potential publication of my memoir. I’ve received a record number of hits to my blog today b/c of that call to action. A "scathingly brilliant idea," if I do say so myself...please go to my blog and check it out.