Educators advocate for teaching license in Pakistan

 By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The participants at a policy dialogue organized by the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development advocated for a teaching license can help certify that a teacher has the skills and knowledge needed for effective classroom practice.

The dialogue aimed to raise awareness, gather evidence and make technical recommendations on the possibility of introducing a teaching license in Pakistan. Such a certification can serve to enhance teaching quality and, subsequently, students’ learning. 

A teaching license can also raise the professional status of teachers and open new employment opportunities for them locally as well as abroad. 

One of the keynote speakers, Dr Linda Darling-Hammond, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, drew upon the history of the medical profession to highlight the long struggle that it underwent before it arrived at its current state. Likewise, she felt that teacher education would undergo the same struggle. 

“Licensure will benefit teachers as well as teacher education institutions to improve quality. Teacher licensing is desirable in Pakistan to improve teaching standards. However, we need to be mindful of the political economy of teaching licenses. The schools of education at universities need to make concerted effort in this regard,” Dr Irfan Muzaffar, technical director at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Support Programme, the other keynote speaker at the dialogue, reckoned. 

The dismal learning outcomes of Pakistani students are visible in the assessments conducted by many local and global agencies. The government’s NEAS, National Education Assessment System, the citizen-led ASER Annual Status of Education Report and the international TIMSS, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study show how weak students’ learning outcomes really are in Pakistan. 

The experts felt that students will benefit more from better teachers who have undergone relevant and credible professional development. “A good teacher is like a good doctor. A bad doctor despite having access to a well-equipped clinic and medicines cannot treat a patient adequately. Similarly, a bad teacher despite having an excellent curriculum or assessment system cannot transform students into successful learners,” Dr Sajid Ali, an associate professor and director of research and publications at IED, pointed out. 

The deliberations at the event led to participants recommending the introduction of teaching licenses, which can enhance the government’s efforts to improve the standards of teaching and overall teacher management system. They also touched upon various technical, political and economic questions that need to be resolved as efforts progress towards a licensing policy. 

The dialogue team aims to produce a White Paper on teacher licensing, from the proceedings, that will contain the literature review, the outcomes of dialogue, findings of survey and policy recommendations for introducing teaching license in Pakistan. It will also contain the key pressure points and their possible resolution. The White Paper will be useful for legislators to move forward towards teaching license policy. It will also serve as a resource for a continuing dialogue amongst educationists, policy makers, educational managers, legislators, parents, schools, teachers and other stakeholders from across Pakistan to assess its feasibility in Pakistan. 

In the past, various efforts have been made to introduce teacher licensing under the banner of various education development projects. This White Paper effort is spearheaded by AKU-IED without any project support and is based on a systematic process that includes a thorough situation analysis, global comparisons and national consultations. The dialogue was preceded by a series of seminars with international speakers and will continue post-event to determine the feasibility and next steps for teacher licensing in Pakistan.

NLA officials visit Junadagh Library & Resource Centre

 By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

A delegation of the National Library Association (NLA) visited the Junadagh Library & Resource Centre, located near National Stadium in Karachi, which is set to be formally inaugurated with fanfare early next month. It’s a project of the Junagadh State Muslim Federation (JSMF). 

The NLA contingent comprising of its President, Syed Muzaffar Ali Shah, Advisor, Syed Khalid Mahmood, Joint Secretary, Hira Yaseen, Information Secretary, Younis Hashmi and its members Abu Bakr Ghori and Syeda Najma Sultana held a meeting with the JSMF Secretary, Abdul Aziz Arab, on November 20 in which matters of mutual interest came up for discussion. 

The NLA officials assured the support of the Association to the JSMF in their endevours of setting up the Junadagh Library & Resource Centre at their premises which was ready for inauguration on December 4 in an impressive ceremony in which the Sindh Education Minister is expected to be the chief guest. 

The NLA office-bearers agreed to join hands with the JSMF in arranging for the donation of books for the Junadagh Library & Resource Centre which is planned to be open for public from 10 am to 8 pm on daily basis, in order to facilitate the area people in particular. 

The JSMF Secretary, who briefed the delegation about the various projects being undertaken by the Federation in the larger interest of people, also desired technical support from the NLA in the management of the Junadagh Library & Resource Centre. 

Meanwhile over 2,000 books, shelved in three big cupboards, besides more than a dozen desktop computers with LCDs have already been procured for the project.

Theatres, streaming may co-exist in future: Hajra Arbab

 By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Movies remain a massive value creator. Global box office revenues were reported to have totaled $42 billion in 2019, an all-time high, contributing almost one-third of the estimated $136 billion in the value of worldwide movie production and distribution. Hollywood supports more than two million jobs and 400,000 American businesses; British film and TV are worth around £60 million each day to the UK economy. 

The coronavirus pandemic has upended the content pipeline, halting film production and closing cinemas. Film production has restarted in some countries and the industry has adopted remote-work protocols where possible. But the virus creates uncertainty, and the biggest short-term risk seems to be consumers’ dwindling confidence in physical venues. 

Bibi Hajra Arbab, currently working at one of the largest media companies of the world, has completed her masters from San Francisco State University and then moved to Los Angeles. She has worked at various media production and distribution companies over there and the list includes IMAX Corporation, Lionsgate Entertainment, STX Entertainment, and The Walt Disney Company. For a short time, she was also associated Paramount Pictures and NBC Universal. In a recent interview with PNFS, she shared her views and thoughts about current issues of the industry. Excerpts: 

Q: How much did the COVID-19 impact the movie industry? 

A: The industry is on the cusp of the biggest shift in the history of Hollywood. The movie production was indeed hit hard by COVID-19. Theaters and movie sets were shut down for months, causing the US box office to lose $5 billion in 2020. Only 338 movies were released in theaters in 2020, a 66% decline from 2019. 

The number of movies that began production in 2020 declined significantly, taking a 45% drop to 447. The delay in the current slate of movies also puts future movies up in the air. Many studios are focused on managing the logistics of their movies that are currently in production or pre-production instead of actively hunting for new films. That could lead to a sparse pipeline in coming years.  

Q: Is Hollywood completely looking into the streaming model? 

A: With theatres closed all over the world, many movies moved to streaming. Universal Pictures made a deal with one of the theater chains to shrink the time its movies play exclusively in theaters from 90 days to 17. Warner Brothers started releasing its new movies on HBO Max the same day they go into theaters, a move that will extend through at least the end of 2021. 

Disney followed a similar model by releasing some new movies on streaming for an additional cost, and others included in the basic subscription price. 

Q: Will theatres survive in future? 

A: The customers indeed love having access to new releases from the comfort of their homes. One studio released its latest movie in theaters and for premier customers and made more than $20 million on each channel in the first weekend alone which means that this model is working for them. 

Theatres and streaming are battling for customers but many experts believe the two can co-exist. Although movies will likely be released simultaneously or much closer together on streaming and in theaters than they have in the past, watching a movie at home versus watching it in a theater offer wildly different experiences. There are pros and cons to both, but customers will likely continue to want to watch new releases both in the luxury of a theater and in the comfort of their own home. 

Q: How people make their movies and how they expect the movies to be seen? 

A: The flip side is the majority of movies, whether we like it or not, are being consumed at home and it’s not realistic to assume that we’re not going to change, that this part of the business isn’t going to change, like all parts of the business are going to change. 

Q: How do you see future of the film business? 

A: Going forward, what movies look like and how they are consumed could be very different. Larger studios tend to have the resources to fund and market their movies and can take bigger financial risks but independent studios and filmmakers now have the added struggle of finding more funding. At least for the next few years, there will likely be fewer independent films. In the future, more movie studios will expand their animated offerings. 

Q: What kinds of movies seem more likely to succeed in future? 

A: Animated movies for families and adults tend to be easier to produce virtually with animators working from different locations, reducing the need for safety measures. First, the business model is moving from third-party distribution and single-ticket sales towards owned distribution and recurring revenue. This is seen by investments in SVOD services, where a single movie or TV series is rarely a profit driver; rather, recurring subscriptions (and, in some cases, advertising revenue) produce value. 

As a result, media companies no longer optimize releases for fixed schedules, primetime TV slots or popular holiday weekends. Instead, the goal is increased engagement, thereby improving user retention and data on content popularity. The corollary is an expansion of demand for proprietary content. We still have to see how things unfold but one thing I can say for sure that the demand in content is higher than usual, which is a good sign for the Pakistani content creators as well.

VRW film series launched

 By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

As part of preparations for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, a film series Voices from the Roof of the World (VRW) has been launched on TV and online. 

A joint initiative by the Aga Khan Development Network agencies, Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Aga Khan Foundation and University of Central Asia, the 10-episode first season has been produced by filmmakers from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and India. 

The series focuses on the climate crisis in the earth’s highest mountain region from the Pamirs to the Himalayan Mountains. Home to 240 million people and countless rare and endangered species, these mountains are also the largest depository of ice outside the polar ice caps, providing water to a quarter of the world's population.

“With VRW support and tutelage, these filmmakers have captured poignant personal stories of people and cultures threatened by both deluges and desiccation of their environment. They have ventured downstream to document how the melting of the Himalayan glaciers will affect 1.5 billion people living in the threatened fishing and farming communities of South and Central Asia. Others will show how deforestation, air pollution and killer heat waves will make the world’s most densely packed cities unlivable,” Andrew Tkach, Executive Producer of the series, observed. 

The UN scientists have announced that current greenhouse gas emissions will lead to an increase of 2.7 degree centigrade in this century, not the target of 1.5 degrees that delegates gathering in Glasgow will be trying so hard to achieve. 

“There are many culprits to share the blame for the predicament humanity finds itself in, but with every target we miss to control CO2 emissions, we are squarely painting a target on our own back. It is time to show that even in a world beset by intractable conflicts it is possible to work across borders and social strata to save our common home. People living in some of the world’s most extreme conditions are fighting this battle every day, it is time we listen and learn from them,” Tkach stressed. 

The first episode, Bears on the Brink, produced by Pakistani filmmaker Abdullah Khan, features the impact of climate change and drought on the endangered Himalayan brown bears and golden marmots found in the Deosai National Park in Gilgit Baltistan, the impact on local communities in the buffer zone, human-wildlife conflict and eco-tourism. 

“I chose to take part in the series because I had been covering a lot of stories related to climate change and its impacts in Pakistan, but I observed that there weren't any films being made on climate change and its impact on people's mental health,” Haya Fatima Iqbal, a filmmaker, added. 

The VRW series, which will run for at least two seasons, seeks to amplify the voices of those who have borne the greatest burden of climate change.