 Prof.
Friedrich Karl Rothe (Prof. Emeritus, University
of Education, Germany) is on four week visit
to The Islamia University of Bahawalpur.
The worthy professor has 35 years teaching
experience at school and university level.
His areas of expertise are Philosophy of
Education, History, Pedagogy and Teacher
Education. Prof. Rothe has been invited
by Prof. Dr. M. A. Adeeb, Dean Faculty of
Education. He will deliver lectures and
share his experiences on various issues
of education and learning. He is also observing
teaching practice of M.A. Education students
in selected public and private sector institutions
in Bahawalpur city. His feedback is a valuable
source of guidance for prospective teachers
in improvement of classroom teaching.
The Faculty of Education is arranging a
series of Lectures, Seminars and Discussion
Sessions. The first seminar of this series
was held on April 14, 2008 at seminar room
of the Faculty of Education. Prof. Rothe
was the key note speaker. He spoke on "Problems
of Education in Developed and Developing
Countries". The faculty members from
the Department of Education, Department
of Educational Training and Department of
Social Work participated in the seminar.
Prof. Rothe showed visual documentaries
to depict devastated Germany after World
War II and the present day developed and
prosperous Germany. He said that after World
War II, Germany faced a number of problems
in education sector like overcrowded classrooms,
devastated buildings, lack of teachers and
other resources. But with hard work and
dedication, it coped up the problems and
now it included among the developed countries.
Speaking on the problems in industrialized
and developed countries, Prof. Rothe identified
the following problems:  "
Materialistic thinking which has its own
inherent dangers when it is predominant
also in educational thinking
" High Living Standard which obliges
permanent economic and educational efforts
due to the competition with the countries
of low labor costs
" A sense of competition to perform
better which as a result paves way for Individualism
instead of a sense of community
" Spending more money on production,
high labor costs
" Shift from handicraft to automatism
" Thinking theoretically……
overestimating intellectual abilities and
underestimating practical abilities
" Social status is defined by performances
and personal efforts which results sometimes
in individual isolation
" A decrease of the appreciation of
family life and the subsequent decrease
of the birth rate.
Prof. Rothe also identified the following
educational problems in developing countries:
" Education for the upper class……
very good schools, universities and highly
educated persons on one hand and poorly
equipped schools for the lower class children
" Trend to spend more money on secondary
and higher education…..it will be
danger to secondary education as well
" Very significant gap between rich
and poor class
" High dropout rate
" Lack of facilities in educational
institutions.
 He
recommended that Teacher Education Programs
in the developing countries should answer
the following questions:
¢ How can we promote school buildings?
¢ How can we encourage parents and
government for promotion of school buildings?
¢ How can we involve village people
to make their contribution in restructuring
schools?
¢ In which language should we teach?
Would we see better results if we would
teach predominantly in the vernacular at
least during first 7 grades
¢ How can we minimize dropout rate?
¢ How can we make the curricula relevant
and useful for practical life?
¢ Is the teacher training done in the
way that future teachers will be able to
handle real and difficult situations?
¢ Preparation of low cost teaching
material
¢ Need to rethink and redefine our
traditional thinking to solve the above
mentioned problems.
In the end the participants discussed various
issues of teaching and learning. Prof. Rothe
gave comprehensive answers to the questions
of the participants. It was a wonderful
opportunity to sit together, think, identify
problems and suggest solutions. Seminars
and discussion sessions will continue till
the end of April. Faculty members, M.Phil/PhD
scholars and practicing school teachers
will participate in the sessions.
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