Q. How do you perceive the education scene in Pakistan?
A. Before embarking on a tirade about what actually ails the education system of Pakistan, I think one should take into consideration the cultural dimensions or the collective psyche of our society’s stance towards education. As a society, our culture isn’t really inclined towards scholarly matters and education on its own is the last priority. Muslims of the Subcontinent missed out on the industrial revolution, perceiving it to be a foreign entity and unfortunately that psyche still lingers on. Today, our society gives importance to might and monetary gain rather than scholarly issues. That’s the cultural angle to education.
Coming to educational institutes, apart from the top few private institutes of the country, the standard of education in the private and government institutes is more or less the same. The graduates that they are churning out simply cannot compete on an international level. I have been facing the same problem since day one – a large number of drop outs in my classes – and the reason for it is the basic education system. Most of the students that I come across in my classes have the same issues: they aren’t used to hard work and have poor mathematics and English skills, which are the foundation for good programming logic and communication skills respectively. In an educational system where rote learning is encouraged and students end up memorising essays from the exam key in order to reproduce them in the exam paper, what else can you expect? These things need to be addressed at the basic educational level.

Q. How do you see the government’s role in improving the situation?
A. The government can work on many fronts, if it really wants to. However, it is a separate debate whether it does not want to work or is unable to do substantial work. I think there is a bit of both. The ground reality is in front of us and we know the quality of education in government institutes. How do you justify the idea that the very same government that has proven its inability to maintain quality and has shown its incompetence at running government-owned institutes such as NED University, Punjab University and others is authorised to certify and award charters to other educational institutes? Everyone knows that university charters basically translate into bribery and nepotism. It is common knowledge how much money one has to dish out in order to acquire a university charter. The education standards of the university or the institute aren’t a priority in this case. The paperwork done for this purpose is all quite impressive, with an equally impressive list of faculty members and professors. But in reality, the papers are tailored and most of the faculty members listed on the papers are visiting faculty. Why? Because most of these private institutions despite earning lakhs of rupees, aren’t willing to pay teachers and faculty.

Q. How do you see education making an impact on the IT sector?
A. In order to bring about an economic revival, the country needs human resource development through quality education. The global proliferation of information technology offers tremendous economic opportunities. There are openings for skilled IT workers not only abroad but in local software houses as well. There is an extreme dearth of skilled manpower in the IT sector, which did not exist six months ago. I get regular calls from software houses seeking to recruit IT professionals but I have to tell them that I don’t have any as almost all of the students are either employed or have gone abroad.
It is true that 9/11 was a huge setback for the IT industry as well as for the local IT education sector. Back then, the sole motivation for pursuing a degree in IT was an H-1B visa. But now the market is again opening up. Unfortunately, the effects of 9/11 still lingers on in the collective memory of the people and the notion still exists that pursuing a career in IT is no longer a viable or a lucrative option. It is only a matter of time before they realise the truth. But by then it may be too late and we would again be losing out or lagging behind other countries. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to change the mindset of the people.
Pakistanis have a fickle tendency. Look at India, when the IT bubble burst after 9/11, and even after the dot-com bubble, they did not cut down their efforts and investments in the IT sector. On the contrary, Pakistanis aren’t really inclined towards IT, which isn’t really a smart move.
There is another reason that people are not attracted to this field. Say for instance somebody wants to pursue an MSc degree in computer science, he or she will have to enrol in a three or four year BSc programme and dish out say three or four lakh rupees for it. Then, after toiling for another year and one and a half lakh rupees later, you acquire an MSc degree and then don’t get a job. Why? True, there are jobs in the IT sector but if you don’t have the appropriate technical skills, it doesn’t make any difference how many degrees you have. Everyone is aware of the standards of various IT institutes. Employers are interested in practical skills not pieces of paper.

A. I think there is a solution in the form of virtual and long distance education. Twenty years ago, if anyone wanted to get a qualification, one had to enrol in an institute and had to be physically present in the classroom. But the internet has changed this in the form of e-learning. Now, most of the world class universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford et cetera, are offering education through e-learning. Most Pakistanis gain access to the internet via dial-up, which is slow. As soon as the bandwidth speed issue is resolved in Pakistan, virtual education or e-learning is bound to gain momentum. But if we are talking about IT education, you’ll see that it’s not just universities that are jumping on the e-learning bandwagon. Technology vendors such as Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Cisco also offer certifications. These certifications aren’t a solution in themselves but they do allow one to learn programming, networking and IT skills at your own pace besides offering international recognition endorsed by the technology vendor. This is what we focused on in Operation Badar. We provided students with quality IT education, initially taking Java and later .NET and other technologies linked with Web services and encouraged students to go for international certifications rather than handing out institute based certificates.

Q. What are your future plans for Operation Badar?
A. For the time being I have closed down all the computer science programs of Operation Badar. For now our main focus is the next generation Microsoft’s operating system Windows Vista and the technology associated with it. We started off with Java, which is basically geared towards the server side but isn’t really suitable for the client side. Initially, Microsoft tried to adopt Java and then there was legal wrangling between Sun and Microsoft. Later on, Microsoft came up with .NET which is a parody of Java, with a few minor changes. Now, with Vista, Microsoft has given a new concept of integrated innovation. For instance there is a pdf format for documents, for 3D graphics there is the ActiveX API, Macromedia deals with Flash and animations. But now with Windows Presentation Foundation, one does not have to go through the trouble of learning 10 different software or technologies for graphics. Similarly, there is the Windows Communication Technology, which deals with Web Services. We are basically focusing on these areas as they are a continuation of what Operation Badar has been dealing with previously – for example, object orientated programming. I personally think that Windows Vista is going to have a major impact on the IT scene and it would be great if we could have people skilled in using this technology.