It perfectly illustrates the importance of public schools and what happens in the vacuum of education.
Then if you're ready for a follow up you can watch Pakistan: Education's Fault Lines by Jow Rubin
Nov 12, 2009
Pakistan Schools
If you've got a half hour today go watch Frontline's Doctumentary Children of the Taliban by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. I'm interested in your reaction. Some commenters feel it is inaccurate, some feel it is propaganda meant for us to escalate our involvement, some say it is absolute truth.
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5 comments:
No no no. Public schools aren't the solution. These madrassas aren't exclusive. By the way, "madrassa," strictly translated is "school"--whether secular or religious...but I digress.
These madrassas take any kid unfortunate enough to attend. That sounds rather public to me. Our public schools aren't so hot, either. If you don't believe me, go proofread Facebook. Americans can't spell, use correct grammar, or put together a coherent thought three-quarters of the time.
The problem with the madrassas discussed in that video is that they are run by wackos. Most of our schools are, too.
The real problem is hate, and the real solution is to let go of our hate.
I just got my MA studying education in South Asia...
Watching the videos (I only watched half the first one, as I have seen it before) I would say they are BOTH correct.
In both Pakistan and India, there are usually four different types of schools: government run, privately run, non-profit run schools and madrassas. Government run schools can be hit or miss-- in some areas they are good--- in other areas horrendous, there are ghost schools, as they mentioned, and in some places they just do not exist at all. If you want to send your child to a government school, it is 'free', but you still usually have to pay for your child's books and uniform, which is often too expensive for poor families to afford.
Privately run schools can run the gamut as well-- from extremely fancy schools with swimming pools, horseback riding and wi-fi internet for the rich, to a room with a chalkboard and 50 children in a class at a very low admission fee. These schools can be high quality, or not, depending on the school.
Madrassas are schools run by Islamic groups- usually non-profit. What kind of education you get really depends on WHO funds the school. For example-- the Wahabii movement in Saudi Arabia (which is very fundamentalist and strict, and also has a lot of money) runs Madrassas for children all over the world. In other cases, it could be the Taliban. But that is not to say that normal mainstream Muslims also do not fund other Madrassas. There are many Madrassas run by normal, middle of the road people who truly want to education children (think in terms of Catholic school here in the U.S.)
One issue with Madrassas in general, though, can be how well rounded the education is. Leaving aside the schools run by fundamentalist groups, which are obviously not going to be well-rounded education at all, even in the normal Madrassas there is a greater emphasis on subjects such as learning Koran, Islamic studies, and Arabic. In this sense normal Madrassas (atleast from what I know) deviate from American Catholic Schools in that many do not also teach skills and subjects needed to go on to college or get a higher skilled job. Madrassas, from my impression (I have not studied them in great deal) focus on Islamic education, rather than on well-rounded education with religious studies added on. (I believe many schools are now trying to address this though)
Non-profit schools are the last section. Many, many non-profits have stepped in throughout Pakistan and India to fill in gaps left by the other school systems. For many poor children, the choice might be between a Madrassa or a non-profit run school, as these are both free. These schools can also vary in quality, but they offer poor families an option besides religious schooling (of course, most Hindus would not send their children to Madrassas regardless). I did an internship with one non-profit, Barakat (http://www.barakatworld.org/) that has started schools in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Some of their specific goals are good quality education, and also finding ways to allow more women and girls to go to school and stay in school.
So yes, both videos are correct, they are just showing different aspects of education. The problem with fundamentalist Madrassas is that they often run in impoverished areas where there are not many choices at all of schools, and as the first video pointed out-- they take care of and feed your child, and sometimes even pay the parents for the child to come to school-- in a case where a poor family is struggling to eat on a daily basis, this allows their child to survive, which at that moment is more important then the kind of education they will receive. It is a complicated situation, but you are right that a fair, balanced, and free education is important to end terrorism AND poverty. Unfortunately, neither the Pakistani or Indian government are currently working to correct the flaws in the government run schools (especially corruption)s o for now non-profits are trying to fill in the gaps. Personally, I think funding a quality education is the best way to combat terrorism.
Linzi, Thank you very much for your point of view. It's nice to hear from someone with first hand knowledge.
It seems the answer to most of life's problems is education.
just came across an interesting article on the Taliban on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8357011.stm
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