[Pakistan] Dawn Editorial: Our own satellite

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

Dawn, 28 January 2003

Our own satellite


The commissioning of Pakistan's first communication satellite is an 
encouraging sign that at least on some fronts we are managing to keep 
up with the rest of the world.

The government has said that it hopes PAKSAT-1, taken on a lease from 
an American corporation, will be an important tool in disseminating 
education and scientific knowledge among Pakistani communities within 
the country and also those living abroad.

Speaking at the inauguration, President Pervez Musharraf said that 
four channels with educational programming will be beamed by the 
satellite and will help in furthering the objective of providing free 
education.

It is expected that PAKSAT-1 will also help augment the country's 
burgeoning Internet network and could be used to enhance the capacity 
and quality of the nation's telecom network. The president further 
said that the satellite could serve as a useful link between Pakistan 
and the rest of the Muslim world in the spread of knowledge.

One hopes that now that we have our own satellite in space, the 
government will also pay attention to other much-neglected areas of 
scientific education, technology and research. This is important 
because just having a satellite in space for advancing knowledge is 
not enough if there is no corresponding improvement in the quality of 
the human capital employed in the fields of education and research.

This also means that the presentation and quality of our educational 
programmes, as much as their content and direction, will have to be 
considerably improved if the government is to use it as a channel for 
disseminating knowledge.

Unfortunately, official efforts at facilitating exchange of knowledge 
are usually such that the flow of information is often one-sided or 
skewed. The official approach to education ignores important aspects 
like developing critical faculties of young learners and a spirit of 
inquiry in them. One sincerely hopes that this will not be the case 
when PAKSAT-1 comes into play. 

source: http://www.dawn.com/2003/01/28/ed.htm#2