Exploring leadership practices in rural context of a developing country

The success or failure of any institution has closely been linked with the leadership practices exercised in the institution. Whereas the number of private schools is rapidly increasing in the rural context of Pakistan, the leadership practices of these institutions are interesting and timely questions to ponder upon. Drawing upon the data of a qualitative case study, this paper discusses the leadership practices in a private school in rural Pakistan. It is found that the school leaders in this context have still traditional approach to leadership with little possibilities of shared or distributed leadership. Since the private schools are owned by the individuals and the teachers are hardly involved in decision making processes, they show less motivation towards school activities and thus, there remains a gap between the expectations of the principal and the performance of the teachers. It is suggested that the leadership of these private institutions should have maximum exposure to updated management and leadership theories and practices if they have to successfully run their schools in this challenging and competitive era

Is it the way to teach language the way we teach language? English language teaching in rural Pakistan

With the growing importance and need of English language in the global context, efforts are being made in the developing context to improve the quality of teaching English with the assumption that teaching of English facilitates the acquisition of English Language. What is Pakistani teachers approach to the teaching of English language and does the way they teach English facilitate the language acquisition? The current study explores this question at secondary level in the context of Chitral, a remote district of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province Pakistan. The researcher visited the randomly selected secondary schools and consulted English teachers interviewing them and observing the teaching and learning processes. The study reveals that in the context of Chitral, teaching of English is not different from teaching of other subjects such as social studies, history etc. Translation method is the dominant way to teach English and learners hardly get any opportunity to practice language skills in the classrooms. The reasons behind this approach to the teaching of English are; lack of purposefully trained teachers, non-availability of in-service courses for secondary level English teachers, memory driven exam system, overcrowded classrooms, teachers’ work load, shortage of resources and lack of ongoing support system. The study suggests that English teachers should be trained separately focusing teaching English as a language unlike other subjects

The informal learning approaches of teachers in a secondary school in Pakistan

The advocates of informal learning believe that learning is not always necessarily planned rather it could also happen informally in the workplace. Does informal learning equally happen in every context and setting? Using a qualitative approach, this study explores the nature of teachers’ informal learning in a secondary school in rural Pakistan. Data were generated through interviews and observations. The study finds that though limited in nature, there are some informal learning activities which the teachers are engaged in. Most of the informal learning happens through observations of the practices of senior colleagues. Moreover, the teachers also learn from the experimentation through implementing externally acquired ideas and strategies in their classroom. Similarly, media has also been a source of informal learning for teachers in this context. The study concludes that the school has to enhance its links with external sources to create internal informal learning opportunities for teachers

The possibilities and challenges of multigrade teaching in rural Pakistan

In rural Pakistan instruction frequently occurs in multigrade settings where, due to lack of teachers and space, two to three teachers teach six classes. Manyteachers lack the knowledge and skills to manage multigrade classes effectively as they have been trained for single-grade teaching. Thisqualitative study was conducted to explore the possibilities and challenges of implementing multigrade course strategies in four project schools. Based on the findings of the study, this paper argues that multigrade courses have positive impact upon the teaching learning practices of schools. However, government has to play a key role in sustaining the implementation and impact of multigrade course strategies

Flexural Behaviour of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Baked Clay Beams

To provide shelter for slum dwellers of Pakistan, Reinforced Baked Clay (RBC) seems to be a possible option to replace Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) whose ingredients, i.e., aggregates and cement are costly in plains of the country. However, shear failure is a major problem observed in RBC beams. In addition, it is difficult to provide shear reinforcement in RBC beams, because it is time consuming and it does not contribute to resist shear stresses. In this study, a technique is presented to overcome problem of shear failure of RBC beams. The RBC beams were partially prestressed by post tensioning up to 60% of yield stress and were tested in three points loading. The results show that the RBC beams (i) exhibited flexural mode of failure without shear reinforcement, (ii) carried as much load as control RCC beam. This implies that by partial prestressing of RBC beams, there could be no need of shear reinforcement. This will result in saving of time and money

Categorization and scaling of distinct gossypol classes with respect to gossypol content in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L).

Gossypols are the pigment glands conferring resistance to insect pests; distributed on the plant body covering the stem, leaf, bract, calyx and carpel walls. The objective of the present study was to quantify the gossypol concentration on the unopened bolls of cotton and to devise a quantitative scaling for categorizing different gossypol classes in different genetic backgrounds through spectrophotometry. There were substantial differences among the P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 generations of the two crosses (HRVO-1 × Acala 63-74 and HRVO-1 × HG-142) for total gossypol and total gossypol (%). The mean total gossypol content in the glandless parent (Acala 63-74) and its F1, in a cross with the normal glanding parent (HRVO-1) was 0.04 mg.g-1 (2%) and 0.140 mg.g-1 (5%) respectively while in the high glanding parent (HG-142) and its F1 produced in a cross with the normal glanding parent it was 1.14 mg.g-1 (46%) and 0.88 mg.g-1 (35%) respectively. The mean total gossypol was estimated as 0.60 mg.g-1 (24%) in the commonly used normal glanding parent. From the data and the analytical procedure used for the quantification of gossypol clearly highlighted the importance of the application of these chemo-metric tools. This method of quantification is accurate and may be used in breeding programs to screen the progeny of cotton genotypes showing segregation for gossypol content.. Keywords: Gossypium hirsutum L; Gossypol glands; Cotton Bolls; Scaling; Quantification; Spectrophotometry

Sarawak state elections 2016: revisiting federalism in Malaysia

The recent state elections in the Eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak in 2016 saw the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, secure a comfortable victory through its component party, the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, led by the late Adenan Satem, who passed away suddenly on 11 January 2017. A key theme of Adenan's election cam-paign was greater autonomy for the state of Sarawak, while he also distanced himself from the troubles of the Najib Razak administration and the federal government. This paper seeks to examine the Sarawak state elections within the context of Malaysia's federalism. We argue that the state elections highlight how a lack of popularity and weakened federal government has allowed states to exercise more leverage in order to gain greater influence and autonomy, strengthening the original federal agreement of 1963 while inadvertently weakening the centre. We argue that Malaysia’s claim to be a federation is largely superficial, as much power constitutionally rests with the federal government at the expense of state autonomy. This is demonstrated through both an examination of federalism as a broad concept and a brief history of centre–state relations in Malaysia. This paper posits that further "bargaining" by states with the federal government during election campaigns may be possible if the centre continues to exhibit political weakness

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN TELECOM INDUSTRY IN SAUDI ARABIA: A CASE STUDY OF PRIVATE SECTOR

The telecom sector of Saudi Arabia holds the largest position in the entire Middle East. After staying dormant until 2000, the telecom sector recorded supernormal growth in the past decade, thanks largely to liberalization of the sector since 2003. Today, the sector is highly competitive, with private players vying for market share by aggressively cutting tariffs—in fact, this has been the trend for five years now.The reason for which Saudi Arabia is so attractive to all the telecom operators is the combination of its population size and wealth. The growing importance of this sector has attracted the attention of the Researchers in the present research paper is to make an empirical study of private sector telecom industry regarding the HRD practices. The case study selected by the Researchers is of Mobily Telecom Company. A survey questionnaire has been constructed and administered among the employees of Mobily at managerial and non-managerial level from the selected districts of regions of Saudi Arabia. The Sample of the study has been undertaken of 85 employees. The study brings out the existing picture of HRD practices in Private Sector Telecom Company and offers suggestions to improve the pace of such practices wherever they need improvement