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‘Abay yaar’, who betrayed Urdu?
There is a large number of modern, educated people in Pakistan that are blind to an entire area of literature, beginning with the first Urdu novel written by Deputy Nazir Ahmed back in the 1800s to...
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We don’t have a new syllabus, schools or books but you want to give us iPads?
Recently, I came across a piece of news about the Punjab government’s decision to replace traditional course books with iPads next year. Adopting advanced technology in education is a really good idea...
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Named and shamed in Utah: How can you deny food to elementary school students?
Imagine this scenario. You are in high school, perhaps 11-years-old and you walk in to the cafeteria with a group of friends. You line up at the food counter, wait your turn anxiously because you have...
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In Hangu, are teachers a specie quickly going extinct?
A few days ago when I was going home, I received a text message from Abdullah Khan, a journalist working in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). It said that three primary school teachers had been killed...
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6-year-old child beaten to death in school: Are we teaching our kids to be...
As a parent of a fairly young school-going child, you get a lot of feedback from friends, family, teachers, peers, experts, columnists, TV show ‘analysts’, blogs, books ad infinitum. You get to see a...
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Islamabad is the safest city in Pakistan? Not today…
I was tying my shoe laces, getting ready to go for a walk when the number of my children’s school flashed on my screen. My heart always flutters a little when I see this number on my phone and this...
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Working women do not make better moms
“Working women do not make better moms,” I told an audience comprising of my teachers and fellow students in my primary school where my own mother was working as a teacher. I had the audacity to look...
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Humiliation, detention and beatings do NOT help children at school!
The environment in some Pakistani schools, particularly, government schools, is uncivilised at best and tyrannical at worst. While studying Psychology, I was compelled to look back at events from my...
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Bulldozing the poor of Islamabad to make room for the rich?
I offer my deepest sympathies to the elite and upper-middle class families of Islamabad who may be experiencing frustrating irregularities in the activities of their servants. It’s quite possible that...
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At LUMS I was not allowed to enter the library
Ray Bradbury, a well-known American author says, “There’s no use going to school unless your final destination is the library.” I endorse the same idea; any kind of studying is incomplete without...
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Broccoli cheese cups: Looks like a cupcake, tastes divine and the kids love...
“I know you’re 37…” beamed my daughters’ (very suave) teacher when I went to her school the other day. At a recent blood donation camp at my daughters’ school, all the students were briefed on the...
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Get well soon Edhi sahib, you are one in a million!
Dear Edhi sahib, As you lay in the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation for your routine dialysis, we hear worrying news that you have been admitted in the ICU. Edhi sahib, I am very worried...
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May 11, 2013 changed Pakistan for the better, will May 11, 2014 do the same?
On the eve of May 10 and 11, 2013 I saw a very different Lahore. Lahore was completely crowded with families and teenagers supporting their respective political parties, majorly PTI and PML-N....
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Facing disabilities: Until we do something about it, no one will
Having a disability does not necessarily make you worse off; it simply means you have to do things differently. However, it is sad to say, our society is plagued with ignorance when it comes to meeting...
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A New York state of mind
Walking along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, can be an exhilarating experience. Imposing architectural wonders staring down at you on all sides, the throbbing, pulsating and electrifying...
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#BringBackOurGirls: Misplaced Muslim priorities and Nigeria’s Boko Haram
300 girls are being sold to slavery in the name of Allah (swt) as you read this; 300 girls, whose only crime was to go to a school and be educated in a system considered far too ‘Western’ by Nigeria’s...
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Terrorism ‘Bounces Back’: Apology not accepted!
We were all 14-years-old once and we remember those days with fond memories. All of us remember our carefree attitude towards life where the biggest worry in the world would be the result of our math...
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Elliot Rodger: A product of the US government’s incompetence?
“You don’t think it’ll happen to your child, until it does.” This is what Richard Martinez stated in a press conference, despairing over the loss of his 20-year-old son, Christopher Martinez. A...
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A note to the school back-bencher
Dear Back-bencher, How are you? I hope you are doing well. I really wish this from the bottom of my heart. Let me start by saying how sorry I am to judge you. I remember that time in school, when I was...
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The South Korean president did not ‘condemn’ the ferry accident, she...
About a month and a half ago, a group of students and teachers left their school for a field trip; hundreds of excited students were part of this trip, they were headed to a popular island resort at...
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