Log:
Iain Smith in
Pakistan – June 2011
(The ordinary type is for ordinary people. Italics are for the sad people interested in the exotica of higher education.)
Yesterday we took off on an Emirates 777 bound for
Dubai; and then, from
Dubai, heading to
Lahore overnight. I have always loved flying and I love aircraft. I also like Emirates. Joan and some others prefer Singapore Airlines; but I have never flown with them. The 777 is a great aircraft; but the telling point for me is that the diameter of its engines is the same as the diameter of the fuselage of a DC3 i.e. the great Dakota (the revolutionary aircraft of the 1930s: in which I first flew about 1950 or so. Its story is well documented in the
London Science Museum).
I have flown only once internationally with BA – Kate and I did that in 2006. Their food was terrible; and Kate and I on the return journey had some difficulty in getting red wine with breakfast at 10 a.m. over
Afghanistan – until Kate explained it was 1
st January 2007; and all good Scots start drinking early on New Year’s Day. (I always find it good on overseas trips to be accompanied by assertive Scottish women. On this occasion, Joan slips easily into that role.)
Joan and I incidentally once flew to
Trinidad with British West Indian Airways; on the return journey, their water tanks ran out: so there was no tea or coffee with breakfast and the loos were in bad shape. Joan was annoyed about that: given their inability with water tanks, I was more worried about the state of their fuel tanks. Worse than flying with Air Tajik: which I have done a couple of times.
We are off to do 5 days of leadership training to newly appointed heads; then two days with the Advisory Board of The City School
How strange and odd that appears to me; and, I think, to Joan. Working with an organisation that is (I think) about the size of a big Scottish education authority and in a country with an abysmal record on public sector education; but TCS are doing moderately leading -edge things that (at least nowadays) rarely, if ever, happen in Scottish education. Reflect again on Brown’s Report http://www.gordonandsarahbrown.com/uploads/files/EFA_Report.pdf
Great document
I am quite worried about what I can do. Last time in
Pakistan, one of the programme members wrote in her evaluation: “Mr Smith is quite an affable man: but can The City School not get younger trainers to work with us?”
Ouch!
37 years ago, when I first did management training, the trainees, insofar as they had complaints, thought I was far too young.
Our 7-hour journey to
Dubai was uneventful - in a fairly full but not packed aircraft. Then we had a pleasant enough 3 hours in Dubai Terminal 3 (the home of Emirates and allegedly the biggest passenger terminal in the world in terms of floor space.) Some prawns and a glass of wine while away the time. The next hop up to
Lahore takes another 3 hours in another 777. As we land at 7.30 a.m. local time, the temperature is 35ºC i.e. 100 F. Immigration is pretty chaotic and slow, but unproblematic otherwise. I have some bargaining with a porter who insists on taking us through customs and then demands $20. I give him 400 rupees (about $5)
A driver (with SMITH/FORREST on a board) awaits us as we clear customs.
We are taken to a completely new TCS guesthouse, spacious and elegant and in a compound with a guard at the gate. Four hours sleep and we have a very pleasant lunch, produced by our personal cook. We also have a personal housekeeper who does some ironing for Joan (and a car and personal driver). Rose arrives and we do some last minute adjustments to the course: the way they have printed the course booklet has altered my original pagination and we have to match that with the tutor guide to running the course. But the internet system is not working: a technician arrives from Head Office, is eventually joined by 3 colleagues (as he finds the problem hard to crack) and they work at the system for about three hours (all this remember is on a Saturday afternoon.).
With our computer systems restored, I reclaim my computer to write up this log and Joan to keyboard the changes we have made earlier this afternoon.
Dinner is good: curried mince with chillies and daal and rice. We suffer the fifth power cut in 12 hours, something so typical of
Pakistan: but the guesthouse has a powerful generator so it does not really matter.
Tomorrow we are both going to check out our teaching premises for the week. For me that involves getting the 600 miles or so down the road to
Karachi. A 9 a.m. start for the airport. So early to bed tonight.
This morning I was up at 7 a.m.
Lahore weather showing 41 C for the day,
Karachi a chilly 37 C. But both with low humidity. And outside, it was indeed already hot as I greeted the guard. Liquat was preparing breakfast by 7.30 a.m. We duly dined off fruit juice, porridge and hard-boiled eggs.
Then off to
Lahore airport, with a carefully slimmed down case (there is a considerable difference between the PIA limit of 20 kg and the Emirates one of 30kg).
At the airport I looked for a wall socket for my computer (its battery is almost gone) and could not find , But I did find four free computers with complete internet access: easily got into my Strathclyde e-mail. No Microsoft Office but they did at least have Notepad (on which I am writing this). Installed by a combination of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Information Technology, Vastly superior to the expensive and useless IT facilities for passengers at
Glasgow Airport.
Mid-flight down essentially the Indus to
Karachi, I read James Hunter on “A Dance called
America”. On page 18, he writes
“Although there were few stronger influences on Highlanders than their attachment to their homeland, there was nothing in this same people’s history, therefore, to suggest that, should circumstances suggest such a course, they were congenitally unwilling to travel to faraway places. Rather the reverse.”
Checked in an hour ago, after spending some time at Darakshan campus (where everything seemed well set for tomorrow - and we only did some fine tuning). On a Sunday afternoon, we have a resources manager, an AV technician and a janitor at our disposal. We ran through some of the Power points, some of the videos (which are available as streams off the LTS website, although we have back-up recordings as well) and we check the elaborate sound systems. All works well; and we have multiple back-ups of everything. We then have a 25 minute drive trough quiet Sunday streets, passing the Saudi Consulate – very elaborately guarded, with a sandbagged machine-gun nest sitting on its roof
Our residence (although described as a guesthouse) is not run by TCS and is more a small hotel for professionals (rather like the Nizhat in Lahore, although more basic). Tea on arrival.
It has wifi (so my e-mail system is working), a.c. and fan, a fridge and mini-bar for soft drinks, en-suite shower and toilet room and very friendly staff. And it has a laundry service. And I discovered an electrical mosquito repellent was part of the service.
The place has a solid perimeter wall and, of course, a guard.
Safia and I spend on hour on last minute preparation for Day 1 (tomorrow) and a bit of time on Day 2. Then we order a carry-out meal for 7.30 – which is the only evening meal service they offer.
In the small hotel compound there is an aviary – with three of four small parrots, two flightless birds who are sitting on 3 or so eggs and a baby rabbit!
Up in Lahore, Joan says that it is 45C – now that is hot. It feels pretty hot here as I visit my animal friends again. Lahore is to stay about 43C all week, say the BBC!!
We had our first power cut in late afternoon – Karachi is worse than Lahore for power cuts, but it lasts only an hour or so; and the guest house has a powerful diesel generator. (By 9.30 p.m. were on to our fifth power cut).
Safia and I have decided that Day 2 is too heavy. So we do a mental edit over dinner, I keyboard the changes after dinner, put the results on my pen drive and tomorrow we will overwrite the relevant folder in the course centre. I also e-mail the files to Lahore and advise them to do the same. The wonders of modern technology.
Interesting discussion about dongles. Dongle-based web access is common and comparatively cheap in Pakistan whereas wireless router-based and LAN access are comparatively expensive. In the UK the opposite is true. (As I understand it). Why? Because the respective governments subsidise different systems (the Pakistan one apparently with heavy Chinese support). This is not an area I know much about. Is this story plausible?
Mon 6th June Karachi
Up early and find an ample supply of very hot water (very unusual). Check the weather. 100F (37C) for us and sunshine; 109F (42C) for Lahore. I look out a smart tie (which might last on me for a half day): last night I apologised to Safia because I accidentally left the jacket of my suit in Lahore. Down at 6.30 a.m. to visit my friends in the aviary. The sun is just beginning to burn through the early morning pollution of the Karachi atmosphere.
Breakfast is a very acceptable onion and chilli omelette, and there is a copy of “Dawn”, the (excellent) Pakistan newspaper. 18 killed in a bomb-blast in an army-run bakery in Nowshera; 5 in a suicide attack in Peshawar. Situation normal.
Off to work at 7.45. 15-20 minute drive in our chauffeured car: a good way to start the working day. We start with a video-photomontage of course photos of March accompanied by the stirring sounds of “We are the Champions of the World”; a subtle (sic) play on the fact that they are selected to be “change champions” within their organisation.
The day is hot and, worse, very humid; so we cram them into the one air-conditioned room we have, rather than use breakout rooms.
The quantity and (for the most part) quality of work they have done since we last met is impressive, indeed humbling. All achieved by having left them some support structures (local coaches; self-help groups) while we were away.
At 4.30, we agree to re-convene at 8.30 tomorrow; and Safia and head back to the guest-house. The gun emplacement on the roof of the Saudi consulate is deserted, but there is a workman (?) on the roof who is most clearly wearing bullet-proof armour.
At 5.30, Safia and I debrief on the day and plan for the next day or so.
Review Points (Safia)
- Class more responsive.
- They were interested in Phase 1 evaluations.
- Team-building inventory is good in that it does not allow high scores in everything,
- Lexicon activity good.
- Learned lessons about delegation.
- They have been busy implementing and being coached between Phases 1 and 3.
(Iain) 1. “Champions” video-clips are good idea.
2. Some a little confused how to score inventory and example of scoring might be useful.
3. An addition on the direction for the plenary report would be useful.
4. Not sure about after-lunch slides.
5. Reports on Phase 2: all of them showed work, some of them showed very good work, some light on leadership.
6. Idea of conflict inventory as a private activity for the log is good.
7. Support from Darakshan staff at all levels is very good.
We did some forward planning and alter some timings and some content. I update our files and put them on a pen drive for tomorrow.
We head out for dinner at 7.45 to the Café Flo, a very good French restaurant that I been to once before. I have crab with a garlic and caper sauce; fillet of Dorado with shrimps and squid; profiteroles: all washed down with coke and fresh lime-juice. The day has been so hot and humid that I am verging on the dehydrated. I drink the water as if it was wine (the reverse of my normal
Glasgow procedure). Our host is Nudrat, the Director of Education for Southern Region; (Safia, my co-tutor, is the Director for Northern Region).
Back at the guest-house I phone Joan. Then a little walk in the compound. The parrots are asleep, clinging to the wire-netted walls of the aviary; the big birds are still awake but very placid; and the baby rabbit is happily playing with the eggs in the nest. Truly a remarkable eco-system. Will the chicks be in danger of being imprinted Lorenz-style into believing that they are baby rabbits? The coke has obviously gone to my head. To be more accurate, I probably am (mildly) dehydrated. I set aside a litre of water and some RHT powders; and switch on the mosquito burner. Time for bed.
(Looking back on the meal last night, I was struck by the price structure of the menu. This was a very expensive restaurant by
Pakistan standards. Steak dishes were about the £6 level. But
New Zealand lamb chops were over £10 per head. Is this kind of differential typical? Yes, said by
Pakistan friends. Lamb is popular but not in huge supply.
And I found it strange to be in a restaurant where smoking was permitted. (When I went outside to smoke a waiter pursued me to find out whether the meal was OK.)
Karachi is forecast at 37C and sunny for the next few days:
Lahore at 42 C and with some rain after a day or so. . Humidity levels in
Karachi are forecast at 45%: that will make it very sticky during the day. I get up at 6.00 a.m., and enjoy a great supply of very hot water in the shower (unusual in
Pakistan) and try to forget how polluted mains water in
Karachi is (i.e. very very polluted).
Even sitting at breakfast away from the bedroom A.C., I can feel the humidity. Have a quick read of Dawn: no mass murders, only a few single ones (so that is OK). Dawn reports that defaults on income tax payments s are reckoned to run at 8% in the
UK, 22% in
USA and 68% in
Pakistan. This puts a figure on something I have heard before: paying income tax in
Pakistan amounts to making a voluntary contribution to the government.
At the centre by 8.00 a.m.: start promptly at 8.30 a.m. We have a very interactive whole-group session assessing videos on classroom practice, some of which I stream down the internet from the LTS website in Glasgow, some of which I had pre-recorded on to a USB from the same source. They are received with acclamation, I think it is fair to say. Sadly, they have probably now been seen by more head teachers in Pakistan than in Scotland; and I doubt whether they have ever been used on a formal training course in Scotland. I would be reassured if some of my readers could tell me I am wrong.
We spend the rest of the day on issues relating to conflict resolution, with some theoretical input, but most it revolving round some small-group exercises.
Lunch is a choice of pizza or spiced chicken legs, followed by a custard and cream –type desert and some green tea: all cooked freshly on the premises. Amazing.
The day is indeed hot and humid and, even at break times, most of the participants stay much of the time in the air-conditioned classroom.
We spend the last 30 minutes working on their professional logs, an idea we started off in March and which, after initial apprehensions, they seem to have grasped with enthusiasm.
In terms of visitors (remembering that TCS in some ways can be thought of as a bit like Edinburgh in the sense of teacher and pupil strength - except that it is geographically dispersed - and that, to use the Scottish jargon, it is an education authority split into 4 divisions), I reflect that I have never seen the like in Scotland . Of the 4 divisional heads, one is my co-tutor here, a second visited us for a half day yesterday and a third spent an hour with us this morning. The Director of Education has not visited us – because she is stuck up in Lahore as Joan’s co-tutor there. All of this sends a powerful message to the troops: “CPD is at the heart of our priorities”. (Incidentally, of these 5 people, 4 are graduates of the University of Strathclyde).
Safia and I meet at 3.30 p.m. to conduct a review/planning meeting.
I.S .points:-
1. The classroom videos worked well.
2. It was right not to use computing labs: the whole class together worked well.
3. Using mostly recordings, as we did, is superior to using the live video-streams (although both work).
4. The 3-scenario role-play could have instructions improved
5. The “passive” slide is good; the two “criticism” slides less so.
6. The “tricky questions” session is good and robust; but needs a short introduction and rationale.
7. Log time was used productively.
8. More material should be moved from the main body of the text into the “supplementary materials” appendices.
1. The 3 Entwistle slides worked well.
2. The classroom videos were taken very seriously.
3. Some participants focus on what TCS (i.e. Head Office) as an organisation should do, not on what they could do.
4. The relationship between pages 23 and 24 could be clarified. Does reading p23 come before doing the p24 exercise or is it vice-versa?
5. They had all done the homework we set yesterday.
6. The “tricky questions” exercise worked well.
We re-vamped the timetable for the remaining 3 days, and planned some marginal editing of the PP slides (Now done)
I do some work back in the guesthouse, while listening to Tom Morton on Radio
Scotland, courtesy of my laptop.
I total up the cost of my Marlboro Red here in
Pakistan. Less than £1 a packet, one-seventh of the
UK price.
Safia and I are taken in the car to a restaurant Peri Peri, a franchise specialising implausibly in Portuguese chicken dishes. Hummus as a starter is disappointing, but a piquant roasted chicken breast is good.
A salamander wanders across the bedroom floor. What delightful creatures they are: and how much longer have they been a part of the evolutionary tree than we humans.
Off to bed and a further chapter of A Dance called
America.
8 June 2011
The weather forecast is stable for us but predicts some rain and lower temperatures in
Lahore.
I find that one of our participants up in
Lahore has pasted one of our videos from yesterday on Face book. Fine: it is public domain property.
I have enough leisure at breakfast to read “Dawn”. 4 items catch my attention.
- A family of 12 killed in a car crash, all in the one car. Even allowing for the fact that one was an infant, it must have been a very crowded car. In typical Dawn English style, it is explained that 11 were killed outright. The infant was taken to hospital “where she expired her last”. Common story, sadly.
- A cyclone due to come into Sindh and the Punjab in the next 24 hours. The fishing fleet has been told to remind in port. Does not match the BBC forecast; but let us see.
- The Pakistan Poverty Alliance Foundation (entirely funded by the government with World Bank money - £1b in the last decade) is resisting attempts that its accounts should be audited.
- A letter from someone (admittedly a member of staff of a government education College) protesting about the low standards of a BEd and Med in a university. (Government colleges and are subject to detailed regulation over such courses; private colleges and universities are not. The latter are however subject to a general regulatory regime by the Higher Education Commission, roughly a hybrid of SFC and QAA.
When no one appears at 7.00 a.m., I venture into the kitchen and find the waiter/breakfast chef there, still asleep on his bed. I get toast and cheese and juice and tea, and apparently Safia gets her omelette, albeit a little late. Our car and driver turn up and we sweep through fairly quiet streets.
Sweets turn up from two participants: this is our standard punishment when mobiles go off in class (“Bring sweets for everyone tomorrow”).
We use the Dylan Wiliam materials from Learning and Teaching Scotland (unlike yesterday’s materials, I guess they are used a great deal –certainly the ideas have permeated much of the Scottish system, especially at primary school level); and they are received well.
At tea-break, one head asks me about medical education: her son is training to be a doctor in
Pakistan and she is appalled by how little he is interested in research; she wants to send him to a good postgraduate medical school in the
UK after he graduates. I recommend
London or
Edinburgh (anyone got any bright ideas on this?). She then says “Why are your teaching methods so different from those of any other university tutors we have had working for TCS?” Good question, to which I gave an answer.
There is a lengthy power-cut in mid-morning which slows the cooking of lunch. Meanwhile we plough on with sessions on time-management and dealing with in-tray priorities. The late lunch is sweet and sour chicken, fried chicken legs, rice and kolfi. Beautifully cooked and well-presented.
The short afternoon goes on with the same themes. There is a real buoyancy about the place. I end with the bad news and the good news; “Bad news is that no one’s mobile went off today. Good news is that your kind tutors will supply the sweets tomorrow.”
Lots of smiles and farewells as leave. Two departing comments I find particularly memorable. Safia and I will long treasure them:-
“The sessions are getting better and better and we do not want the course to end”
“It was really entertaining. I have never done any academic studying before and thought it was a serious thing. But I was surprised by how entertaining it was”.
Safia and I meet at 3.30 p.m. to conduct a review/planning meeting.
SC
- The formative assessment materials went well; but perhaps need added material outlining the way in which they are distanced from past (and current) assessment practices.
- The time management materials were challenging: basically because these are people who are weak on delegation skills.
- The in-tray prioritisation exercise could be strengthened by numbering the items; and the 2-stage questions do not make overall sense.
- The fact that the Lahore participants gave themselves (mostly) 4 out of 10 on where their schools were at with formative assessment whereas the Karachi participants gave themselves (mostly) 7 out of 10.
IS
1. The FA stuff went well.
2. The time management material started well, went through a rough spell and then came good. A tweaking of Step 1 is called for so that not all the item listed are important.
3. The in-tray exercise is good, needs more than 45 mins (we gave it 60) and needs its reporting format sharpened.
4. Some of the comments at the end were encouraging:-
“The sessions are getting better and better and we do not want the course to end”
“It was really entertaining. I have never done any academic studying before and thought it was a serious thing. But I was surprised by how entertaining it was”.
Nafisa takes me out to
Avari Towers (a big luxury hotel) for a Chinese meal. The security is astonishing compared with last time I was there – not surprising at all after what happened to the Marriott in
Islamabad.
Good meal: steamed prawns and garlic prawns. My drive takes me home through the hell-hole of Saddar, the place of which Dawn (rightly) said “It is more dangerous to breathe the air of Saddar than to be a heavy smoker”. With its workshops and bazaars and filth and street sewage water, it is choked with chaotic traffic. There are two ways of looking at
Karachi (which in 1947 was a well-ordered city half the size of
Glasgow; and today is a sprawling choking slum 25 times the size of
Glasgow): it is either a disaster that it is as dysfunctional as it is; or it is a miracle that it functions at all.
Do some last minute work, and talk to Joan: alone in a blacked-out house in
Lahore with neither the mains nor the generator working and with no sign of the guard (an hour later she texts that the power has returned). I finish off this log and check on the state of the half-promised cyclone from the
Arabian Sea. The prognosis sounds OK: winds of up to 90kph but not until Sunday. Safia, Nudrat and I are all due to fly up to
Lahore on Friday evening.
Lahore forecast is 40C and some rain showers but humidity lower than
Karachi (where at the moment it is 70%).
Midnight and time for bed. What fun it all is.
I look back at my meal last night. Nafissa my host is a Diploma graduate of the
University of Strathclyde (circa 2002 or so I think) and is now a full-time training manager for Southern Region. How many such people in Scottish education? None, I think, is the answer; 20 years ago the answer would have been very different. Her son is a chemical engineering graduate of
Nottingham.
Last night as I prepared some slides for our half-day on marketing schools, it occurred to me to produce a part-example of a marketing matrix. Some of you might be interested and/or amused by my example:-
BBC TV says that
Karachi will remain dry. And has no forecast at all of high winds. But “Dawn” is emphatic that, between Friday and Sunday, a cyclone is highly likely.
At 6.45, I go down to see whether the waiter/chef is up and about. He is.
Look at the aviary before breakfast: the two bigger birds are allegedly Grey Partridges, I have been told. Raised to be eaten. The morning is cloudless and sunny, and the humidity feels lower than last night.
I take some RHT (last night I was reading in the Hunter book how emigrant Scottish children were killed by sea-sickness i.e. by the consequent dehydration: on one voyage to
North America, out of 50 under-5s, one survived the voyage.)
Safia tells me about her daughter who was sitting ‘O-level Business Studies. She phoned her daughter (in
Islamabad) to explain that she (Safia) had been praying for the daughter’s success. To which the daughter said: “The paper will be easy, Mum. So you can save on prayer time”.
We have a good solid day at work: delegation and marketing schools are the main themes. Our colleagues in
Lahore send me this photo page.
I get home, have a sleep and a shower; and switch on Tom Morton as I key in the review conclusions and write one or two other bits.
3.30 : Review Time 9/6/11
IS
- Step 2 on delegation should be explicitly related to Step 1, and should have the instruction; “TICK AS MANY BOXES AS YOU WANT”
- 30 mins in pairs on Step 2 worked quite well.
- Participants eventually did mostly get the message “Delegate if possible; but minimise risks by having some checks”
- Delegation Planner worked well; but does not need 45 minutes.
- Marketing reading may be too long (I am not sure).
- There should be a less elaborate modelling of Marketing Matrix : fill 5 boxes, not 20.
- Boston Matrix good: some people took a while to grasp that it is about distinct products or services. Prefacing it with a list “EYE; Junior schools; Prep; “O”-levels etc” would help
SC
1. A willingness to delegate functions related to T+L but not visits to RO, meeting with RAC etc is worrying.
2. Agree with IS on Step 2
3. p57 should begin “Select an item from page 55”
4. Marketing reading is not too long
5. Both matrices worked OK, although with some confusion.
Going outside for a cigarette, I meet the owner. We have an interesting conversation: in his view the cyclone will miss
Karachi. He tells me the bigger birds in the aviary are peafowl i.e. presumably peahens.
Out to dinner with Nudrat, Nafissa and Safia. It is a Thai restaurant and the highlight for me is a dish of baby lobsters (illegal of course in the
UK).
Friday 10th June
The call of the muezzin awakes me at 4.15 but I manage to get some sleep for another hour or more. Turn on BBC World News (a channel that used to hard to get in
Pakistan and elsewhere except by satellite, but which is now ubiquitous). Catch up on what is happening in
Syria.
I have a slight stomach upset; but nothing of any great alarm. Take some RHT.
The
Lahore forecast is for rain and 40C. (Indeed last night the rain had arrived, as Joan told me late at night).
Karachi at 33C, sunny intervals and moderate humidity: sounds very tolerable.
“Dawn” has several stories about an unarmed youth who was gunned down by the Rangers in a
Clifton park two days ago. Its showing on YouTube triggered off a scandal. “Dawn” is not optimistic about any positive outcome.
“Dawn” now promises the cyclone on Sunday.
I reflect on what I know about
Pakistan education; quite a lot of it coming from the Brown report. About 2% of GDP is spent on education, one of the lowest proportions in the world. While school education is largely a provincial rather than a central government matter, it is still startling that central government
spends more on the armed forces per day than it spends on education in a year (Source; “Dawn”, 5/6/11). “Ghost” schools (i.e. schools whose only existence is a set of people on a “school” payroll) are probably the most manifest form of the corruption that erodes further the spend on real education.
At work, while the participants are preparing, from 8.30 to 10.30 for their 11a.m. presentations, I go through the Brown Report “Education for All” and extract what he wrote specifically about Pakistan. It reads as follows:-
· In Pakistan, there is a seven-year gap in education separating young adults in the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of the population.
· Tests of Grade 3 children found that only half could answer very basic multiplication questions and 69% were unable to add a word to complete a sentence.
· One-third of schools are judged to be in a satisfactory condition, 30,000 need major repairs and over 30% have no drinking water or latrines.
· Bangladesh and Pakistan invest less than 3% of their GDP in education.
· In the 1960s, countries like South Korea and Taiwan were no wealthier than countries such as Pakistan and Ghana. However they were far ahead in education- and they drew progressively further ahead as the benefits of economic growth were ploughed back into education and skills development. Indeed in 1960 the two Asian countries had achieved levels of primary and lower secondary enrolment in advance of where Pakistan….. stand(s) today.
The presentations go well and they keep us engaged. Safia is chair, and I am timekeeper. The campus have found me an old-fashioned school bell and I use it to tell each of the 8 groups when their 14 minutes are up. I joke that I was trained as a teacher so long ago that it is only form of educational technology in which I have any training. What fun! (The presentations are all done on PowerPoint. When I first started working in
Pakistan, no self-respecting Head would touch a keyboard: they were devices for secretaries and for the school office manager. What a change in a decade.)
We give some advice of Phase 4 i.e. working on their action plans between now and November with the help of coaches and self-help groups. Then we dish out the evaluation forms and there are speeches and we are presented with flowers and with presents; and have to watch a sequence of course photographs set to music.
Off to the guest house, and then to the airport. There Safia and I rendezvous with Nudrhat and Tanver, all of us heading for the Advisory Board meeting tomorrow in
Lahore.
The 7 p.m. P.I.A. flight is 90 minutes late, so I do the evaluation scores while we sit in the airport. Meanwhile Joan is doing hers in the guesthouse in
Lahore. We exchange scores electronically. (In March, the scores had been good, especially in
Lahore – something which had given Rose, as a
Lahore tutor, particularly great pleasure; so there had been endless banter about who would score higher this time).
By the narrowest of margins, and at levels way short of statistical significance, the Karachi scores are higher this time. Much more importantly, both sets of scores are very high. I have used this kind of scoring system for some twenty years now, and come to regard a rough rule of thumb as being “over 5.0 is satisfactory; over 5.5 is wonderful”. Another rule of thumb is to count the number of clients who are in the “5” and “6” boxes. Karachi have a minimum of 31 out of 34 who always meet this criterion; Lahore have 30 out of 32 (if one excludes the physical surroundings bit). These are great results on any analysis. What a relief
Ratings 1: strongly disagree 6: strongly agree
|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Mean |
1. | The week achieved its aims and outcomes for me |
|
|
| 2 | 4 | 28 | 5.8 |
2. | The organisation was satisfactory |
|
| 2 2
| 5 | 5 5 | 2 26 | 5.7 |
3. | The sequence of the week was consistent and coherent |
|
|
| 2 | 8 | 24 | 5.6 |
4. | The tutors were approachable and helpful |
| 1 |
|
| 2 | 31 | 5.8 |
5. | The tutors helped me to learn
|
| 1 |
|
| 3 | 30 | 5 5.8 |
6. | The physical surroundings were satisfactory |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 5.3 |
7. | Meeting other colleagues on the modules was useful to me | 1 |
|
| 1 | 12 | 20 | 5.4 |
8. | I will be able to use the ideas learned in my job |
|
|
| 1 | 4 | 29 | 5.8 |
9. | The week helped to develop my skills and knowledge |
|
|
| 1 | 7 | 26 | 5.7 |
N=34
Ratings 1: strongly disagree 6: strongly agree
|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Mean |
1. | The week achieved its aims and outcomes for me |
|
| 1 |
| 7 | 23 | 5.7 |
2. | The organisation was satisfactory |
|
|
| 2 | 10 | 20 | 5.6 |
3. | The sequence of the week was consistent and coherent |
|
| 1 |
| 9 | 22 | 5.6 |
4. | The tutors were approachable and helpful |
|
|
|
| 5 | 27 | 5.8 |
5. | The tutors helped me to learn
|
|
| 1 |
| 6 | 25 | 5.7 |
6. | The physical surroundings were satisfactory |
|
|
| 6 | 9 | 17 | 5.3 |
7. | Meeting other colleagues on the modules was useful to me |
|
|
| 1 | 9 | 22 | 5.6 |
8. | I will be able to use the ideas learned in my job |
|
|
|
| 5 | 27 | 5.8 |
9. | The week helped to develop my skills and knowledge |
|
| 1 |
| 7 | 23 | 5.7 |
N=32
At 8.30, we board the Airbus: a reading from the Koran, safety drill and we climb into the turbulence of the thermals rising from the cooling Sindh desert. I could do with a G+T but settle for a Pepsi: and for a mild chicken curry and some yoghurt. 89F as we descend into the “cool” of a
Lahore evening at 10 p.m.
I exit from
Lahore with Safia, Tanver and Nudrat. I try a rather high risk joke with them: “People will say that this is a man arriving from
Dubai with his three wives”. (Judging by the way this line was passed on later in the evening it seems to have been culturally acceptable; Safia , Tanver and Nudrat are good people).
To the guest house: some Murree beer in the fridge (the first alcohol I have had for a week; and the first I have had in
Pakistan for more than 10 years). Time for bed.
I awake deliciously late at 8.30, and do some work tidying up evaluation scores, log-writing and reading papers for today’s meeting. It is hot and dry; but not with the severe heat that
Lahore has had earlier in the week. Hard-boiled eggs and delightful hot breakfast curry patties for breakfast. Tanver joins us; and a little later Coleen (an English consultant, who is Chair of the Advisory Board and has just flown in on the 7a.m. incoming Emirates from
Dubai). Later her pal Robin (from
Christchurch Canterbury University) appears.
Joan and I go off at midday to meet Rose and Safia, essentially to discuss where the present PDSL programme might go and how to proceed beyond it.
We go out for dinner in Yums, a rather good and popular Chinese restaurant that Joan and I have visited before. 12 of us altogether. Good soup and good seafood. I am a little uneasy when we begin to talk
Pakistan politics. It is a subject I always avoid. (And avoid religion except with my closest
Pakistan friends: even then, Safia was I think a little offended at 1p.m.on Friday when I said that I had done my religious duties at that most sacred hour of the Islamic week- I had fed some chicken thighs to the Darakshan Campus cat. I should not have said that, Safia)
Back to the guesthouse. Robin and I crack a can of Murree beer, before he retreats, beaten by a lack of sleep and travel fatigue. My Facebook site is full of messages and photos. Explore for the first time the use of tags on Facebook; and get it hopelessly wrong. I am not a “technological native”.
Reflect on the fact that Nudrat, the Regional Director of Southern Region (who is a Canadian citizen of
Pakistan origins and ethnicity), spent many years working for the
Hudson’s Bay Company: Jim Hunter’s book has much about it. But Nudrat did not do much trapping of animals for them: she was a beauty consultant. Clearly they have diversified over the years - I do not think many Highlanders or Islanders went out to
Canada in the 19
th century to work for the Company as beauty consultants. On reflection however, perhaps animal trapping and beauty consultancy are much the same occupations.
Approaching midnight. There is a strong but very warm night wind. Lightning flashes and thunder rumbles overhead. The rain begins to cascade down. Have a last cigarette outside, where there are two guards on duty- one with a useful looking Kalashnikov.
The power goes off: but 20 seconds later the trusty diesel generator splutters into life.
Good to get a mixture of e-mails and Facebook comments from my pals Anne and Jane, and from my niece Rebecca.
Time for bed.
Rose has given me some serious bedtime reading about a proposal for work in
Abu Dhabi.
Sunday 12 June 2011
The morning is still and fresh (relatively speaking i.e. probably only about 35C).
Breakfast, put on a tie (which I forgot yesterday) and off, having done some keyboarding of, and dispatched, the minutes of the earlier meeting yesterday.
As I then key in (in a separate document) a record of yesterday’s Board proceedings, I note one of Safia’s gems as worthy of a wider audience: “The leadership programme is more about developing emotional intelligence than developing cognitive intelligence”. (A good observation, not least from someone operating in her second or even third language).
9.30 and we head off to the resumption of the Board meeting.
Here go a lot of notes the day which I will again mostly excise before sending this out. They are really solely for the benefit of Joan and me. What TCS is doing is sometimes overly ambitious in terms of timescale, but impressive nevertheless.
Nudrat exits at 4.00 p.m. to go on leave. She leaves with a dramatic flurry in front of the projector screen. One can see the genetic pool that has made her daughter one of
Pakistan’s best known actresses.
5.30 p.m. and we finish. News of the big explosion in
Peshawar is coming through. Robin and I have one car and go to the Nizhat for a cappuccino. Rose, Coleen and Joan go shopping in the MPV. At 6.45 or so we head to Dr Firoz’s house. Our car is stopped by the army and our passports and (driver’s) identity card scrutinised. Army guys very polite indeed. (I later find that neither Coleen nor Joan carries passports or passport copies with them. I strongly advise them to do so).
Then to the Firoz mansion. Built around an atrium design within the last 10 years.
Dr Farzana’s father was said to be the second-richest man in
Pakistan. In a country characterised by an extreme distribution of wealth and poverty, this would have made him very rich indeed. He had two daughters. Both chose to set up and run schools rather than lead a life of rich indolence. They set up together one nursery school in
Karachi, and then went their separate ways. [I guess some of this story is not accurate; but it is how it was told to me]
We have juice, tea and sandwiches with Jahangir (Dr Firoz is en route home from Jeddah). He gives us presents of elaborate boxes of sweets in honour of his twin daughters, now about 4 months old. Tells us a funny story of how one of the twins went missing one day: Granny had taken the child to the office without telling the parents. (Well, I guess it is funny in retrospect.)
Back home. Robin and I share a last can of beer before dinner; and I discover he lives in Lewes on Price Edwards Road, a few yards away from my brother Alasdair.
Outside there is a lovely moon, although most of the stars are shrouded by a combination of the pollution haze and the ambient light.
The guards have doubled.
What a wonderful but tragic land this is.
13 June
Heavy rain showers, 39C and moderate humidity are forecast.
It is already hot at 7.00 a.m.. Coleen and I breakfast together, watch the grim news from
Peshawar on BBC World and head into the office in the MPV. I leave Coleen (who is running a two-day course for depute heads) at the Head Office, and go out in the MPV looking for a bank. We find an HSBC and I am relieved (although not too surprised) that my MBNA card gets me through the security door and gets 10,000 rupees (70 pounds). More than a month’s wages for the driver. So I tip him 100.
Coleen is in the Board Room. Her (unknown) co-tutor has not appeared, nor have her handouts; the room is too small; she needs break-out rooms but has none; she would have been much better off on the
Ravi campus.
(Later things get better and she has a good day of training).
It is 8.30; and 90 minutes before I am due to meet Rose. So I settle in her office and do some work reading documents for our meeting; and writing up notes from yesterday.
Two arriving staff recognise me outside and I am greeted like a long lost friend. I drink some water and settle down to work.
Discussions with Rose and with a new guy from TCS HR. Eventually we come to an agreement. I e-mail a few pals:-
“I signed a contract with TCS today to work for them for two 28-day periods between 1 Sept and 20th Dec. In practice, probably the month of October and mid-Nov to mid-Dec. Some low pay; but flights from and to Glasgow, dedicated car and driver on 24/7 call and a wonderful house to live in (where I am now). Best of all, working in an organisation of wonderful women.”
I have to revise a work plan, which I do.
Then I get paid for the work we have done over the last few weeks.
In the evening off to a very good Italian restaurant: Cosa Nostra . Missing only chianti. Hosted by the legendary M.D., aka Dr Frazana, She is in a good mood. Superb meal.
Car back. An hour at home. Dish out 3000 rupees variously across guards, drivers
and domestic servants, feeling like an 18
th century Hebridean gentleman,
Then at midnight Robin, Joan and I are off to
Lahore Airport.
June14 June
Long wait at a civilised
Lahore Airport. Then a 4.10 a.m. flight to
Dubai, Say good bye to Robin – en route to Gatwick, and then Lewes.
Later, fly over
Rumania. Drink a toast to my Rumanian friend in the form of a Bloody Mary.
Listen to Johnny Cash and Rod Stewart on the magical Emirates ICE system as we head in the direction of
Amsterdam
Down into a sunny
Glasgow on time, and Ken greets us.. Two husbands to take Mrs Forrest home at
Glasgow. The three wives at
Lahore for me were a joke; but the two husbands to look after Mrs. Forrest in
Glasgow are not.
Did we achieve anything? Hard to say: but we certainly tried.
Three things about going to
Pakistan trouble me, and have over the last 15 years.
In increasing order of importance they are:-
i) personal security: of Joan, me, Donald, Kate and those others who have made this journey. It is the easiest to deal with. We and TCS do moderately sensible things and (therefore) are mostly moderately safe.
ii) Logistics: travel, money, teaching materials, locations etc. Hard to cope with sometime. But, with checklists and the CPA (Critical Path Analysis) that constantly ticks in my brain and in those of my pals, we mostly cope.
iii) The interpersonal dimensions. For a wee introspective Hebridean with distinct Asperger tendencies, I find that hard. But rewarding as I work at it.
But the positive. Working with people who are very hard-nosed; and who believe that one way of being hard-nosed is to invest constantly in their own training and that of their colleagues. Sometimes they get that a little wrong. But their broad direction is right.
I have been reading on the way home the observations of my ex-colleague Donald Christie on the Donaldson Report. I wish that more people in Scottish education could learn from TCS in Pakistan; as I have.
Iain Smith
15 June 2011
