The first session of the third day of 11th international Urdu Conference was started with the title “Standardized education for all” at the Arts Council Auditorium, the panelist was Pirzada Qasim, Ajmal Khan, Anwar Ahmed, Qasim Bhugio, SadiqaSallahud din, Haroon Rasheed, Ghazi Sallah Uddin, and Prof. Ejaz Farooqi and it was hosted by Syed Jaafar Ahmed.
Sadiq Salah Uddin said that we should divide budget into two categories because if students are not getting their equipment’s, the budget is useless. Sindh has 38000 primary schools out of 42000 Higher education schools. They have only 4000 schools for higher education. Boys can, however, manage to go to schools where girls have a lot of problems because we have only 700 schools for girl’s education and all the remaining are co-education schools. In the Urban Sindh, girls do not go to school and because they have less education they cannot appear in the tests, in villages we have a lack of female teachers. We should focus on our curriculum as well. Reading two nation theory cannot help children to manage their life in practical life.
QasimBhugio said that the basic problem starts from the upper level, every country has a policy for everything, but we don’t have any policy. We don’t have any policy and procedure for the education, we should think and plan it. The appointment of the department head’s is not based on merit. We found them guilty after their appointment and till that they have used to of it. Students unions should be established once again. We are not doing any kind of research on anything and education is the most important thing for the research. Pakistan is not acknowledged for any international research center.
China eliminates poverty through education and they are dedicated to demolishing it till the end of this decade, said the Ajmal Khan Voice Chancellor University of Karachi while speaking on the session. We are no focusing on education because we don’t want to take education with us. This decision would be made by the upper authorities. Education and higher education are not cheaper these days, especially research is very expensive. We have students from lower class and middle class and we cannot increase the fees because they will lose the opportunities of higher education. We can do wonders if we have opportunities.
Pirzada Qasim addressed that we have the educational policies, but education placed on 7th in our national priorities, we are not focusing more on education. 4% of GDP is the international standard for promoting the education but we are declining and now we are at 1.8% of the GDP. Our educational demands are not bridging with the sources. We have a lot of corruption in education. We should focus on the appointment of educated people to promote education.
Anwar Ahmed said that the attitude of educators is also not just good for education. During the Martial law, we received an order that we have changed an illiterate to literate. We have changed the standard of the education. We need to demolish the corruption in education to make it progress. Prof. Haroon o Rasheed Said that we have 2.5 million children out of school, 1.7 million are child labor, and out of 40 million, only 1.5 million can reach to higher education. Our examination system is the weakest aspect of our education. We are the least after Nigeria in the education with less budget. We have the policies, but we are not supposed to follow the policy. In Baluchistan only, three percent of women are educated in anyways. Ghazi Sallah Uddin said that we are living in a society where Malala is not an acceptable figure then how could we up bring the education. Till our ruling ideas cannot change we cannot change our systematic ways, we discourage the rational debate in the institutions and Mashal Khan’s for an instant is one of the best examples of oppression in our society of ruling ideas. Prof. Ejaz Farooqi said that we need to focus on education and we should make it our priority as well education is a basic tool of progress and prosperity.
Meanwhile, in the second session of the 2nd day of International Urdu conference was titled “Translation and the Connection with the world”. The session was chaired by Raza Ali Abadi from London, Arif Naqvi from Germany, and Tang Mang Shang from China and discussant were Khalil Tooqar from Turkey, Arshad Farooq from Finland, Saeed Naqvi from America, WafaYazdanManish from Iran and Bushra Iqbal from Germany where this session hosted by Anjum Rizvi.
Anwar Ahmed discussed the book “Kaly Wala” by Arshad Farooq, he said the book is the reflection of the social and political sense of the societies who developed in a unique way and gives world path to survive. Arshad Farooq said that we are working on a translation from Finish literature to Urdu. Khalil Tooqar said that in Turkey we don’t have much translation from Urdu to the Turkish Language, because of the financial issues but the poetry of Iqbal is much demanded in Turkey because they Love Iqbal and his poetry. Saeed Naqvi from America said that some of the leading books from Pakistan have been translated to the English language, we have recently published some of the short stories but as you know the translation is a hard task and one cannot shift it to another language as it is. Many people are doing translations however we still need to do more. WafaYazdanManish from Iran said that we have a lack of translation of Urdu literature in Persian however, some of the major books have been translated into Person that is famous in the subcontinent. We need support from embassies of both countries for translations. Bushra Iqbal from Germany said that individual cannot translate the books, there are two main reasons in Germany for the lack of translations the first is they have a strict process of publishing a book. Iqbal is the only writer from the Pakistan that’s writing has demanded. But still we have many translations from Urdu in German Language and Goethe Institute of Germany is playing the main role in the translations.
Arif Naqvi from Germany said that Much German literatures has been translated into the Urdu language by the German Consulate, but we have a lack of German translations from Urdu. He said that there are many limitations in translations, a translator should have to understand the local tradition and culture, German love peace, humanity and harmony. Raza Ali Abidi from the UK said that we should not forget the famous translator Teerath Ram FerozPuri because he translated many books from English to Urdu. He paid tribute to his work for the Urdu Language. He said that Allama Iqbal translated all the children’s poem from English Literature. In the past best Russian literature was translated to Urdu and that was the amazing time of translations.