Civic Education
Preparing Citizens

By Ramesh Prasad Gautam

NEPAL is one of the least developed countries. Its population stands at about 23 million. The per capita income is about $190. Over 80 per cent of the people are involved in agriculture and its literacy rate is about 48 per cent.

Decline

Continuous migration from hills and mountains to the Terai has brought a vast redistribution of the population in the country. In 1952/54, the Terai housed 35 per cent of total population which increased to 47 per cent in 1991. This regional distribution of population shows that school enrolment in the hill and the mountain areas may decline in the future. Therefore, school location planning is required to avoid such a situation.

The distribution of secondary school age population (age 11-15) in 1994 was about eight per cent in the mountains. 41 per cent in the hills, 45 per cent in the Terai and six per cent in the Kathmandu Valley. Likewise, 32 per cent of the population live in the Central Development Region, followed by 25 per cent in the Eastern, 21 per cent in the Western, 13 per cent in the Midwestern and nine per cent in the Far Western Development region.Education is expected to develop human resources with high level of potentialities, skills, knowledge and creativity. Now people expect that modern education should be related to be world of work and productivity. The educated students should be competent in their areas of interest. Education tries to focus its activities on young people, especially the students who start such process from home at an early age and earn knowledge and skill at schools.Hence, the parents are the first teacher who guide their children. School is the second place where children learn meaningful knowledge such as human values and attitudinal behaviour where the teachers acts as facilitator. Education should be accessible to all either through schools or through non-formal and informal education.There is an increasing recognition that civic education is about teaching and learning the principles and practices of democratic governance and citizenship. Its interrelated components are civic knowledge, civic skills and civic virtues. In an effort to highlight the importance of civic education, we should launch a series of sensitisation programmes to develop civic awareness in our education system and promote a sense of belonging and solidarity among citizens.
In fact civic education strengthens relationships between public order and individual freedom. Civic education is based on four concepts:-learning to know, learning to live together, learning to do and learning to be. It safeguards democratisation process and helps explain democratic sociological base.
Many of us think that civic education should be taught in a particular way. This belief is sometimes taken to mean that there have to be separate courses for each of the disciplines. It is not possible to teach all the findings of all social sciences. Yet it is possible to teach civic education as an essential part of social life. It will be useful to the child in dealing with social as well as personal problems.
A few years ago, there were some differences between the theoreticians and school administrations as the recommendations of the former were rejected by the latter. Theoretically, the chief purpose of the social studies was to prepare citizens for participation in democracy. The basic teaching method is to organise classes into problem solving, democraratic groups. Courses of civic education from primary levels to higher education should be organised around the social problems. The teachers should help the students define and attack problems, teaching them democratic procedures simultaneously with content. It assumes that children are capable to understand content within their own experiences. Thus, the civic education should expand the child's horizons to his nation and the world.

Now, to talk of our country, the expansion of modern education took place from 1951. At that time only 321 primary schools were there in the country. Currently more than 25 thousand schools are in operation, and 775 higher secondary schools are offering grades 11 and 12. More than 250 campuses under different universities are providing higher education. About 3 hundred thousand students are getting higher education.On the other side, not many students have been able to acquire higher education. Only 72 per cent of primary school going-age children go to school and less than half of them complete primary level. By the time they reach completion of secondary level not even 10 per cent survive schooling.In this situation a great majority of the population remains uneducated. Thus the scale of the task before us is clear. We shall have to take up the unmet challenges of "Education for All". For this purpose, our education has to be directed towards the potentiality of the country and the national needs.

It is clear that the quality of education is still a big issue. For quality, the essential link between education, development and poverty reduction should be set up. The poor and excluded, particularly women and girls, are often deprived of civic education. The government should plan to extend its programmes so that all can have access to education.

Essential

The most important thing is that the special civic education must be included in the mainstream of education system of our country. It is essential to inculcate democratic ways of life.

Media And Feudal Lords

By Massoud Ansari

FOR over 10 years, Shahid Soomro's reports on tribal feuds and barbaric tribal justice in the provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan often made the headlines of 'Daily Kawish', a regional Sindhi-language newspaper.

Injustice

On October 21 last year, this intrepid journalist paid with his life for questioning Pakistan's feudal system and injustice to the poor. He was shot while resisting five armed men who tried to kidnap him from his home, and succumbed to his injuries in hospital soon after.

Aziz, Soomro's younger brother, identified three of the five killers and lodged a case against them at the police station. Two of the main accused in the killing are nephews of the veteran politician, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who was recently elected a Member of the National Assembly (MNA).
The reports filed by Soomro often stepped on influential toes. During the recent elections, his articles had antagonised some of the local tribal chiefs, who accused him of ignoring them and giving coverage to their rival candidates. Apparently, Soomro had refused to cover Bijarani's election campaign. Soomro's murder is a horrifying example of the might and mindset of the feudal lords. In the recent past, feudal landlords and police officials are believed to have tortured several newsmen working in Pakistan's under-developed areas when they reported against them. In fact, the feudal chieftains in Sindh province are said to have killed many journalists. "These feudal chiefs are brought up to teach a lesson to anyone who challenges their clout," says Mashooq Odhano, one of Soomro's colleagues. Ali Qazi, editor of 'Daily Kawish', believes Soomro's murder is a horrifying example of the worst form of intolerance prevalent in Pakistan. "Many of these feudal chiefs are not ready to accept that the situation has changed. The downtrodden farmers are beginning to revolt against the excesses of their feudal lords. Now, not only are the peasants refusing to blindly obey them, they are also daring to expose them if they are involved in any illegal or immoral acts," he says.

"In the past, small-time police officials or journalists were intimidated by the feudal chiefs. Now trends in journalism have undergone a sea-change; but the feudals have refused to accept this new reality and continue to bully and threaten all those who oppose them," Qazi contends.

The police initially arrested two of the alleged killers while three others remained at large. Due to the hue and cry raised by the media and civil society, all five are now in police custody. But the intimidation has not ended. On November 4, the police officer investigating the case was seriously injured when he received a parcel bomb concealed in a box of sweets that blew up when he opened it.
According to the police official, he had been receiving threats from the relatives of the accused, and he was warned of serious consequences if he implicated the two influential accused. "You have to live here and you know to what extent can we go," he was told.

Soomro started his career as a journalist in 1988 and had been working for the 'Daily Kawish' since 1991. According to his colleagues, he had received threats from some feudal landlords during the elections and was worried someone would try to eliminate him. "I think if people in this area were to be killed for what they write, I'd be the first to go," he is reported to have told his colleagues. Soomro's colleagues have called upon the government to take his case up in the anti-terrorist court. At least 1,500-odd journalists who came from across the country to attend a protest rally at Soomro's hometown in Kandhkot vowed that if all the killers were not brought to book, they would take the case up to the international level. All of them have decided to volunteer one day's salary to fight Soomro's case in the court of law.

Condemning Soomro's killing, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) - an international organisation working to protect journalists - have also demanded that the government should award maximum punishment to his killers, so that similar incidents do not take place in the future.

Says A S R Shamsi, President of FUJ, "When a journalist is killed, it is a crime against society, not simply an individual. Whoever can silence a journalist can silence everyone. Unless the authorities investigate Shahid Soomro's killing on a high priority basis, there is little hope for the protection of basic human rights, not just of journalists but for society as a whole."

Moot Point

But with the backing of a sitting MNA - who is a feudal lord to boot - it is a moot point whether Soomro's murderers will ever be brought to justice.

Soomro leaves behind five young children, a wife and an old mother to mourn his death. "My son has been killed because he had been reporting about the injustice against the poor. If his killers are not brought to justice, no mother will ever let her son fight for the underprivileged," says his mother.

Women's Feature Service

Hang On There…

By Upasana Khadka

THERE was a time when I was a big fan of Johnny Bravo, the cartoon character. Today I am a fan of John Stamos. It was the Tom And Jerry shows that made me fall off my chair laughing but now it is Dave Coulier who gives me the stitches. I once used to be a couch potato Now I find myself in front of the computer whenever I get the chance to. I used to worship Enid Blyton as a kid but now I go for Paul Jennings books……yesterday I had good hair day but today it is bad hair day… I have a spot on my face today but tomorrow I am sure it will disappear. Life is full of changes, right?

"Change" is something inevitable. There are some of us who have problems facing or accepting changes and I am not proud to say that I am one of them…. One of "them" who feels mired down in the quicksand of discomfort when it comes to facing the "C-word" …I am not talking about having difficulty saying adieu to spots or problems welcoming Couliers humour….there are exceptions …say difficulty facing changes where I have to let go of my favorite dream or my closest people………..
I recently had to let go of a dream of nearly five years. Home once used to be this lively place but once my brother left, it has become such a silent zone….it's like when he left "noise" went with him…a part of "our" home left with him …… believe me it's so quiet now that I can actually hear my heart beating……. Then there was this departure which I had to face with, two of my closest people at school. These are the changes I am not comfortable with changes which make me a mostalgic about the past.

I guess we are happier when we are able to accept changes with our arms wide open. It is when we learn to find beauty around us that we find it easier to adapt in the changed environment. It is when we give new dreams a chance that we are able to weave bigger dreams that will push us to reach for stars which look more enticing, it is when we give new people a chance that we find ourselves bonding with beautiful people. What about the old people and the old dreams? They are going to be there always…ever fresh…not faded… though they might carry the "old tag" with them, they will always be a part of our new lives….they are never replaced ….. they are in their respective places and will always be while the new things find places for themselves in our world. It is so beautiful a thing that there are always traces of the past in our present which makes it easier for us to reminisce the golden moments of our lives.

I read somewhere that people who are bitten by the "why me" bug always are grouchy and ever feel sorry for themselves… and there is no way I am going to let this happen to me. I'd rather be someone resilient and though I might not get up "unscathed" I will make it as a wounded-yet-alright soldier. Everything is okay.. there is no pain that is unendurable….. no hurt, no wound that one can't bear with.

It is when dreams don't come true that we are given a chance to realise where we went wrong or what the world is like so that we correct ourselves in time and increase the chances of making the more important dreams come true. It is when we separate from the inseparable people of our lives that we know how much we care for them as it is distance that makes hearts grow fonder…. Lucky are those who get to miss, who get to hallucinate beautiful things…….

Without a shadow of doubt , it is so obvious that the old saying " life is a mystery to be lived… not a problem to be solved" is true to its very word. Anytime you are having problems dealing with changes just try to notice the "bright" days that are ahead and just relax and tell yourself
"HANG ON THERE….YOU WILL DO FINE."