The nature of my work takes me in to different worlds of the most exciting sector. The agriculture sector in which I have spent most of my life unfolds itself in many ways and all these are exciting ones. There never is a dull moment and since I happen to have a passion for the subject, I go for it in a manner that the agricultural education bound will not go. The opinionated experiments that we have carried out have messed up our life.
The Higher Education Commission became a riding horse for the power blocks of Musharraf and the intentional mistakes that were made for the sake of the powerful were horrendous. These have always been made in the past, but this time the scale was massive. First, the resources were tainted with the blood of Pakistanis and Muslims in general. I have never seen anything come of when the intentions are what they have been.
The losers are Pakistanis and any one that seeks a free ride due to his or her position and status ultimately fails. Any university is a way of life and the university of life begins after the degree is received. The degree is merely the starting pint to enable the employer to start with a blood count. The reputation of a university counts, the teaching faculty counts, and the general ambience of it also counts.
The plethora of universities that have sprung up is any ones business. These have been brought in to play because of randomness. Randomness of actions and these have been binary visions and not binocular aspects of depth and focus that are required ultimately in the development of a system that would enable the stagnancy of agriculture to be put aside.
Agriculture education is in a mess. It is in a mess because the vision required by those inside has never been subjected to external peer review. A university is not a place where the subjects are crammed. It is a place where the mind is developed so that the individual is not in Orwell's animal farm but in a situation that enables him to develop the farming community.
If the country has to go anywhere, there are certain concepts that have to be understood. The Government College excelled in this as it undertook work that was outside the realm of the regular classes very seriously. The sports and the debating societies contributed to the well being of the nation. There was a time that the Government College was the leading supplier of human resources to the entire nation. Sadly that has changed.
There was a time that sports were organised by the students themselves and in that we were producing at that time talent that matched the other countries. There were literary societies, founded by students, and their work was organized by them and for themselves and that was a powerful potent force that students gained by it.
Merit was never constituted by marks but by totally different criteria and the teachers judged the new entrants. What did we do? Some one else selects and the poor responsible person has to carry that mantle on his shoulders. Successful activities were persistent polices even if early on the managers of the college were against these activities. Administrative acquiescence was achieved by persistence of a policy that initially did not find favour with the administrators.
Sports were an integral part and played an important part in the development of the college reputation. The prima donnas of sports were specifically looked after and as happened to me one day before the examination, the head of the department caught hold of me and said "We do not allow our sportsman to fail." That meant that I had to go to him for special lessons without any payment of fees. There was always a great buzz when the colours were announced. One could walk tall.
The third aspect that was common in the great Government College was that current events were discussed in forum and views expressed without let or fear. The trade offs for quality and quantity aside, it may be said that most, if not all, who were sportsmen were and are doing well. The popular press kept on providing the impetus, though its sports coverage for the young minds to achieve ever-higher work.
There is a rich legacy of educationists available in Pakistan and they should have been brought on board. The good one's do not show themselves in public life any more and there are contemporary issues that have to be dealt with. As a result the few that were there have been cast aside by their fellow academics. Sad is it not?
Where the Higher Education Commission erred was in the way that it threw money at each and everyone. The universities were corrupted. Money came that was not earned and was, in fact, tainted. Such monies can hardly be utilised for the general well being of the government. These were not earned but were free and that has its own problems.
The colonial aspects were such that one had to go back to McCauley to really understand the implications for the country. He led the fray for the subcontinent for generalised education. His classical statements to the then Viceroy have been recorded and are available to the academics. The education part 'Any one who has a right to hanging has a right to education' when translated into action for the farmers would indicate what he was stating was in any case a truism.
Posterity will never forgive us the current generation for what we have done to this country. The portion lost was a great loss for they were our strength for the democratic forces to survive. The democratic process, in turn, is best served by the educational system. Higher education funds may not be the important factor, but the fact that they understood the value of good education.
Three university gives of itself to the community as no community can ever understand and no statistics can illuminate. The university provides acquisition, conservation, refinement, and distribution of knowledge. Has any one amongst us ever looked in to this aspect of the university? With population explosion taking place in the country the air was right and for that to happen a number of new initiatives will take place.
Agriculture has to have a new university to address the new knowledge that is available in the universe is for the new intellect of the rural community. They are not children of lesser god that they have to live with half-baked policies that are more or less the brainchild of elsewhere but working in the field. No apologies for every step taken are in consonance with the world elsewhere.
Universities are given to the creation of knowledge and knowledge, in turn, is not for the acquisition of wealth but for the development of an ability to live with truth. The motives were and are different form the motives that are normally recorded.
Truth is hand in hand with the world of science and the two can and were made to go together. The world of the future is thus dependent on the search for truth and or the provocative rhetoric that paid off in the long run. The tragedy of the system that the Higher Education Commission wanted to put in place, unfortunately, ran in to snag as self effacing actions started taking place.
In social terms, it is difficult to understand that once the social system petrifies, it is better to change it with something more substantial than the earlier one. That requires men of stature. And those men of state are missing from our system.
The fostering of the spirit that is required means that the individual is less important than the work that has been undertaken. These are random thoughts on the working of the Higher Education Commission and on the society-based requirements. There is so much to do and so little time at one's disposal.