Preparing for MCAT

What is the MCAT?

The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is a standardized examination for entrance into medical education field. It is designed to assess problem solving, critical thinking, written analysis, and writing skills in addition to knowledge of scientific concepts and principles.

Medical colleges consider MCAT scores as part of their admission process. Almost all US medical schools require applicants to submit MCAT scores. Many schools do not accept MCAT scores that are more than three years old.

MCAT is a five-hour long exam, offered almost 20 times a year in with a prescribed syllabus. Students receive their scores around thirty days after the test. The MCAT can be taken a maximum of three times per year.

The MCAT may be voided on the day of the exam if the exam taker is not satisfied with his performance. The decision to void must be made before leaving the test center and before seeing the exam results.

What Subjects are on the MCAT?

The exam is offered almost 22 times per year. The test may be offered either in the morning or in the afternoon. Some test dates have both morning and afternoon administrations.

The test consists of four sections, listed in the order in which they are administered on the day of the exam:

· Physical Sciences (PS)

· Verbal Reasoning (VR)

· Writing Sample (WS)

· Biological Sciences (BS)

The Verbal Reasoning, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences sections are in multiple-choice format. The Writing sample consists of two short essays that are typed into the computer. The passages and questions are predetermined, and thus do not change in difficulty depending on the performance of the test taker.

The science sections (PS and BS) test analytical and logical cognitive abilities. The Verbal Reasoning section was implemented to test understanding of various subtleties involved in human communication and understanding.

The Physical Sciences section is administered first. It is composed of 52 multiple-choice questions related to general chemistry and physics. Exam takers are allotted 70 minutes to complete this section of the exam.

The Verbal Reasoning section follows the Physical Sciences section and an optional 10 minute break. Exam takers have 60 minutes to answer 40 multiple-choice questions evaluating their comprehension, evaluation, and application of information gathered from written passages. Unlike the Physical and Biological Sciences sections, the Verbal Reasoning section is not supposed to require specific content knowledge in order to perform well.

An optional 10 minute break then follows. The Writing Sample gives examinees 60 minutes to compose responses to two prompts, 30 minutes for each prompt.

After the Writing Samples, there is an optional 10 minute break followed by the Biological Sciences section. Examinees have 70 minutes to answer 52 multiple-choice questions related to organic chemistry and biology.

How is the MCAT scored?

The MCAT is scored for each of the four sections individually. The sections consisting of multiple choice questions are first scored right or wrong resulting in a raw score. The raw score is then converted to a scaled score ranging from 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest).

Each essay is graded on a scale of 1 to 6 points twice. The scores from individual essays are added together and then converted to a letter scale of J, the lowest, through T, the highest.

The conversion of raw scores to scaled scores compensates for small variations in difficulty between sets of questions. The exact conversion of raw to scaled scores is not constant; because different sets of questions are used on different test dates.

Scaled scores on the MCAT can be interpreted as percentile rank ranges based on the performance of all students taking the test during a given administration or in a given year.

Every MCAT includes a small number of questions which will not be scored. These questions are either used to calibrate the exam or were found to be either too ambiguous or too difficult to be counted.

The maximum composite score is 45T but any score over 30P is considered fairly competitive, as this is the average for matriculants to medical school.

There is no penalty for incorrect multiple choice answers, thus even random guessing is preferable to leaving an answer choice blank (unlike many other standardized tests).

Students preparing for the exam are encouraged to try to balance their sub-scores; physical, verbal, and biological scores of 12, 13, and 11 respectively may be looked upon more favorably than 14, 13, and 9, even though both amount to the same composite score.

The standard deviation is 2.0-2.3 depending on the year and form of the exam. For example, if a student received a 10, the mean being an 8 and the standard deviation being 2, then that student tested better than 84% of the students on that section.

How to prepare the MCAT?

There is no one way to prepare for the MCAT yet following points can help if you have taken the requisite science courses, as well as classes in the humanities and social sciences you should be skilled at reading a wide range of material.

Because the depth of knowledge you will be expected to demonstrate is limited, it is usually not advantageous to enroll in advanced science courses for the purpose of improving your performance on the MCAT exam. Well-designed introductory courses in biology, chemistry, and physics with laboratory sessions that feature a variety of experiences should enable you to acquire this knowledge.

You may want to consider science and non-science courses that foster the development of needed problem-solving skills. Other activities such as reading and analyzing science journals or working in a laboratory, where you can be involved in research planning or analysis, can serve as supplemental activities for further skill enhancement.

Rigorous coursework and extracurricular reading expand your vocabulary, develop your reading pace, and increase your familiarity with texts and arguments in various disciplines.

1-Bilogical Science

• Recall of Information: Recall of science concepts and principles may be stimulated by cues in the passages, tables or graphs. Recall of information may be dependent on other skills such as understanding the passage or interpretation of data.
• Comprehension of Text: Since the majority of questions are linked to passages, you should practice analyzing passages. Do not be concerned if you see topics in the passages that you have not studied. Rely on your comprehension skills to understand unfamiliar material in the passages.

· Interpretation of Data: You need facility with interpreting graphs, tables, diagrams and figures in order to answer some questions. Although there is not a separate section for assessment of quantitative skills, you may be required to apply math concepts in interpreting data and solving problems.

· Application of Concepts: You will need to know how and when to apply concepts that you learned and recall from your basic physics, chemistry, biology and math courses as well as those presented in passages to answer some of the questions.

· Evaluation: You will be required to evaluate methods, evidence and conclusions and to assess the consistency of information and validity of arguments presented in the passages.

2-Physical Science

· Information presentation. The passages in Physical Sciences section are presented in the form of textbook or journal articles. The materials assume the appropriate background knowledge but also contain new information or new uses of information. The accompanying questions test your understanding and evaluation of the given information and your ability to use the information in various ways.

· Problem solving. These passages describe problems of general chemistry of physics. The questions require you to determine the probable causes of the situations, events, or phenomena described and to select appropriate methods for solving the problems.

· Research study. These passages document all or part of the rationales, methods, and results of research projects. The questions test your understanding of the projects.

· Persuasive argument. These passages are designed to convince the reader that particular perspectives, methodologies, pieces of evidence, or products are correct. The passages may express single viewpoints or two opposing points of view. The questions test your understanding of the arguments presented in the passages and ask you to evaluate the validity of the arguments.

Other points to remember include:

• An understanding of calculus is not required.
• Make a note of any material that is unfamiliar to you or that you haven't studied recently
• Review the science topics using relevant course materials, including textbooks, course outlines, and notes
• Work through MCAT practice tests and identify topics and skills that need additional review
• If your pace on the practice tests is slow, take advantage of any services your college offers to help improve reading speed and comprehension
• If you have a study partner, each of you can use your strengths to help the other address areas of weakness
• Avoid last-minute "cramming"
• Make sure to get enough sleep, food, and exercise, especially in the days preceding the test

3-Writing Sample

For Writing Sample section keep in mind the following points:

• Develop a central idea
• Synthesize concepts and ideas
• Present ideas cohesively and logically
• Write clearly, follow accepted practices of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, consistent with timed, first-draft composition

Also check these points;

• Does the essay have a clear direction that is established early and that leads logically to a clearly defined conclusion?
• Does the essay have three separate parts corresponding to the three tasks or does it hold together as a whole?
• Are the parts linked?
• Does the paper have a consistent point of view?
• Are generalizations supported?
• Have the standard rules of grammar, syntax, and punctuation been observed?
• Are the sentences and paragraphs typical of a high school writer, or do they reflect the vocabulary and complexity of thinking expected of a collegiate writer?

4-Verbal Reasoning

The Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT is designed to assess test taker’s ability to understand, evaluate, and apply information and arguments presented in prose texts. The test consists of several passages, each 500 to 600 words long, taken from the humanities and social sciences and from areas of the natural sciences. Each passage is accompanied by 5 to 10 multiple-choice questions based on the information presented in the passage.

Participation in a variety of courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences during undergraduate program can enhance your grip on these subjects.

• Read the passage and then read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.
• Skim the passage to find out what it is about and then read it. Read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.
• Skim the passage to find out what it is about. Read the questions to get a sense of what you are going to be asked. Read the passage. Read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.

Fruits of Dictatorship

Where To Lead

Oppressive regimes cannot hold sway over their populace for long. It is in the nature of man to resist oppression, aggression, abuse or misuse of power. Why was it put in man’s nature to resist is a tricky question though it can be answered with the logic of struggle for survival. This logic does away with all kind of complicated philosophical approaches to answering as to why human beings have been so successful in averting the menace of dictatorship. The very basic point of survival puts all the mankind at the same parameters; that of resistance to oppression and struggle for upholding of justice and human rights.

Whether a society is illiterate, politically unorganized, socially backward or economically feeble, history has given us enough examples to prove the point just discussed above. Myanmar (Burma) fits best to this theory. Although cut off from the world through years yet the people of Myanmar have learned to stand together for justice and freedom. Hungary, another example, was put to test by the Russian forces in the 20^th century. Though they lost against the brute forces, they also put a brave resistance. Kashmir, Palestine, Lebanon and many others are just the evidence for the said theory.

Now looking at the troublesome times our country is going through, one cannot but laugh at the degree of naivety shown by country’s top officials. Naming it Emergency, Emergency+ or Mini Martial Law won’t change it from being a Dictatorship. The fact that a single person is holding the whole nation hostage in pursuance of his own goals, that the constitution has been put in abeyance, that a pen stroke of a single person is playing havoc with the 160 million lives, that bankers are running the country as administrators, that military personnel have overwhelmed the bureaucracy, that media has been gagged, that higher judiciary has been virtually guillotined, that lawyers have been tear gassed and baton charged, that human rights activists have been sent to lock-ups, that members of civil society have been met with barbarism, that academics have been barred from spreading awareness about politics, is enough for any person to hear the clear ringing. The claims of the government officials look ridiculous and an insult to the combined mental power of the country’s populace.

It is neither a chance nor a choice through which we have come at this junction. People look at the dictatorship as an alien concept – something thrusted upon them, a practical form of oppression. It is labelled with depriving people of their freedom, happiness, and satisfaction. It creates unrest, disintegration in social institutions, and rifts in the unity of different factions of a society. It has made people think of life not as a matter of right but as a matter of prize awarded by certain members of the society in a whimsical manner. Whereas people relate their inner happiness to their outward freedom as much as water is related to fish, to see this link go dead is the very objective of martial law.

Actually how a dictator acquires power is out of the purview of this writing. But it is interesting to note certain similarities in different instances of martial law. The bringing-up, imposition, maintenance, and profiteering from martial law has almost always been helped by low literacy rate, presence of feudalistic system, instability of social institutions, lack of political awareness, incompetent leadership and military’s strong hold of economy. Saddam Hussain in Iraq, Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf in Pakistan, Castro in Cuba and Gaddafi in Libya are good reference points who manipulated the above said weaknesses. Historically Tartars and Hitler were not too different also but with certain other clichés. Tatars were not socially and culturally advanced people, so, to expect high sociability or modern set of moral standards would stand no ground. Hitler, on the other hand, was a dictator, but with the distinction of somebody who played with the economic systems namely creating Fascism. Italy, Spain and Portugal had their share of misfortunes in facing dictators also.

Whatever other impacts of martial law are, it really affects the progress of the society in all its fields regressively. Five basic institutions of a society - family, religion, education, economy, political – are put under the hammer. Except for family, all other institutions have been disturbed and made instable by the long continual reigns of dictatorships in Pakistan. We are facing religious tensions in the form of sectarian violence. Our literacy rate is not satisfactory. Education has become a business and academics a market from where one can buy degrees rather than obtaining them. Contrary to the government’s claims, public has yet to see the fruits of the economic progress that the state machinery is busy in touting out loud about. Politics has become drawing room politics. Entire ministerial portfolios have been given on preference based upon nepotism and who can help in prolonging the Dark Ages.

This worsening situation has come to the fore for the national and international community to be discussed about. We need not only the way out of this but also steps ensuring no reprisal again ever. The corrective steps may include lifting of emergency, president’s relinquishing of Chief of Army Staff’s post, releasing of political workers, leaders, lawyers, ending the curbs on media, reinstatement of superior judiciary, free and fair elections under foreign observers, cancellations of all rules, laws and orders issued after November 3. While to ensure this does not happen again, steps like these could be taken; constitutional bar on COAS or any other military person to turn the tables, repeal of 17th Amendment in the Constitution, end of military’s role in national politics, real accountability of all governmental officials, procedure of amending the Constitutions be made tough, students union be allowed in higher education institutions of the country for political awareness, and last but not the least economy should be run like the economists and not the bankers.

Remembering A Leader

Rest in peace! Benazir

I had not gone any further than learning my alphabets when I first heard the name of late Ms Benazir Bhutto. The third Dark Age of our history had just ended and the atmosphere was rife with the news of elections. People were to have a sigh of relief after the long spell of dictatorship. There was an air of joy. The simplest but suppressed desires of people were to be given a chance to become reality. There was hope. It was at that time when I first heard her name.

Being different from normal names, it had struck to my heart. I found it quite extraordinary that somebody could be named with such a qualifying word. Benazir, which in Urdu means unmatchable, something or somebody there is no one like, in this essence did prove to be Benazir. Her name was the only thing I remembered for a long time about her. I was too young to understand the intricacies of politics.

Let’s say it an irony of nature that when the nation was yet to see any fruits of democracy in the country, also when my generation was getting old enough to understand the games of power, we were yet again pushed into another Dark Age, fourth as a matter of fact. I was aghast to see the broader picture of politics in the historical perspective in our corner of the world. This was only possible when I had to go through an unlearning process after the learning process of my schooling.

During the course of turning to new millennia and five years further down the road, we as a whole, and my generation, the product of 80’s, in particularly, were put to a propaganda that last democratic leaders were in fact inapt and inefficient. That they alone were responsible for the current situation of the country, its economy and its institutions. That the Gunmen had yet again proved to be the Saviours of the state and people. But fortunately people are not in a mood to buy into this idea. Lawyers’ movement, media’s struggle, civil society’s awakening to its rights, widespread resistance movements and political parties’ raising of their voice over rigging of polls, condemnation of dictatorial regime’s steps by international community, commodities’ crisis faced by the public are enough examples of presenting us with a fair guess where the government is heading towards and what the people want.

It is sad to notice the truth in the old proverb that the good die young. This had been particularly true of the politicians of this Land of the Pure. From our father of nation to Liaqat Ali Khan, to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and now Ms Benazir Bhutto have all been unfortunate in not having enjoyed their natural span of life but were subjected to assassin’s bullet, hangman’s noose or shooting-and-bombing. I have my deepest regard for these leaders as it was they who have shaped the path of the country with their unmitigating efforts and determined approach towards the betterment of the people.

Pakistan had been lucky in a way that it had received three great leaders in a short period of 60 years. Quaid-e-Azam was the first, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the second while Ms Benazir Bhutto was third in this row.

Denial was the first reaction when I heard of her death, disbelief came next. Harsh realty was awaiting the next day when she was buried. Distress, rage and anger were the next wave of emotions which then culminated into large spread violence and looting. Deprived felt the party workers and followers later on.

She had become more than a leader. Her life had become an embodiment of an ideology (that of Quaid-e-Azam’s and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s). She was someone our wretched people looked up to, a symbol for emancipation of women, a herald of democracy, an ambassador of Pakistan’s soft image, a fighter against dictatorship, the unity of federation, a woman of immense intellectual stature, a force in her own. But all ended in smoke when she was removed from the screen of our politics one unlucky day in our history.

She had a very fulfilling life but her life was not free from troubles and tragedies. At an age of 37 she had virtually seen everything of her life. She had studied at the world’s best institutions, was prime minister of her country, had married and had children, been opposition leader, had faced jail and most of all had witnessed her father’s judicial murder. She came through all those situations with conviction and integrity, with courage and perseverance - being clearer in her demand of democracy and her greater role for providing the same to her Gunmen-besieged-people.

“A man can be destroyed, but not defeated,” Surely, when Ernest Hemingway wrote this famous line in his Nobel prize winning novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, Benazir was yet to be borne. But this line fully sums up the life of this brilliant and charismatic politician who in the end gave her life while serving the cause of democracy. Though confronted with unlimited hurdles, she kept her resolve and tread the path of struggle with great courage, bringing hope and joy to the millions of depressed people in this country.

Benazir, the dearest of the leaders, you will be remembered not due to your heydays but due to your hard days, your struggle against tyranny and upholding of justice and ideals of democracy. We, as a united nation, hope that we would be able enough to walk the path that you set for us. You will stay in our hearts and prayers forever. Rest in peace! Benazir

Street Children

The menace of Street Children

1. Overview

The problem of street children is found almost in every part of the world. Street children are homeless, spend day and night on the street, have no one to take care of them, are without shelter, usually do petty jobs to survive, become beggars, or victims of sexual abuse and other social transgressions. They live in abandoned buildings, parks, auto garages, workshops and under the open sky. They are deprived of family care and protection. They cannot assimilate in society and become a liability rather than an asset. Lacking education, they turn into a work force that has no future. Mostly these are teenagers but some are as small as between seven years to twelve years.

2. Causes

There can be found many causes behind this problem. These include;

• Rampant poverty,
• Domestic violence,
• Family breakdown,
• Orphans,
• Armed conflicts,
• Displacement,
• Famine,
• Natural calamities,
• Physical and sexual abuse,
• Exploitation by adults,
• Urbanization and overcrowding,
• Acculturation,
• Diseases and others.

Due to these causes children become subject of neglect, abuse, exploitation, and sometimes even murder. They move to big cities in order to find work for their survival. They feel frightened and helpless. They cannot even save themselves from weather cruelties and have no access to medicine when they fall ill. Having no qualification, education or necessary skills to adjust in the society, they become disconnected and end up on streets.

3. Categories

Street children can mainly be found in two categories. One that becomes the bully type or the ones who learn to survive through means considered illegal in civilized society. They end up doing criminal or unethical activities. Their activities may vary from picking pockets to vandalism, from theft to dacoity, from rape to murder, from dealing in drugs to child trafficking. They become protégé of gangsters, face police torture and sometimes become violent to strangers.

It all begins with the basic instinct of survival. A street child will do anything to survive. He would be first afraid of doing anything illegal but would do it when he is hard pressed to do so. As illiterate and without professional training, they face difficulty in finding proper jobs. Also public has overwhelmingly negative views about them. The public views them with suspicion and fear while many would like them to disappear. Street children fall prey to illegal activities, sometimes in reaction to the above mentioned discretionary attitude towards them and sometimes in order to sustain themselves.

Many of this type of street children become juvenile offenders and find a place in overcrowded prisons. There they have every chance of becoming hardened criminals. They even subject their fellow street children to do their biding. Some become members of street gangs, drugs mafia and child trafficking rackets. They form their own pressure groups. These are exploited and manipulated by the more powerful people like private business proprietors, civilians, law enforcement personnel and security agencies.

The second category of street children includes those who have become victim of their fellows and other man made problems. They lack the tactics, will power or physical endurance to keep abreast with the demand of their tough life. These are the ones most vulnerable to social evils like physical and sexual abuse, torture, exploitation, child trafficking, begging and drugs among others. Girls and minor boys may be subjected to prostitution or other sexual activities by force, coercion or fraud.

4. Child trafficking, an example

Child trafficking is one particular example of the horrors faced by these children. The victims of child trafficking are mostly from second category of street children. They are recruited, transported, harboured and received for different exploitative purposes. Trafficking may include such pervasive purposes as forced labour, servitude, slavery and removal of organs, or it may include such illicit activities as prostitution, sexual exploitation, early marriages, child soldiers and begging. United Nations and other NGOs are working continuously in countering this practice. Many governments have also made laws to prevent this practice.

In developing countries they form a source of cheap labour. House-maids, workshop boys, hotel servants, couriers, delivery boys, baby sitters and even servants can be seen to form a pool of cheap labour.

A particular such case is that of South Asian children being trafficked to Middle East as camel jockeys. These children are kept in unhealthy congested places with no or limited access to basic amenities of life. They are then blindfolded and made to ride a camel in races. Their food and other wages are tied with their performance in the races. If a child does not perform well, he may be tortured or kept without food for days.

5. Major problems street children face

Major problems faced by these children are;

• Hunger,
• Diseases,
• Loneliness,
• Delinquency,
• Uncleanliness,
• Prostitution,
• Violence,
• Slavery,
• Child trafficking, and
• Abuse

These are the problems mostly faced by the street children but to eliminate these problems effectively we have to solve some more important problems first. These include;

• Illiteracy,
• Professional training,
• Help in setting up their future,
• Sense of alienation, and
• Absence of love

6. Some work done

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the basic framework to protect street children. Though most governments have ratified the above said treaty, they have failed to protect these children. Governments find no economic leverage in their welfare. Also these children have no right of vote and no share in governance. So the governments pay little heed to them. Mostly, when governments do tend to find a solution, they put these children in orphanages, juvenile homes or correction centres. Sometimes, governments work in collaboration with NGOs on many programmes aimed at welfare of these children.

7. Suggestions

The problem of street children can be handled properly if we could develop a multi-pronged strategy that works for the welfare and ease of both the society and the child.

This may involve;

• Advocacy of the cause of street children,
• Community support and education,
• Residential rehabilitation programmes,
• Full-care residential homes, and
• Other such programmes.

Some NGOs have successfully applied the following strategies;

• Special targeted feeding programmes providing these children with food supplements,
• Providing free medical services to these children,
• Legal assistance in claiming their rights and standing on their own feet,
• Education in an environment which helps them to learn rather than forcing them to avoid schools,
• Family re-unification where possible,
• Night shelter centres and drop-in centres for them,
• Psychological and moral support providing better integration into mainstream population,
• Changing attitude of street children towards their circumstances making more self aware and self-relying

8. Appeal to public

Children are the future of any nation. They form the necessary part of the chain to further growth and prosperity. They provide a chance to enhance experience and better human development. It is imperative for us to work together in getting rid of this menace from the faced of the earth. So, come forward and help bring and end to this stigma of street children. Together we can help these wretched children from slavery, forced labour, cruelties of nature, sexual exploitation, abuse and torture, sense of alienation and other social evils.

Primary Education

Improving primary education in Pakistan

1. Introduction

Primary education has always been an important concern for society and the government. Primary education is viewed as a service that must be provided to the populace, irrespective of affordability, and it is generally considered to be the responsibility of the state to deliver primary education. The public sector provision of primary education, like most other services delivered by the public sector, suffers from severe deficiencies in coverage, finance and outreach.

NGOs are playing a particular role in the field of primary education. Many NGOs provide primary education directly in areas neglected by both the public and for-profit private sectors. They also provide support to the public and private sectors in various areas such as teacher training, curriculum development and informal education. Some of these interventions have the potential to alter the landscape of primary education provision.

2. Importance of primary education

By primary education only the first five years or grades of education is meant, where the age of the child is between 5 to 9 years. In some countries there is a public examination at the end of the fifth grade when a completion certificate gives entry to higher level schools as well as an independent confirmation of the literacy of the child. The societies have focused on developing a network for primary education, on achieving hundred percent literacy for their populations, and on ensuring that a significant number of their populace goes beyond the primary level.

Broadly speaking, the reasons fall into two categories:

2.1 The right to primary education: Access to primary education is taken to be a basic right of every citizen. All citizens need to be literate to function productively. Almost all countries hold the welfare of their citizens as the prime objective for their existence. The citizen is taken to be the end for which the state functions. If citizens are to be treated as an end, their needs and prerequisites for a good life become part of the package of basic rights that are the foundation of a state or society.

2.2 Functional arguments for primary education: Other arguments from functional point of view may include: Human capital generates a significant percentage of growth in societies. Investments in human capital, in terms of education and skill acquisition increase the efficiency of production immediately. Provision of education and skills has positive externalities for the rest of society. Educated persons not only contribute to society by generating more income for themselves and their family, they also contribute to society by increasing the income of all. They provide higher levels of efficiency; increase innovation; and attract more investments in the productive sectors. This makes the case for free, universal primary education on functional terms. There are other public benefits to the spread of education, and especially of education for females. Education is one of the most powerful tools for poverty alleviation. It provides citizens with the ability to enter the productive sectors of society.

Education also has significant externalities for the political process and the social setup of the country. Pakistan has serious issues related to bonded labor, child labor, and forced labor in rural areas. Education can help to fight some of these societal evils. Education also has strong connections with other social indicators. Female education can improve population control, lower fertility, better health of children and mothers, better educational outcomes for children and improved habitat conditions.

3. Target population

The target population for these programs includes children in under-privileged areas, backward areas, far-flung areas and street children of Pakistan. These children lack any opportunity to have primary education. They cannot afford nor have any access to primary education due to many factors. These factors may include, among many others, poverty, no access to schools, no proper facilities, absence of infrastructure, difficulty in reaching out, scattered population, high education costs, high dropout rates, religious conservatism and lower value given to education by certain sections of society.

4. Programs

Many programs can be run to make sure that these segments of the society are not left behind in the race of progress. It is to be made sure that they too play their vital role in improving the condition of social indicators. Although numerous steps can be taken to achieve this purpose, following steps can prove helpful specifically;

1. Adopt a school: Through this initiative, a school can be adopted by a person or a group of persons, even more than one school can be adopted by one person. This program is a good opportunity for the expatriates and international philanthropists to help Pakistani children gain education. As the cost of education is lower in Pakistan as compared to many other nations, it is easy to help these children get their dreams.

2. Informal schools: Informal schools can prove to be very useful in far-flung and backward areas. These schools don’t have formal structure of education or a prescribed syllabus. They also have no set faculty. They can be adapted to meet the requirements of the community in anyway possible. They can also be timed to work for the ease of their students.

3. Parent Teacher Associations: Creation of Parent Teacher Associations will also help meet the objective of enhancing education at primary level.

4. Donations: Donations to libraries and other facilities at schools will help attract new students.

5. Incentives to teachers: Incentives to teachers will increase the chances of making this objective successfully achieved. They will also improve their working in order to show results and gain these incentives.

6. Proper facilities at schools: Proper facilities like classrooms, fans, boards, water, washrooms at school are must if improvement in the situation is sought after.

7. Improvement in infrastructure: Infrastructure like furniture, laboratories, playgrounds and staff rooms with adequate facilities to conduct daily business is also imperative.

8. Incentives to parents and students: Various incentives like mid-day meals, stipend to girl students, and compensation payment to the parents of the children will also contribute to the program.

9. Community participation: Participation of community is a must for the success of such programs. Community can participate in many ways like Parent Teacher Associations, arranging facilities to run non-formal schools, finding school faculty, by donations and in many other ways the community can also play its role as an umbrella to the individual in fulfilling his basic needs.

10. Education in easy reach: Making education in easy reach of a community can also prove vital for the success of such programs.

5. Objectives

Objectives to be achieved through these programs include;

· Increase in literacy rate

· Community involvement

· Human resource development

· Participation of girls in society building

· Resource pool development for future

· Better awareness

· Future better equipped workforce

· Proper management

6. Appeal to the public

Pakistan has a huge population. Literacy rate is not good enough. But this bleak picture can be turned into a beautiful scene with the help of donations, aid, and assistance. As Pakistan’s currency is weaker in comparison to US dollar, just one dollar could mean a student’s monthly school fee is paid, or the student can buy enough stationary to last a month. It is with this help that the dreams of thousands of children can become true and an entire generation can be saved from the horrors of illiteracy. They can become an asset for the country and for the humanity overall.