Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Importance of English Language (Essay)

A language is tool by using that a person can be able to communicate his feelings to another person. So for the purpose of communication a language is necessary. The position which a language occupies in other countries is largely determined by the cultural, political, economic position of its implanters and their quality of civilization and advancement made by them in the field of science and technology.

The English language is an important language of the world it is the mother tongue of two advanced countries of the world America and Great Britain. It is being spoken by half of the population of the world at present. Now it has gained the status of international language. It has become lingua France of the people of the world. It is no longer the exclusive possession of English race. Now it is the language of international communication but English is practically a language of administration, science, literature and diplomacy. English possesses a rich vocabulary, variety of expression and rich literature and culture. William Shakespeare’s dramas are compendium of wisdom and knowledge. English helps us to understand and appreciate master minds not only of English but those of the other languages like Zola, Brlzrc, Tolstoy, Cervence, Bores Pastemack, Goete, Maxum Gorky, Dante, Aristotle, Scorates and such others.

English language has universal use and appeals as a language of science and technology. Developing and poor countries can not afford to conduct independent research all the important fields of science such as agriculture, industry health and communications etc. These countries have a miserable low stage and standard of finance and scientist. They borrow largely from English, because it is source in all these fields. The rich English speaking nations conduct costly researches and poor nations easily borrow from them. Moreover fast developing science and technology in the field of space, computers etc go on coming and introducing new words which only English can absorb. In the medium of international communication, direct use of English by the most countries of the world has made it an effective medium of global intercommunication it enables us to make ourselves understandable to the world community and to establish direct association with the changes and developments taking place in the world around us at a rapid pace with any independence on translation apparatus.

English language is a living stream of world knowledge. Hence we can not cut ourselves of this body of word knowledge by giving up the study of English we run the risk of knocking the bottom off our higher education for which we mainly draw upon its resource and hospitality. In case we lose contact with it, our standard of scholarship is surely to suffer badly.

To sum up I can say that English is essential for we people. We may develop ourselves financially, politically, economically and socially through English language. Our development in the field of science and technology will be possible if we learnt to speak, read and write English language. To keep the wheels of our progress going to keep ourselves in touch with the best and latest of the present world we should continue studying this language.

Psychology Essays - Psychoanalysis

Discussing the evolution of psychoanalysis and how it has formed the basis of behaviour and approaches to traditional psychodynamic, psychotherapeutic and contemporary counselling. Discussing counselling and psychotherapy now and in the future.
McLeod (1998) suggested in order to understand the development of contemporary counselling, and to distinguish the significance of the current patterns of the way counselling is practice within the Western culture now, it is important to examine how counselling has evolved over the past 200 years and how it has helped mould modern civilisation in today’s fast paced world. This essay will be discussing the theories of psychoanalysis and examining how they have informed ideas on the origin of behaviour and approaches from Freud’s psychoanalysis to traditional psychodynamic, psychotherapeutic, person-centred and humanistic approaches also comparing both these approaches. After this, Gestalt therapy and Transactional Analysis will then be discussed and then a summary will be done to summarize the study up until this point, highlighting the core points of each approach. Before the second half of the essay the author thought it was worth mentioning briefly Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, especially upcoming trends in CBT in the United Kingdom as this will be affecting counselling in the near future. Then for the second half of the study it will be narrowing in on four approaches that greatly contributed to Counselling and Psychotherapy, which are Individual differences, developmental, humanistic and behavioural counselling. Then finally, the study will conclude with looking at Counselling and Psychotherapy today, alternative modes of the delivery of contemporary counselling, and then to end the study will look at a new era in counselling for the future.

Psychoanalysis

Many counsellors can trace their history back to the work of Sigmund Freud in the 1880’s who was trained as a neurologist, Freud started a private practice in 1886 and by 1896 had developed a method of working with hysterical patients which he called 'psychoanalysis' Freud (1949). According to Mytton and Dryden (2004) Freud’s work has been highly influential in such notions as the unconscious defence mechanisms, Freudian slips and dream symbolism. However, Gross (2001) suggest his theories remain widely disputed, Freud's theories and research methods were controversial during his life and still are so today but few dispute his huge impact on psychologists and the academically inclined. Holt (1989) suggest Freud’s life portrayed that he was only human, some might have said that he was sometimes mean, untruthful and unjust, but he did not expect to be treated any different to anyone else.

Freud theories 3 – paradigms shift – trauma, drive and ego

According to Garfield (1981) Freud’s theories provided the first true paradigmatic revolution in psychological thought out of which psychoanalysis emerged. He further suggested that Freud’s contribution to psychology could be divided into three theoretical milestones or paradigms in his thinking. Evolving from behaviourism was Kuhn (1970) ‘paradigm shift’ which was useful in identifying revolutions in psychological theorising Kuhn claims that most paradigms are heralded in by some great new discovery or new way of thinking. Freud’s three important discoveries and paradigm shifts was the trauma, the drive, and the ego paradigm.
Freud - Trauma – hypnosis – hysteria – sexuality in childhood - Oedipus complex - ego, super ego and id - talking cure.
Freud (cited in Jacobs 1998) suggests the trauma paradigm was using hypnosis and particularly trying to understand the mysterious illness of the time hysteria. In particular, Freud and his colleagues suggested that all inner conflicts or neuroses had been caused by the trauma of childhood sexual seduction, overwhelming the person’s moral standards, as most of their cases of hysteria suggested this. Leahey (1980) suggest in his later work; Freud proposed that the psyche could be divided into three parts: Ego, super-ego, and id. This was where he developed it as an alternative to his previous detailed schema (conscious, unconscious and pre-conscious). Freud (cited in Jacobs 1998) popularized the "talking-cure" an idea that a person could solve problems simply by talking over them, which was something unheard of in the 19th century. Freud (cited in Gunn 1988) suggested the Oedipus complex is that at an early stage every little boy (a similar but less convincing story is applied to girls) will go through a time when he desires his mother sexually and wants to get rid of his father who he sees as a threat. Resolving this particular problem by identifying with the father is an important milestone in a boy’s development.
Freud – free association – dream symbols
Freud (1949) development of the method of free association based on the approach of working between the cracks of the patient’s defences and on his conviction that the unconscious is lawful and will necessarily have to leave hints as to its organisation if one only knew how to watch for them. The concept was that the repressed traumatic material would reveal itself in some disguised form as in the patient’s unguarded flow of consciousness during free association. According to Herman (1987) a time came when Freud began to doubt that all of these experiences of sexual trauma could have been physical as it seemed more likely that at least some of them were fantasies. With this thought, the trauma paradigm collapsed, and Freud was left to find a way of resolving all the gains he had made with his data. Freud (1949) further suggested if children were capable of having fantasies about sexual assault they must have sexual feelings or drives and thus sexual wishes. Another major arm of the development of the drive paradigm was Freud’s theory of the meaning of dreams, that dreams were indeed the disguised fulfilment of unconscious wishesand these he believed contained many of those repressed childhood sexual wishes. However, he believed one had to look beneath the manifest content of dreams to the concealed content and importantly psychoanalysis key method he pioneered was that the dreamer must have free associate to the dream symbols.
Freud (cited in Gross 2001) now began to regard slips of the tongue, jokes, and all forms of wit, mistakes and forgetting as hidden forms of repressed sexual and later aggressive wishes. He outlined the stages of psychosexual development and claimed they were not essential to the paradigm. However, according to Leahey (1980) the theory of the Oedipus complex was an essential part of the drive paradigm, as do many contemporary psychoanalysts. Freud (cited in Gross 2001) regarded resistance and transference as obstacles to the real work of therapy. However now he came to see that transference while a form of resistance in one sense was also in fact the means by which the client could little by little re-enact and remember past-repressed events and emotions within the safety of the therapeutic relationship. According to Freud (1964) Psychoanalysis now had three main aims, pointing out gaps and inconsistencies in the patient’s narrative that the patient is not aware of, serving as an object for the transference. Finally, Freud (1964) proposed interpreting the patient’s behaviour, symptoms, dreams and associations became clear to him that simply remembering traumatic episodes would not necessarily be enough to cure symptoms rather, all of the development and processes that flowed from that original traumatising event needed to be worked through gradually encouraging Freud to continued to researching his theories in psychoanalysis with much enthusiasm (Blocher 2000). Cushman (1992) suggests that early psychoanalysis then evolved from an informal to a more formal and highly analytical type of psychotherapy and Blocher (2000) suggests these main psychoanalytic concepts play a highly significant role in the growth of psychotherapy today.

Psychodynamic

According to Blocher (2000) Wilhelm Stekel, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Wilhelm Reich and Otto Rank were all close collaborators of Freud's approach but they were also known for their attention on the dynamics of the relationships between different parts of the psyche and the external world hence the birth of 'psychodynamics'. According to Jacops (1998) from the psychological perspective, psychodynamics denoted a dynamic psychology which is the study of the interrelationship of different regions of the mind, personality, or psyche as they connect to mental, emotional, or motivational forces especially at the unconscious level. Another definition was taken from Felltham (1997) who suggested psychodynamics was based on the first law of thermodynamics, which suggest that the total amount of matter and energy in any system under study, which undergoes any transformation, is retained. Converting this physical law into a psychological concept, the founders of psychodynamics predicted that experiences especially early childhood experiences in theory, were retained in the unconscious. Otherwise, conserved experiences later in life must either remain buried in the mind or find a way to re-surface in the conscious mind resulting in psychological states such as neurosis and psychosis. Later, Jung, Adler, and Klein (cited in Gross 2001) developed the theory of psychodynamics further. Garfield (1981) suggested theories with psychodynamic origins were dominant into the 1950’s and these theories such as theories focused on the patient’s past, especially childhood experiences as an important source of present symptoms and problem they were experiencing eventually were defined as traditional psychotherapy.

Person Centred

Adler (1938) (cited in Mytton and Dryden 2004) developed the concept of the inferiority complex, and the individual’s attempts to compensate or overcompensate for it, he also developed theories for family therapy in America. Kramer (1995) suggests Rank (1924) proposed theories in anxiety of birth trauma separation, which was influential in social work. When the US psychologist Rogers (1936) supported Rank and Adler’s theories this was first called 'client-centred' approach and then re-named 'person-centred' approach, which became a more popular accessible approach compared to Freud’s psychoanalytical approach in 1940 (Rice and Greenberg 1992). Rogers (1978) encouraged patient-counsellor relationships, in that the patient held the key to their own success, not the counsellor. This in itself was a remarkable breakthrough in the person-cantered approach as in the past doctors for example was more of an authority figures and their clients or patients expected them to tell them what to do, it was not an option to discuss their issues as with Rogers in his field of counselling.
Rogers (1961) approached focused on the experience of the individual, he did not adopt, elaborate nor did he neglect the internal world of the individual in the way of early behaviourists.

Humanistic

The humanistic movement emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviourism and psychoanalysis. Humanistic psychology is only concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory Thorne (1992). According to Mytton & Dryden (2004) in the mid 1950s there were two schools of thought in psychoanalysis and behaviourism, whereby both approaches were that behaviour was determined by either the drives of the unconscious or by events in the environment. Goldfarb (1999) the late 1950s and 1960s was a time of social change as dissatisfaction was shown towards psychoanalysis and behaviourism. These schools were critized for excluding human existence like the conscious self, the capacity for personal growth, and people’s ability to choose.
Aanstoos (2003) The humanistic approach has its roots in existentialist thought also known as existential phenomenology ‘why am I here?’, to question the meaning of being, what is the meaning of life, encourages freedom, choice and responsibility which humans have the right of. Hersh (1980) Phenomenology questions reality primarily from direct experiences using the five senses with recent talks of adding a sixth which is intuition, it may sometimes be understood within the concept of the three different forces of psychology; behaviourism, psychoanalysis and humanism, this school was later called the science of behaviour. Hanley and Abell (2002) suggest Maslow later gave behaviourism the name "the first force". The "second force" came out of Freud's research of psychoanalysis, and the psychologies of Adler, Erikson, Jung, Fromm, Horney, Rank, Klein, Sullivan, (cited in Gross 2001) and colleagues.
These theorists focused on the depth of the human psyche which they suggest must be combined with those of the conscious mind in order to produce a healthy human personality. The major theorists considered to have prepared the ground for Humanistic Psychology are Maslow, Rogers and May (cited in Hough 1998). The work of Reich 1954 (cited in McLeod 1998), who postulated an essentially healthy core self in contrast to Freud, whom was an early influence, especially his "Character Analysis" (1933) cited in Freud (1949). Humanistic psychology includes several approaches to counselling and therapy. Among the earliest approaches was Maslow developmental theory, emphasising a hierarchy of needs and motivations, May, the existential psychology of acknowledging human choice and the tragic aspects of human existence and Rogers, person-centred of which is centred around the clients' capacity for self-direction and understanding of his or her own development Clay, 2002 (cited in Richards 2003).

Psychodynamic and humanistic

Palmer, Dainow and Milner (2004) suggest the person-centred approach in counselling evolved from the work of Rogers (1961) which portrays a humanistic approach. Psychodynamic counselling came out of the work of Freud’s psychoanalysis movement, which in its own right has played a significant role in counselling today. Both person-centred and psychodynamic counselling is widely practised in Britain today.
A survey in 1993 of the British association for counselling suggest that 60% of their members use some aspect of psychodynamic in their counselling practice and 57% practice their counselling using the person-centred approach. According to McLeod (1998) The similarities of the psychodynamic and humanistic theories are they both are exploratory they are both person-centred they both emphasize the importance of the counsellor-client relationship of being comfortable which other. Person-centred and psychodynamic counsellors form a relationship with the client, considering their environment and the both are broad-based approaches, which include practitioners with different opinion under the same umbrella. McLeod (1998) the differences on the other hand, especially from Freudian concepts are a lot more than the similarities. The Person-centred approach concentrates on the conscious processes, unlike the psychodynamic approach, which is focused on the unconscious processes; the person-centred do not emphasize dreams, unlike the psychodynamic. The person centred therapist may divulge information about themselves, to make the client more comfortable, but the psychodynamic stance on this is no self-disclosure.
Motschnig-Pitrik (2005) suggest the person-centred therapist is warm, focuses on expressing feelings and sees people as fundamentally good, unlike the psychodynamic therapist whom would keep at a professional distance, focus on underlying anxiety, in order to understand the clients feelings and see people as hostile or self-destructive. The person-centred stance is that they focus on the past, present and future and the psychodynamic links the past and the future, not sees it for what it is. Mearns and Thorne (1988) suggests that the person-centred therapist allows the client to make their own interpretations, determine what is talked about, it’s a mutual negotiation, have flexibility with time and boundaries, adapts to cultural diversity, promotes personal growth and limited theoretical literature. Palmer and Varma (1997) the psychodynamic approach makes interpretations for the client, may see reluctance as resistance from the client, looks for what is hidden, makes assessment, time boundaries are fixed, less flexibility to cultural diversity, promotes self-understanding and vast theoretical literature unlike the person centred approach.
Rogers (1961) Person-Cantered Therapy (PCT), also known as Client-Cantered therapy, was developed by the humanist psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s. He referred to it as counselling rather than psychotherapy. basic elements of Rogers' new way of therapy was to have a more personal relationship with the patient, to help the patient reach a state of realization that they can help themselves. Greenberg, Rice and Elliott (1993) proposed that Rogers did this by guiding the patient towards growth, great stress on the immediate situation rather than the past. This way the person is able to use the therapy as a way to reach a better sense of self, rather than living in an irrational world. It was used to help a person achieve personal growth (Rogers 1961). Mearns (1994) suggest PCT is based on the principle of talking therapy and is a non-directive approach. Mearns (1994) further suggest that the therapist encourages the patient to express their feelings by listening and then mirroring back what the patient reveals to them, helps them to explore and understand their feelings for themselves. The patient is then able to decide what kind of changes they would like to make and can achieve personal growth (Thorne 1992).
Hart (1999) empathic understanding, was the other core concept, this is two processes, reflection and clarification. Reflection occurs when the therapist repeats fragments of what the client has said with little change, conveying to the client a nonjudgmental understanding of his or her statements. The person-centred therapist should feel the client's world as if it were her or his own. However, the therapist must sense the client’s emotions without getting bound up in them.
Finally there is the last core concept of self-actualization, Rogers took the approach that every individual has the resources for personal development and growth and that it is the role of the counsellor to provide the favourable conditions, which for Rogers were congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard, for the natural phenomenon of personal development to occur (Thorne 1992).

Gestalt

According to Carlock et. al. (1987) (cited in Nevis 1992) Gestalt has contributed to counselling and psychotherapy tremendously, because of its flexibility to accommodate many settings in counselling such as addiction and depression in clients. Perls (1969), and Goodman in the 1940s-1950s (cited in McLeod, J 1998) co-founded Gestalt Therapy, this is a psychotherapy which focuses on the here and now experience and personal responsibility. ‘Gestalt’ is a German word which means ‘pattern’. The key idea of Gestalt Therapy, in addition to helping the client overcome symptoms, is to enable the client to become more fully alive and to be free from unfinished issues which may diminish optimum satisfaction, fulfilment, and growth. Thus, it falls in the category of humanistic psychotherapies.
Fehr and Holland (1983) Gestalt therapy (GT) has its roots in psychoanalysis. It was part of a continuum moving from the early work of Freud, to the later Freudian ego analysis, to Reich (1954) and his notion of character armour to this was added the insights of academic gestalt psychology about perception, gestalt formation and the tendency of organisms to complete the incomplete gestalt, to form (wholes) in experience. There were additional influences from existentialism, particularly the (I-thou) relationship as it applies to therapy, and the notion of personal choice and responsibility. According to Palmer, Dainow and Milner (2004) Modern Gestalt in counselling and psychotherapy consist of the best of Perls work and selective holistic investigations, together using these approaches modern gestalt has entered into a new dimension in working with clients to improve their way of life. Palmer, Dainow and Milner (2004) further suggest that Gestalt therapy has evolved from the 1940’s as it has now been 50 years since it has been launched and still is today a big part of counselling.
Regarding the criticisms by Masson (1989), of unethical behaviour in Gestalt therapy in the past, Clarkson and Mackewn (1993) suggest that the BACP has strict regulations to prevent any sort of unethical behaviour from any counsellor now and in the future and an astringent criterion for new intakes into Gestalt Therapy.

Transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis (TA) is a psychoanalytic theory of psychology developed by psychiatrist Berne (1956) (cited in Stewart 1992). According to Stewart (1992) TA is a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change. Stewart (1992) further suggests, TA describes how people are structured psychologically. Stewart and Joines (1987) revising Freud's concept of the human psyche as composed of the id, ego, and super-ego, Berne postulated instead three "ego states" the Parent, Adult and Child states which were largely shaped through childhood experiences. It uses what is perhaps its best known model, the ego-state (Parent-Adult-Child) model to do this. Stewart and Joines (1987) further suggest this same model helps understand how people function and express themselves in their behaviour. As a theory of communication it extends to a method of analysing systems and organisations it offers a theory for child development. According to Riedlinger (1993) in practical application, TA can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of many types of psychological disorders, and provides a method of therapy for individuals, couples, families and groups. According to McLeod (1998) outside the therapeutic field, TA has been used in education, to help teachers remain in clear communication at an appropriate level, in counselling and consultancy, in management and communications and training. TA was also dismissed by the conventional psychoanalytic community because of its radical departures from Freudian theory. However, by the 1970s, many of its terms and concepts were adopted by broad-minded therapists as part of their individual approaches to psychotherapy. It also served well as a therapy model for groups of patients, or marital or family clients, where interpersonal, rather than intrapersonal disturbances were the focus of treatment (Feltham 1999).

Summary so far

A summary so far according to McLeod (1998) one of the reasons that psychoanalysis has stood the test of time, especially in the face of recent attacks is that Freud’s theories were themselves formulated in an environment of hostility. One of the arguments resorted to most frequently is that which explains all criticism of psychoanalysis as a product of ‘resistance’. Presently, psychodynamics is an evolving multi-disciplinary field which analyzes and studies human thought process, response patterns, and influences. Research in this field provides insights into a number of areas, including, understanding and anticipating the range of specific conscious and unconscious responses to specific sensory inputs, as images, colours, textures, sounds, utilizing the communicative nature of movement and primal physiological gestures to affect and study specific mind-body states and examining the capacity for the mind and senses to directly affect physiological response and biological change.
The aim of humanistic therapy is to help the client approach a stronger and more healthy sense of self, also called self-actualization Aanstoos, Serlin & Greening, 2000, (cited in Serlin, Warmoth, and Resnick 2000). All this is part of Humanistic psychology's motivation to be a science of human experience, focusing on the actual lived experience of persons Aanstoos, Serlin & Greening (2000).
According to Thorne (1992) the core concepts of the Person Centred Therapy are congruence, which is the amount of agreement between the self-concept, the real self and the ideal self. The more congruence, the more psychological health there is within the client. If a person's idea of who she or he is bears a great similarity to what she or he wants to be, that person will be relatively self-accepting. Rogers thought there were three selves in us: the self-concept, the ideal self, and the real self. The self-concept is the way a person sees themselves. The ideal self is who one would like to be. The real self is who one actually is. The aim of Person-Centred therapy is to increase the client's congruence. Then there is the unconditional positive regard concept, where Rogers believed the therapist should have unconditional positive regard for the client that is, not judge the client's character. The Person-Centred therapist gives unconditional positive regard as a partial remedy for the client's earlier experiences.
A core concept in Gestalt therapy is the unifying idea of "contact". Contact is where one person meets another person, or meets the outside world. Thus, there can be physical contact, but mostly meant in a metaphoric term. If contact is not interfered with by what Perls and Goodman called disturbances of the contact boundary, the individual can grow, through assimilation of new experiences (McLeod 1998).
The future of Transactional Analysis, the more dedicated TA purists banded together in 1964 with Berne to form a research and professional accrediting body, the International Transactional Analysis Association, or ITAA. The organization is still active as of 2007 according to The International Transactional Analysis Association http://www.itaa-net.org (2007).
Walsh (2004) Psychotherapy research has now entered its fifth active decade, in general the evidence has supported the value of psychotherapy. Clients who are treated show significantly more improvements than those in control conditions. It also seems evident that, with a few exceptions, different therapies produce comparable therapeutic gains, and different therapies produce comparable outcomes despite differences in premises, different assumptions about analysis of human dysfunction, and different techniques. Luborsky, Singer and Luborsky, 1975; Smith and Glass 1977; Stiles, Shapiro and Elliot, 1986 (cited in Horvath and Greenberg 1994). The association was the first concept put forward to capture the special role of the relationship between healer and client Freud 1913 (cited in Freud 1949). According to Palmer and Varma (1997) at the core of the current formulation of the alliance is the notion of collaboration. The concept focuses on the importance of the client and therapist forming a partnership against the clients’ pain. This collaborative relationship provides the client with a safe environment to explore the self and the process of developing this kind of relationship can also capture the client key relational issues, past and present. Thus, through development and maintenance of the association, the therapist can attend to the content of the client’s rational difficulties and cultivate a process conducive to client change.
Blocher (2000) the individual differences approach, the developmental approach, the humanistic approach and the behavioural approach these are the four main approaches which interlink to form contemporary counselling psychology. Each has played a role in the evolution of counselling today, in the past they were treated as different means of counselling but today counsellors are not denying that they all play a part in their practise today in some way or other.

CBT

According to Nelson-Jones (1995) Cognitive Therapy and counselling is a combination of the phenomenological, structural, behavioural and cognitive approach. According to The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) In the United Kingdom, Cognitive therapy and counselling has become very popular in recent years, it is currently used in the National Health Service (NHS) and also the private sectors. According to Palmer and Dryden (1995) Cognitive Therapy in counselling has been practised in Occupational settings as well for the purpose of managing stress and managing stress in group dynamics.
Palmer, Dainow and Milner (2004) survey in 1993 of the British association for counselling suggest that only 19% of their members use some aspect of cognitive or cognitive-behavioural model of therapy (CBT) in their counselling practice.
According to Palmer, Dainow, and Milner (2004) there are three main factors that may encourage, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in counselling in the future, which are, the public being aware of the benefits of CBT through counsellors, media or self-help books. The second factor is where there is a demand there is a supply, and the demand for CBT approaches in the medical and occupational field has increased recently and the third factor is that CBT training for counsellors are accessible and CBT has made a name for itself in Britain that more people are considering CBT. The current situation according to Browne (2008) The Government recently put £170 million into psychological therapies such as CBT, for counsellors this which can be seen as an incredible achievement that would have seemed unimaginable 10 years ago.

Counselling and Psychotherapy

Blocher (2000) suggest in the last half of century the debate on counselling and psychotherapy has been to distinguish whether or not there is any differences between counselling and psychotherapy or whether or not they are the same thing just labelled differently. In the early 1950’s there was a division with counselling and psychology, but since then no attempts have been made to division with counselling and psychotherapy. Gilbert (1952) review suggested that there is no differences between counselling and psychotherapy, and to look for one is fallible. Wrenn (1954) later made no mention or attempt to distinguish between counselling and psychology in his studies. Hahn (1953) and Stefflre (1965) both agreed that trying to make a distinction between counselling and psychotherapy can be difficult, and so the debate is still very much ongoing today. Blocher (2000) proposed that counselling psychologists distinguished the both by suggesting that psychotherapy is figuring out the history of the client’s anxiety and counselling is working with the client to either lessen or stop the anxiety.

The individual differences approach

Dawis (1992) suggest the trait and factor theories evolved from Darwinian Theory of evolution based on the natural selection process that the human species has the ability to survive and reproduce; he later described this process as the individual differences approach. This approach has contributed to counselling in the past and now in the present, Williamson (1965) suggest this theory proposed that human beings are unique from one another and they are predisposed to certain behaviours from birth, which may affect or predict their present and future behaviour. This was later termed as the basis of the trait and factor theory in the counselling field. From the counselling viewpoint Allport (1966) proposed that the trait theory in human beings was called heuristic realism, which means that all human beings posses action tendencies which are traits in them and it is the counsellors goal to find out what they are in order to help the client.

The developmental approach

Piaget (1970) proposed human beings have the ability to choose and form their own knowledge of the world from their experiences. Rogers (1962) (cited in Muuss 1968) endorsed the developmental view in terms that counsellor’s aims should be to work with the client to gain personal growth and development. Whitely (1984) Counselling has developed by understanding human development across the lifespan so developmental approaches has made it possible to do this in counselling practices today. According to Fassinger and Schlossberg (1992) the developmental approach is the core of counselling psychology research and practice and is being applied to contemporary counselling today.

The humanistic approach

Rogers (1961) proposed that counselling was all about the relationship between the counsellor and the client. Duan and Hill (1996) Rogers influence in counselling and psychotherapy was astronomical. According to Gelso and Carter (1985) existentialism means understanding the meaning of one’s life and in order to achieve this understanding, human beings must recognised and respect their unique subjective reality. According to Van Deurzen-Smith (1988) existentialism therapy was interested in individuals finding a sense of meaning and their existence in this world which rejected the biological and deterministic views of psychoanalysis. According to Sexton and Whiston (1994) the phenomenological view was born from the philosophy and psychology field in that individuals make sense out of the world through their unique thoughts and they portray this in their own reality. Grendlin (1988) suggest Rogers encourages this view that every individual possess the ability to grow internally and when this is released into the world will help them along a stream of further development hence supporting existentialism and phenomenology.
Rice and Greenberg (1992) suggested that it is difficult to differentiate the humanistic approach to other therapeutic approaches and proposed that there are four core aspects of the humanistic approach. The four core roles of the humanistic approach is that firstly, it endorsed the phenomenological approach, secondly, that all human beings have an inner self and the ability to want to develop into something more, thirdly, the possession of self-determination in human beings and fourth, the human species having mutual respect for one another.

The behavioural approach

According to Todes (1997) from early into Pavlov’s research, his research has been accepted and well renowned. According to Rescorta (1988) Pavlov’s classical conditioning remains an active and productive topic for research today. Wolpe and Plaud (1997) suggest treatments for anxiety and phobias in counselling today have taken their theories from Pavlov.
According to Brown and Hosford (1981) learning theory has been the topic of discussion for centuries the early theorist termed empirical meaning experience and out of this came phenomenology. Hergenhahn (1992) suggest one of the most important aspects of the human learning theory was that each human being enters the world as a blank slate and it is only through experience then the person develops their behaviour, and having nothing to do with nature but nurture. According to Blocher (2000) Skinnerian psychologists Skinner (1987) and Noam and Chomsky (1980) have debated over the process of language acquisition for decades now and it still is very much a controversial topic today. According to Fancher (1990) Learning theory then separated into two different paths, one was the Gestalt counselling which was highly influenced by phenomenological approach playing a role in Client-Centered therapy and the humanistic movement in counselling. The second path was taken by Pavlov to produce conditioned reflex.
According to Blocher (2000) behavioural counselling has contributed tremendously to counselling in today’s society, and there are four aspects which is most president. Firstly, behavioural counselling has contributed the field by presenting situations in terms that involve obvious behaviours in the client as well as inner condition. Secondly, by forming objectives, operational and goals that can be measured and to focus on interventions especially around gaining the specific goals of the client. Thirdly, the importance of continuingly monitoring the client and his or her progress and forth, behavioural counselling has helped counsellors to pay more attention to their own behaviour.
Summing up
Individual differences, developmental, humanistic and behavioural has all contributed to what is known today as contemporary counselling, and the evolution of counselling can mark these as the most fundamental or core aspects of counselling theory and practice today. Each demonstrates a different aspect of human nature, each has different viewpoint in which to analyse the counselling clients, each practicing from their own tried and tested theories from their own specialised background, and understanding them and where these different traditions in counselling comes from is what will help people today to understand the different means of counselling. Counsellors can then decide on the best way for them to counsel and the client can choose the best means of counselling for their specific needs.
Conclusion
New Therapies emerged
According to Garfield (1981) Carl Roger’s Client-Centred Therapy was accepted by both clinical psychology and counselling, but was not accepted by psychiatric treatment which was very much a direct approach, unlike Rogerian indirect approach and the beginning of the Humanistic movement. In the 1960’s new therapies arose from Skinner such as behaviour theories and the learning approaches (Skinner 1974). In addition to these different approaches the humanistic, behaviourism and learning approaches, Perls (1969) Gestalt therapy, William Glasser’s (1965) Reality Therapy, Albert Ellis’s (1962) Rational Emotive Therapy, and the Counter-Conditioning Therapy of Joseph Wolpe (1958) all emerged and was accepted in the counselling field becoming very reputable means of counselling. Altogether, they have contributed to revolutionized the counselling practice.
The criticisms of the different counselling theories above arose from Eysenck (1952) review of psychotherapy on whether or not psychotherapy works or not. Peterson (1995) proposed that the question of whether or not psychotherapy works or how or why it works is still a debatable subject today.
Counselling and Psychotherapy Today
Counselling and Psychotherapy today from Carl Rogers contribution to new research in the field of cognitive psychology, learning theory and behaviour has been the base for many therapeutic approaches. The abundance of the different cohorts of both practical and theoretical work which are now available, together with the human beings and their uniqueness, has led to a fusion of different approaches to the field of counselling. In some cases, the different strands of counselling and psychotherapy are numerous. Mainstream approaches, however, are less now than in the past, and in the future it is likely that many of the less prominent approaches will no longer exist, while more new ones will emerge to take their place, to suit the society today. While the main approaches continue to develop, including the approaches that do not stand the test of time, individuals will then have the richness of choice to choose for themselves the best means of counselling.
Alternative modes of the delivery of counselling in contemporary counselling
According to McLeod (1998) counselling can be delivered in various ways such as different types of one-to-one counselling, group counselling, telephone counselling, working with couples and bibliotherapy. These different means of counselling can encourage a wider region of society accessing counselling and also can benefit counsellors to better utilize their skills and time in some cases. Howard et. al. (1986) proposed that quality is better than quantity in that sessions should be based on the quality of the session rather than how long the sessions are and how many sessions the clients are having. Dryden and Feltham (1992) proposed time limits on sessions are practiced in cognitive-behavioural and person-centred counselling. According to McLeod (1998) telephone counselling such as Childline, Samaritans and Nightline has done a tremendous amount or counselling compared to traditional face to face counselling. For example, Childline which takes more than 1000 calls per day, which inevitably shows the need for counselling in today’s society and telephone counselling has come close to meeting this need, because of the amount of people it is helping in a short space of time. This indeed needs to be researched more and more emphasis on helping like funding needs to be addressed in these organisations. Also regulations for the call handlers training in counselling.
Counselling on the internet (e-mail) a very contemporary way of counselling especially in this high paced world today, when everything is done through the world wide web. Although this is a highly used means of counselling it is criticized by some, Sampson et. al (1997); Robson and Robson (1998) who addressed the issues of confidentiality, the dishonesty of the counsellor and client, meaning how can the client know if the counsellor is qualified or not and how can the counsellor know the information that is given about the demographics for example of the client is true or not. Bloom (1998) on the other hand proposed ways in maintaining the ethical standards via e-mail counselling. Murphy and Mitchell (1998) proposed the clients expressions in their grammar and style in writing can show the clients state of mind, also that the entire counselling is recorded, typing can be a means to externalized the clients issues, the internet can be seen as a medium to neutralize the relationship. Lastly, clients can record their thoughts via emails at the time of need such as at the time of a panic attack. King et. al. (1998) e-mail counselling is especially useful in family counselling, especially in the cases where the family is large and it is difficult to get them all together at the same time. According to McLeod (1998) the Internet today is very much a part of the majority of the households in the world and this may become an increasing means of counselling in the future.
Bibliotherapy means the therapeutic effect of reading books which are separated into two types the first one is self-help books and the other type is psychological books. The theoretical issues that arise from this type of counselling is that there are no direct contact with the counsellor and client (Craighead et. al. (1984) cited in McLeod 1998). Studies such as Ogles et. al. (1991) suggests that reading self-help books can improve the well-being of people. Another part of Bibliotherapy is writing and according to Pennebaker (1993) proposed writing about ones feelings can have a psychological benefit and in turn help the client to be less stressed.
According to McLeod (1998) group counselling and therapy has been used by the humanistic approach to encourage personal growth of group members, which has been successful in most cases, as the counsellor can assess the clients interpersonal behaviour which could not have been observed on a one-to-one counselling scenario. On the other hand Lieberman et. al. (1973) proposed individuals are put under pressure to disclose personal issues or contribute to group activities against their will, causing further distress instead of helping the individual. The ethical factors to be considered in group counselling are conformity, where the individual feels obligated to perform in a certain way and also the question of confidentiality (Lakin 1988).
The British National Marriage Guidance Council (Relate) [online] are experts in counselling married couples and in recent years the organisation has broaden their range to accommodate and counsel people in relationships in general. According to Paolino and McCrady (1978) the two approaches which is mostly used in couples therapy is psychodynamic, which enables the clients to look into the unconscious in order to help them understand their decisions and cognitive-behavioural, which does not explore the past but the present and emphasises on changing the clients behaviour in the now. According to McLeod (1998) these alternative modes of the delivery of counselling in contemporary counselling require training and the acceptance based on the awareness that the counsellors needs different skills and methods in counselling. However, there is still need for further research in these contemporary means of delivering counselling.
A new Era in Counselling
A new era of counselling and psychotherapy has begun for Europe. Since 2002 The European Association for Counselling (EAC) [online] has been growing and gaining recognition for the counselling profession, the European Commission, Parliament and by the governments of the European Countries, establishing a European Accreditation standard for individuals and training courses. EAP has been encouraging countries, which do not, yet, have national counselling. The EAP has encouraged professionals to exchange and development through regular events such as conferences. Then there is The European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) [online] which was formed in 2004 representing 128 organisations comprising of 28 national associations, 17 European associations for psychotherapy and 41 European countries making it more than 120,000 psychotherapists members. Individual psychotherapists can become members as well through the "Strasbourg Declaration on Psychotherapy of 1990” which shows that the EAP represents high standards in training, scientific and represents an independent practice of psychotherapy.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy [online] has been very successful in making counselling an important part of the British culture unlike the rest of the world who has not yet attain this benefit. BACP has also backed both the EAC and the EAP helping them gain a strong foothold to stand independently in the near future to encourage the field of contemporary counselling for not only the people in Europe but encourage the practice worldwide. According to Reddy (2004) (cited in Palmer, Dainow, & Milner 2004) Occupation counselling is also on the rise as employers are increasingly paying more attention to their employees and their well-being, both government bodies and the private sector, encouraging the growth of counselling and psychotherapy. Reddy (2004) further suggest another reasons for the rise of occupational counselling is the increasing healthcare cost on the government and employers, Employees Assistance Programmes (EAP) and the increasing demand for counselling firm who help people get back into the working environment. These new demands from society has encouraged the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPM) [online] to take up the demand, an organisation which has been around since 1913, which gained chartered status in 2000 which is a professional body for human resource, training and the management and development of people in the United Kingdom. Reddy (2004) (cited in Palmer, Dainow, & Milner 2004) proposed the internationally acclaimed Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), which was recently launched in the UK, has been growing from strength to strength and will in the future be a big part of the occupational counselling field.
Counselling in the future
Dryden (2004) (cited in Palmer, Dainow, & Milner 2004) proposed thirteen trends in the counselling field in the future. (1) Maintaining the interdisciplinary foundations of counselling and not to be placed under the counselling psychologist umbrella. (2) Increasing emphasis on audit and evaluation counsellors will need to learn to put figures to their specified field to show its effectiveness as in this high demanding society today word of mouth is considered old fashioned and statistics are more accepted. (3) Developing respect for counselling research from the past, present and future. (4) Increasing emphasis on providing counselling services to client groups that are not readily accessable such as ethic minority group’s prisoners and any group that is not readily covered by the counselling services. This may mean adapting counselling skills to be more accepted to different groups of people. (6) Developing agreed standards on training at different levels the BACP has the authority to regulate this and form some sort of process from individuals gaining certificates to masters in the field of counselling, starting with colleges and universities by introducing departments of counselling instead of putting counselling under the umbrella of education or psychology for instance. (7) Providing resources for counselling training especially in universities where the ratio to counsellor to student is 1:24, in counselling skills courses, this cannot be feasible for proper training, which involves informative feedback to students in order for them to successfully complete their course. (8) Increasing emphasis on competency in counsellor training, trainees should maintain supervision until qualified for the benefit of the client and also to the trainee for feedback purposes from their supervisor. (9) Training counsellors in brief counselling so that more clients can be seen and also not prolong a clients session when it is not needed. (10) Bringing a client-centred focus to personal therapy is worth looking into as it is important for counsellors to share their experiences with another counsellors for the sole purpose of releasing and starting anew. (11) Increasing emphasis on eclecticism and integration, this can be done but later on in the future, being trained in the specialist field for this. (12) Increasing emphasis on psycho-education, this is where counsellors help clients learn different skills for a more effective way of living and lastly (13) Promoting the counsellor as consultant for instance in the occupational field counsellors can act as consultant in training the human resource department in dealing with their employees in a more effective way.

Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge Philosophy Essay


Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the senses. It's the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, things or events that do not exist, are not there or have ever happened in the past. Knowledge on the other hand is familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study. From the definition itself I noticed that to have knowledge you have to study or experience something in order to gain it but for imagination it is limitless, and also a gift from God to mankind and in fact has inspired us to gain more knowledge. I personally choose this topic because I found it interesting to research and come up with an answer and solid reason to support it. It was also confirmed to me that imagination is more important than knowledge as Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is everything.

Imagination is within us, and on the other hand knowledge is learnt through schooling and experience. Imagination motivates or rather leads us to acquire much more knowledge and to use it in creative ways and it's because of this that we turned a rock into a spear, a spear into a bow and a bow into a gun, the square wheel into a circle, in other words we wouldn't have evolved into the race we are today. Robert Adler wished not having to get up from his seat to change the television channel and invented the television remote control.
Imagination is also what infuses faith. Faith would be impossible without God's gift to humans of good imagination. That's only the beginning. Seeing something real that is not there in reality or is not there on the surface of all things I mean. God Himself used imagination in the creation of everything even the humans. This as a matter of fact was the beginning of imagination before knowledge was embraced by man. Henry Miller 1891-1980 alleged that imagination was a critical characteristic of God, for he wrote, "Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything holy about God, it is that, He ventured to visualize everything." The man who hovered like a butterfly and tingled like a bee, Muhammad Ali, commended the value of imagination when he said, "The man who has no imagination has no wings." After all, how can we rise to lofty heights, other than by the power of our imagination? Our imagination allows us to escalade above all limits. Numerous things all come up due to imagination. Perfect examples of such things is art, music etc neither art music nor requires any knowledge. What you have to do is involve your mind in deep imagination and you will come up with something brilliant. Was it not for imagination then we would not gain knowledge because we would not be able to think. In the Bible imagination is displayed in various occasions for example, in the first book, Genesis God uses imagination in the making of everything, Adam and Eve inclusive, the galaxy, the water bodies and even the mountains and valleys. Imagination is also seen in science for example: The Wright Brothers who built the first aircraft imagined voyage before they knew it was achievable. When device after device failed to see them travelling through the clouds, the two brothers predicted how they could better their airplane until one day they established the world's first continued voyage. Imagination helps each one to plan for some activities when we have no work. It helps us whenever we plan for a vacation, a trip or even our work the next day. Imagination is also used in describing something, in my seventh birthday I remember my dad asking me what I wanted for my birthday present. I engaged my mind in serious imagination and came up with a brilliant description of how I wanted my new bike to be like since my old one had already bored me.
On the July 20th 1969 the world watched a hypothetical fact become the best part in space flight and aeronautics. It was on this day that Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon and the imagined visualization of lunar walking became a part of human knowledge. In history we get to see the Trojan War which was between the Greek and the Trojan around the twelfth century BC. Although the Greek had the knowledge on how to fight, the Trojans for 9 years their cordon could not go through the city itself until, they anticipated a trap with a wooden stallion containing soldiers that they placed outside the gates of Troy as a reward. This gift allegedly heralded their give up. In fact, this inventive deception ensured their triumph. In the field of invention imagination is often a condition of knowledge. Imagination stirs the wish to spawn new knowledge to make an idea a certainty. For example, the microwave was invented after investigator Percy Spencer passed a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. It was Spencer's formulation of new thoughts that led to the unadventurous oven cooker we use each and every single day.
Television was invented by John Baird in 1925 and was at first made from a lantern inside a biscuit container with lenses, timber and cord. The first television broadcast aired in 1930, even though it did not generate colored images until 1958 in the USA. Models kept on to be upgraded and bit by bit advanced quality picture and audio were available because flaws could be determined as imagination developed. Johann Gutenberg also imagined the innovatory printing press after observing an easy olive press. He invented this point and labor saving device for printing same text on several pieces of paper in about 1443. Though all of these inventions used already acquired knowledge, they took what was identified as a quantum step ahead. This required good imagination. Advancements in technology rely on the growth of new concepts to solve problems which are born by imagination.
In our language essays we use imagination to come up with brilliant and interesting stories. Knowledge here plays a small or rather no role here, because if you had knowledge and no imagination then all would be in vain. It's through imagination that we escape the world of reality for a second. Great films come about as a result of brilliant imagination and it's due to this imagination that a movie sells many copies. Taking an example of the movie 'Men In Black 3' it has a great and advanced sense of imagination in everything that is shown in the movie. Knowledge is only what we know but imagination does not have a limit as you can imagine of anything both practical or not. "I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more dominant than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I consider that love is stronger than death." â€•Ã‚ Robert Fulghum, even the great philosophers have the same line of thought as I do and I still strongly believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

Essay on Role of Science and Technology in Education

Posted in BlogSpot, Paragraphs and Articles by Abdullah On 27 May  2015.

We live in age of science and technology. Scientific inventions and modern day technologies have completely changed the human life and paving the way for our future. Science and Technology has added greatly to our material comforts. It has also quickened the tempo of life. It has given man an altogether new social and political outlook. Hence in this age the study of science is a necessity. Without such study a modern man is is like a bullock cart lumbering behind a motorized vehicle.

It should Begin at school – with the training of Observation

The study of science should begin early in life. The first steps should be to teach boys and girls the habit of observation. The child is always interested in trees, in flowers, in birds, in insects, in all the things that he sees around him. His curiosity in this regard should be fostered and developed. This can be done easily and naturally if teaching be related to those material objects that he is always seeing.
Knowledge of Technology should be imparted naturally in the form of answers to intelligent questions. At the initial stage, more can be taught in this way than mechanically through books and expositions.

And pass on to experiments 

After a kindergarten course of this kind, books on science and technology should be gradually introduced. Here also practice, demonstration, actual experiments should precede the study of theories. It is only after the mind is well trained with the help of examples and experiments that the explanations of theories should be attempted. In our country, the reverse method is largely followed. It means wastage of time. A student passes out by mere memory work, and as memory becomes faint, his knowledge becomes nebular, leaving him in his original state of ignorance.

Its influences on the Mind

The study of science and technology has an educative influence on the mind, and is of far-reaching importance. It makes one a lover of truth. It creates realistic attitude to life. It is also the enemy of superstition. A scientist depends on his powers of observation, reason for his knowledge of truth. By applying his reason to observed facts before believing in anything, he acquires patience and diligence. He thus lays the foundation of true knowledge.

Conclusion

The study of science and technology acts as a perpetual urge to acquire knowledge. It deepens our sense of the mystery of creation. The more we know of the secrets of nature, the more we realized how much remains unknown. Today scientists speak of the wonder of nature with a thrill of emotion.  We are learning as much of the secrets of the atoms in space as of the molecular cells in living organism.

So a modern curriculum of studies must include the study of science and technology, because the modern man needs a scientific mind in approaching the problems of life.

ESSAY ON ILLITERACY IN PAKISTAN

                            
“Are those equal, those who know and those who don’t know.”
1. INTRODUCTION:
It is now a universally recognized fact that mass education is a pre-requisite for the development and prosperity of a country. The main priority of the developing countries, in recent years has been to foster the development and renewal of primary education and to eliminate illiteracy. Pakistan, unfortunately, like the other under developed countries, has made little progress in this aspect. Since independence, she continues to remain in the group of countries with the lowest literacy rate.
Half of the world’s illiterate and 22 percent of the world’s population live in South Asia. Pakistan does not fare well on account of literacy within the region. Sri Lanka and Maldives have almost attained full literacy. The adult literacy rate for India is 61 as compared to 53 percent in Pakistan. India, according to a recent study done by the World Bank, has attained 100 percent Gross Enrollment ratio (GER) and 90 percent Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) at the primary level.
2. MEANING OF ILLITERACY:
For an Adult, illiteracy means primitive manual labour in agriculture and industry, uncertain employment opportunities and low wages, life-long miserable living conditions, and humiliating dependence on the literates of the community for the day-to-day civic and business interactions and deprivation in all walks of life. For adults illiteracy also means exclusion from most of economic, social and cultural activities.

For the Out-of-school Children, illiteracy means forced labour, vagrancy, sickness and slavery.

For Women, literacy is a survival kit and symbol of status. It means emancipation, participation in the decision making of the family and equality.
3. IMPORTANCE OF LITERACY:
Illiteracy is a small pane in a large window, opening into the world of knowledge based on reading and writing as one of the earliest cultural activities of mankind. Mankind’s civilization, and its accumulation, sharing and transmission of knowledge over the centuries has been made possible by written and readable words. Every Muslim knows that the first command revealed by Allah to the Holy Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) was ‘READ’. 
Literacy, over the centuries, has become the lever of human progress and the leveler of social and economic conditions. It is a basic human need, and human right to knowledge. Illiteracy is brake on human development, and maps of illiteracy – poverty, underdevelopment, social discrimination and disease are always co-incident. It is a challenge to human dignity and imposes a second-class status on a person in all societies. Life without literacy is life without hope, security and freedom.
4. CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING THE LITERACY STATUS:

The literacy status of a country is determined by the following parameters:

I. The existing level of literacy.
II. The rate on increment of new literates.
III. The volume of the education system’s output.
IV. The demographic factors engage structure, mortality and birth rate.
V. The last but not the least is the percentage of budget engaged for the education.
5. RAISING THE LITERACY RATE:

Countries have succeeded in raising their literacy rates by taking the following steps:

I. Universalization of primary education.
II. Providing non-formal primary education facilities for out of school youth and dropouts.
III. Launching countrywide programmes for adults backed by political leadership.
IV. Broad involvement of various social groups, institutions, public and voluntary organizations etc.
6. ILLITERACY SCENARIO IN PAKISTAN:
The picture of illiteracy in Pakistan is grim. Although successive governments have announced various programmes to promote literacy, especially among women, but they have been unable to translate their words into actions because of various political, social and cultural obstacles. Access to basic education is the right of every individual. Education is the most important instrument in enhancing human capabilities, and in achieving the desired objectives of economic development. Education enables individuals to make informed choices, broaden their horizons and opportunities and to have a voice in public decision-making. It is one of the most important factors that act as a counterweight to social and economic mobility imposed by cultural and historical biases. Education is a vehicle of nation building through which a nation’s shared interpretation of history and cultural values are reproduced across generations. At the country level, education means strong economic growth due to productive and skilled labor force. At the individual level, education is strongly correlated to higher returns in earning and a more informed and aware existence. The emerging global scenario offers immense opportunities and challenges, and only those nations can benefit from it, which have acquired the required knowledge base and skills.
There are 163,000 primary schools in Pakistan, of which merely 40,000 cater to girls. According to UNICEF, 17.6 per cent of Pakistani children are working and supporting their families.

7. CAUSES OF ILLITERACY IN PAKISTAN:

1) Half-hearted planning and management of literacy and continuing education.
2) Limited budget.
3) Lack of reliable statistics and research researchers.
4) Weak community participation.
5) Lack of multimedia material.
6) Lack of special skilled textbook writers.
7) Poor follow up of programmes.
8) In-service teachers do not take such work seriously.
9) Dependence on foreign aid.
10) Dropout rate is high.
11) Over-crowded classrooms.
12) Panacea of private sector.
13) Outdated curriculum.
14) Problems of higher education; brain drain etc.
15) Corruption.
16) Rote learning.
17) Unfair examinations.
18) Lack of adequate facilities such as clean water, electricity etc. in the rural schools.
8. EFFECTS OF ILLITERACY:
1) Over-population.
2) Low-GDP and per capita income.
3) Increase unskilled labour.
4) Infant mortality and maternal mortality.
5) Political instability.
6) Poor use of natural resources.
7) Heavy international debts.
8) Child labour.
9) Poor international image.
10) Low per acre agriculture yield.
11) Halting industrial growth and less trade activities.
9. PRESENT GOVERNMENT POLICY:
According to World Bank Report, Pakistan’s spending on public sector education is only 2.3 per cent of the GDP and this is much lower than the south Asian average of 3.6 per cent and the low-income countries’ average of 3.4 per cent
I. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):
Pakistan has committed to all the International declaration to extend the agenda of providing the basic right of education to all of its citizens. Pakistan is among the signatories of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the Dakar World Education Forum 2000. The Government of Pakistan has taken several policy and program initiatives to achieve these international goals since then. The National Plan of Action for Education for all was initiated in response to the commitment made at Dakar for World Summit. The Education Reform Action Plan (ESR), which is built upon the National Education Policy 1998-2010, is a long-term plan, with three yearly action plans. The ESR addresses the development of the overall education sector through investment in rehabilitation of schools, improving the curriculum and assessment reform system, an adult literacy campaign, mainstreaming the Madressahs, a pilot school nutrition program and technical stream in secondary schools. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) views education as a strong policy instrument in bringing poverty down. 
Three main goals that are the underlying objectives of all of these programs and initiatives include universal access to primary education by increasing the net enrollment and higher rate of survival of children till grade 5, increase in the adult literacy rate and to attain gender equality at all levels.
Currently, adult literacy rate is 53 percent; net enrollment at the primary level is 52 per cent, retention rate for 2004- 05 is noted as 61 per cent and significant gender gaps at all levels especially in the rural areas persist. Public spending on education as a percentage of GDP is 2.1 per cent and has approximately increased by less than one percentage point since 2000-01.
II. Education Institutions and Enrollment
Attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE) has become a compelling national priority. This is a challenge that has been accepted at the highest level in the federal and provincial governments. UPE is anticipated to increase in access to education by 4%, reduction in gender disparity by 10% and enhancing primary completion rate by 5% per annum. In the past year, 2187 new primary schools were established, 1221 in the public sector and 881 in the private sector. This increase has occurred in both rural and urban areas. Statistical annexure table 9.1 and 9.2, show the number of the girls in the primary and middle school in year 2004-05. The expansion in the number of institutions is inconsistent with the need to provide easy access to the half the country’s school going population. The public sector was able to establish only 999 new primary schools for girls in 2004-05. The responsibility of expanding the primary and middle schools for girls has been devolved to District Governments under the devolution plan.
III. Primary education
Two main indicators that show the changes in the primary schooling are Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) and Net Enrolment rate (NER). The last four years have witnessed 14 percentage points increase in the gross primary enrollment which is more then 3 percentage point per annum increase on average. This increase from 72 percent in 2001-02 to 86 percent in 2004-05 is a result of targeted and resilient polices of the government. Adoption of free provision of universal basic education polices in the provinces (except Balochistan) is gradually delivering the promised increase in the enrolment rate. In the urban areas, the GER is impressive in all provinces, ranging from 84 percent in Balochistan to 108 percent in Punjab. In the rural areas, Punjab has made a marked progress, particularly in female GER, which increased from 61 percent in 2001-02 to 82 percent in 2004-05. The Gender gap has also seen an improvement at the primary level in Punjab and has been modest in Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan.
IV. Gender gap

Gender disparity in literacy and enrollment is one of the key concerns of the Government. Pakistan’s overall record in promoting and delivering gender equality has been weak. There are, however, areas in which significant progress has been made and indicators point to a steady though slow improvement in the ratio of girls to boys at all levels of education, the ratio of literate females to males, share of women in urban employment (as proxy indicator for share of women in wage employment in non-agricultural sector) has improved marginally and improvement in participation of women in national decision making process.

Statistics show that gender disparity has been declining since 1998-99, however the recent decline is only marginal from 26 percent in 2001-02 to 25 percent in 2004-05. Reducing gender gap in education at all level will ensure equality of opportunity and economic participation for females. Gender disparity in literacy is lower in urban areas where it is 16 percent, as compared to 29 percent in rural areas in 2004-05. In fact there has been no progress in reducing the gender gap either between the urban and rural areas or between genders in both areas.
V. Public Private Partnership
The Community Support Rural Schools Program (CSRSP) is NEF’s largest program and it encourages pilot innovations to promote education in rural areas. Notable among them are Child Friendly School Program and Education for Working Children. Currently, 260 schools are running under CSRSP with an enrollment of 23300 students and another 350 schools are established in 2005 supported by NORAD. Moreover, teacher training has been a significant component of CSRSP, with the goal to enable in-service community teachers to re-learn modern pedagogical principles and techniques to manage today’s classrooms.
VI. Higher Education Commission
Pakistan is ranked amongst the lowest in the world in higher education enrollment rates at 2.9 percent. Other Asian developing countries, such as India and Korea, stand at 10 percent and 68 percent respectively. According to a report of the steering committee for higher education in 2001, only 2.6 percent of the students between the ages 17-23 enrolled in universities, which have increased to 2.9 in 2005. The target is to double enrollment in the next five years by increasing the capacity of the existing higher education institutions and also establishing new ones. The quality of education provided is not up to the mark, which can be gauged from the fact that not a single Pakistani university is ranked among the top 500 universities of the world.
VII. Financing of Education in the public sector
Public expenditure on education as a percentage to GDP is lowest in Pakistan as compared to other countries of the South Asian region. Pakistan spends 2.1 percent of it’s GDP on education as compared to India which spends 4.1 percent, Bangladesh 2.4 percent and Nepal spends 3.4 percent.
VIII. National Education Assessment System
National Education Assessment System (NEAS) is a World Bank funded project with a total cost of Rs. 319.364 million including foreign exchange component with World Bank share of Rs. 273.110 million. The government of Pakistan is committed to improve the quality of education at all levels. The NEAS is one of the key programs of the Ministry meant to improve the quality of education at elementary level, with the objective to measure learning achievements of grade 4 and 5 students, to develop capacity in educational assessment related activities, to institutionalization of sustainable monitoring system and information dissemination.
IX. Curriculum Development
The curriculum development is an on going process to respond to global challenges and emerging trends. This process has been initiated in collaboration with the federal units and provincial and regional governments (AJ&K, FATA). The present government realizing the importance of vibrant and dynamic curriculum has decided to review /revise curriculum of class 1 to 8. The committee has initiated consultative meetings to develop a curriculum reflecting the latest trends in individual subjects as well as equipping the education of the country with the requirement of today and tomorrow.

10. SUGGESTIONS:

1) A uniform education policy.
2) Ability and merit must be declared as corner stones of our national life.
3) Adequate educational facilities.
4) Removal of fake schools; 23000 present in whole country.
5) Fair examination system.
6) Updated curriculum.
7) High standard of academic research.
8) Removal of corruption.
9) Training of teachers.
10) Removal of rote learning.
“Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.”

CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM

“The struggle to raise a nation’s living standards is fought first and foremost in the classrooms.”
1. INTRODUCTION:
Birds and animals require teaching or training to lead a successful bird or animal life. They know how to make a home or shelter for themselves and how to keep themselves alive instinctively. The instinct of self-preservation is implanted by nature. They are given certain faculties, which develop, to their maximum level with their physical growth without much conscious efforts on their part or on the part of their parents. Not so with man. His intellectual growth depends on many outside factors and cannot attain maturity without long and deliberate efforts on his part and on the part of his well-wishers. A forest can grow itself but a garden cannot.

A flower is pretty by itself but a diamond requires a lot of cutting and polishing before it will sparkle and scintillate into thousand colours. Man is like a rough diamond and requires filling and polishing before all his faculties can function fully. Inevitably, in fact, education enables one to lead a better life physically, mentally and spiritually. Education helps iron out one’s emotions, prejudices, and idiosyncrasies to rationalize things rather objectively. This enables an individual to visualize his position in a society he lives and the world society as a whole.

The process of education can be regarded as a function of five M’s namely Man, Money, method, Management and Machinery. That is the short human expression of the major variables that figure in the educational process, though social milieu, reflecting attitude of society towards education.
2. GLOBAL EDUCATION SCENARIO:
Access to basic education is the right of every individual. Education is the most important instrument in enhancing human capabilities, and in achieving the desired objectives of economic development. Education enables individuals to make informed choices, broaden their horizons and opportunities and to have a voice in public decision-making. It is one of the most important factors that act as a counterweight to social and economic mobility imposed by cultural and historical biases. Education is a vehicle of nation building through which a nation’s shared interpretation of history and cultural values are reproduced across generations. At the country level, education means strong economic growth due to productive and skilled labor force. At the individual level, education is strongly correlated to higher returns in earning and a more informed and aware existence. The emerging global scenario offers immense opportunities and challenges, and only those nations can benefit from it, which have acquired the required knowledge base and skills.
3. EDUCATION SCENARIO IN SOUTH ASIA:
Half of the world’s illiterate and 22 percent of the world’s population live in South Asia. Pakistan does not fare well on account of literacy within the region. Sri Lanka and Maldives have almost attained full literacy. The adult literacy rate for India is 61 as compared to 53 percent in Pakistan. India, according to a recent study done by the World Bank, has attained 100 percent Gross Enrollment ratio (GER) and 90 percent Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) at the primary level.

4. LITERACY SCENARIO IN PAKISTAN:

(From page 25)
5. CAUSES OF ILLITERACY IN PAKISTAN:
(From page 25)
6. EFFECTS OF ILLITERACY:
(From page 25)
7. PRESENT GOVERNMENT POLICY:
(From page 25, 26, 27)
8. NEW SCHEME OF STUDIES:
• The federal education ministry on Thursday notified a new scheme of studies for classes I to XII, extending the number of annual academic days from 170 to 210 and making Islamiyat compulsory from class III-instead of class IV from next year.
• Non-Muslim students have been given the option to study ethics in place of Islamiyat.

• Computer education has been made compulsory from class VI. Physical training, arts and crafts, library sessions and after-school team sports have also been made compulsory.
• The number of academic days in a year has been increased from 170 to 210.
• The new scheme will be effective from 2007.
• Science and maths would be taught in English by 2011, it was notified.
• All middle schools will get computer labs within three years. Standard exams will be conducted at the end of class VIII to grant scholarships to students at the provincial and district levels.
• Under the new scheme, students of classes I and II will be taught Urdu, English, mathematics and general knowledge, which will include short stories from Islamic history, science and social studies.
• The provinces have the discretion to use their regional languages as medium of instruction and no student will be retained in classes I and II.
• From class VI onwards, science, geography, history and computer education will be taught in addition to other compulsory subjects. Maths, science and computer education will be taught in English, whereas, for geography and history the medium of instruction can be Urdu or English up to 2011.
• For classes IX and X in humanities group, Pakistan studies and three out of 22 elective subjects will be taught in addition to Urdu, English, maths and Islamiyat. An advanced Islamic study has been introduced as an elective subject.
• In the science group, physics, chemistry, biology and maths will be taught in English, whereas Islamiyat and Pakistan studies will be taught in Urdu.
• At the higher secondary school level, there will be five academic groups — science group-I (pre-medical), science group-II (pre-engineering or computer science), humanities, commerce, medical technology and home economics.
• In the pre-engineering group, maths, physics, chemistry or computer science will be taught in addition to the compulsory subjects of Islamiyat, Urdu and English.
• In the humanities group, three out of 24 elective subjects, including advanced level Pakistan studies and Islamic studies etc, will be offered in addition to the compulsory subjects.
• In the commerce group, business maths and statistics, principles of accounting, computer skills or banking, principles of economics and commercial geography will be taught in addition the three compulsory subjects.
• In the medical technology group, labs, images, operation theatre, ophthalmology, physiotherapy and dental hygiene technologies will be taught in addition to the compulsory subjects.
• In the home economics group, food and house management, food and nutrition, home farming, clothing, child development, group behaviour, childcare and nursing will be taught in addition the compulsory subjects.
9. SUGGESTIONS:

1) A uniform education policy.
2) Ability and merit must be declared as corner stones of our national life.
3) Adequate educational facilities.
4) Removal of fake schools; 23000 present in whole country.
5) Fair examination system.
6) Updated curriculum.
7) High standard of academic research.
8) Removal of corruption.
9) Training of teachers.
10) Removal of rote learning.