Education System of Pakistan Analysis

Education System of Pakistan Analysis All through human history, the source of success had been the control of natural resources land, gold and oil. Suddenly, the emphasis has shifted to knowledge and education in the modern contemporary world. The worlds wealthiest man, Bill Gates, owns nothing tangible no land, no gold or oil, no factories, no armies. For the first time in human history the worlds wealthiest man owns only knowledge, which has become the new basis for wealth. Progress and prosperity of a country, both spiritual and material, thus largely depend, more than ever before on the kind of education it provides to its people. Indeed, education is one of the most powerful instruments of change in achieving national goals by producing young minds imbued with the knowledge, attitude, skills and competencies to shape the future destiny of a nation. Contrary to the challenge of this emerging education revolution, out of Pakistans total population of 140 million, around 80 million are illiterate.  [1]  The national literacy rate is 45 percent with male literacy at 57 percent and female at 33, a gross enrolment at primary level of 87 percent (of whom 50 percent drop out before grade 5), 17.5 percent gross enrolment at secondary level and 4.5 percent at tertiary level?  [2]   Despite 53 years of our independence we have not been able to tailor the education system in conformity with our religious, ideological, socio- economic needs and the imperatives of the modern world. The failure could be attributed to any number of causes but the fact remains that quantitatively, our literacy rate is poorest even among developing countries of the world, qualitatively our certificates and degrees carry little weight in the international institutes and there still exists an imbalance in our requirements to tailor an ideal education system. We have stepped into the 21st century, which surely requires a definite reappraisal of our education system. We ought to learn from our very slow progress rate in the past and must take steps to meet the challenges of the future lest we are left behind. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF EDUCATION IN THE SUB-CONTINENT Teaching the offsprings has always been the natural instinct of all animals. It differed from society to society and man to man. The Sub-continent remained in darkness so far as community education was concerned till the establishment of Vedic schools but than it saw turbulence in this field which very few regions have seen. This part will briefly cover the different stages of the turbulence in the sub-continent. Before British Rule Vedic Schools of Brahmins. The earliest schools in the country now known as Pakistan were the Vedic schools for the training of Brahim priests. Sometimes before 500 B.C these schools began to enrol nonpriestly class pupils and to develop as true community schools in every village. They were generally composed of 12 to 20 students, and their sole teacher was the village priest who was regarded as a public official supported through rent-free land or a share in the harvest. The classes were normally held in the open under shady trees. Buddhist Monks. A parallel educational system was sponsored by the Buddhists to prepare their adherents for a life of meditation as a monk. The Buddhist schools, although located in monasteries, were open to all. Youth intending to pursue a monastic life were trained until the age of 20, while those who wanted a secular career left at the age of 12. Muslim Madrassahs. The Muslim invaders introduced the third educational system, and it flourished particularly in the northern areas of the subcontinent. Schools were generally attached to the Mosques, and the curriculum consisted of the Quran and little else. While the Muslim rulers supported only Islamic schools, Hindus and Buddhists retained their traditional education. Muslim male children (females were excluded from all forms of public education) began their study in maktab, where they received instructions from the imam (worship leader of a mosque) in the rudiments of the Arabic language. The older students continued their studies in the madrasahs, where they were taught Arabic and Persian, rhetoric, grammar, logic, geometry, algebra, astronomy, natural philosophy, medicine, theology and poetry. Children of the wealthy, especially the girls, were often tutored privately in their homes. The madrassahs declined in number and standards with the decline of the Mughal Empire and ris e of British power in the 18th and 19th centuries  [3]   During the British Rule The British System. The system of education followed in colonial India was introduced by the British primarily for turning out clerks and subordinates necessary for carrying on the administrative affairs of the country in English under the British masters in the colonial set-up. The system of education designed by Lord Macaulay in his own words was aimed at forming a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, morals and intellect.  [4]  By the end of the 19th century, Muslims were encouraged to opt for the British system of education, which opened the door to economic and social advancement. However the consensus of the opinion was that since the existing system was designed by the alien rulers to serve their own imperialistic ends it can hardly be expected to deliver the goods.  [5]   Muslim Institutes. In reaction to the British system, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan introduced a new English education system which, in character was Indian- Muslim. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded Anglo-Muhammadan College, now known as Aligarh Muslim University in 1875, and he always believed that Western education was compatible with Islam. Simultaneously, the orthodox Muslims introduced institutions like Deoband, Nadwat-ul-ulema Lucknow etc, thus giving rise to a sharp distinction between the traditionalists and the modernists, a distinction that continues to this day. At / After Partition The inherited System. The present system of education in Pakistan is the heritage of the Pre Partitioned British India. However, since independence many policies, plans and reports have been formulated for improving the literacy rate in the country. The important documents in this regard are listed as annex A. Education Policy 1998 to 2010. The policy incorporates a large number of new steps to resuscitate the education system. According to this policy 45,000 new primary schools and 20,000 mosque schools are to be set up before 2003. 75,000 more basic education institutions were to be established under Prime Minister Literacy Commission. 45,000 primary schools are to be upgraded to middle level and 30,000 to secondary level. The policy laid special emphasis on vocational and technical education. Private sector has also been encouraged to set up schools, colleges and universities. This is an ambitious policy aimed at achieving 70% literacy by year 2010. Its other main features are attached as annex B  [6]  : All the policies and plans as mentioned above envisaged various objectives at different levels however the spirit of the objectives, remained the same as it continues to stress: The ideological basis of education. National Unity. Development. Growth of the Society. Economic Progress. Equalisation of educational opportunity. Social equality. Quality of education. j. Education to be oriented to the world of work. Quality of education to be maintained at all levels with global standard. Propagation of scientific, technological and research aptitude. To promote functional literacy among out of school children. To bring about cultural harmony and social cohesion through education. To bring about the countrys spiritual and culture in harmony with the contemporary world. The overall sketch of the objectives of all-educational policies and plans clearly indicates the story of Education in Pakistan as the story of high promises, rhetorical emphasis on progress but sadly, little real achievement  [7]  . ANALYSIS OF OUR PRESENT EDUCATION SYSTEM Though the education system has attracted a considerable attention, it is difficult to ascertain any deterioration in its quality as well as quantity. There has been manifold increase in the number of educational institutions. The government is spending much more than it was in the past but the results are still not satisfactory. The parents blame the teachers, teachers the students and students, in turn, shift the entire responsibility to the system and society. To ascertain the erosion of education standards, it is important to analyse the education system as follows: Basic Ingredients. Major Weaknesses. Effects of Existing Education System. Basic Ingredients The educational pyramid consists of three distinct stages Elementary, Secondary/Higher Secondary and Higher Education.  [8]   a. Elementary Education. Designed from 5 to 12 years of age to impart universal literacy and explore hidden talent among the students from class I to 8. Elementary education employs regional languages as medium of instruction. Rural areas confront low enrolment, weak turnout, weak infrastructure and inadequate facilities, whereas urban institutions are overcrowded and located in unhealthy environment. This crucial stage of a childs learning is overloaded with stereotypical academic curriculum basically aiming at providing primary inputs for higher education. The syllabus provides no opportunity for arts, crafts and pre-vocational exposures. Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Secondary and Higher Secondary stage is an integral part of the growth package for an individual towards his intellectual, research and professional excellence, coincides with adolescence stage (a delicate and sensitive phase of human development) which requires calculated guidance with logical reasoning. The existing curriculum at this stage is again information oriented, predominantly bookish and theoretical in nature, which does not develop a child as to the demands of either the society or work place. The students thus lack exposure to practical and creative work. Soon after their secondary schooling, many of them begin to search for a clerical type of job. At present, 60-80% of students in secondary classes are enrolled in arts subjects, which leads through an aimless general education that has very little acceptance in our agro-based controlled economy. Thus, a pattern of supply rather than demand-orientation in terms of instructions at secondary and higher secondary levels is further accentuating the dropouts either before or during this critical learning period. Higher Education. This commences at the age where the element of coercion fades away and students are motivated enough to pursue serious studies and possess abilities for academic/intellectual growth. There are basically stages of scholarly activities at higher education. These are B.A, M.A and the M.Phil. /Ph.D. The first one introduces the field of specialisation, the second the mastery of same field and the third carries students into new advanced fields through independent study and original research work. Under the present educational environment, higher education is producing academics instead of practitioners as there is virtually no concept or avenue for the use of higher learning of certain subjects in our society. Since thinking process and creation of knowledge remains quite restricted without proper experience and experiments and therefore, higher education without practice cannot be truly useful. Some relevant educational statistics/targets as envisaged in the educational policy of 1998-2010 are attached as annexes C, D, E and F MAJOR WEAKNESSES Lack of Quality Education. The most important problem being faced by our educational system is that of quality education. The major factor being over-crowding in the classes i.e. 80 students or more are handled together in a small room. The teaching staff is also unable to pay individual attention to their students; this naturally leads to indiscipline and deterioration of standards in the class.  [9]   Untrained Teachers. Unfortunately non-availability of qualified and properly trained teachers also retarded the expansion of literacy rate by adversary affecting the establishment of new educational institution as well as the quality of education in existing institutions. In a nation wide study in Pakistan in 1995, teachers with less than Matric level education could not answer 30% of questions based on grade four textbooks.  [10]   Large Number of Dropouts. Socio-economic factor is a major reason for a large number of dropouts of students even before completing their primary/middle standards. Economic pressures force a student to assist the family to increase family income at the expanse of his education. Other contributing factors in this regard are :  [11]   A dislike for school subjects. Unsatisfactory student-teacher relationship. A history of school failures. Non participation in school activities. Female Education. Literacy rate of female in Pakistan is half of that of males. Primary reasons for this are: Male dominance, cultural biases, and ages old tribal traditions. Girls are often required to help with household work of the family. Lack of conveniently located schools and separate schools for girls. Non availability of female teachers. In Pakistan female teachers at primary level are 25% of total teachers. Inflexible hours of schooling and irrelevant curricula. Non Involvement of Community. Nationalisation of schools in the 1970s, without adequate community participation in the running of schools, had led to a major deterioration in the quality of education. Non Participation of Private Sector. Insufficient government facilities do not cater for requirements of the country. In rural areas, where literacy rate is at the lowest, no worth while participation of the private sector exists. Illdiversification of Courses. It is imperative that a wide choice of subjects be made available to the students at the beginning of 9th class to suit their individual needs, aptitude and temperaments. It is unfortunate that most of our education is of a general and academic nature. Therefore there is an intellectual drought. The general academic nature, no doubt, helps in broadening the vision and creating a general consciousness of the happenings around us, but it is seldom of any use in carrying out the practical affairs of life successfully in the complex society of today. Allocation of Funds. UNESCO has recommended that 4% of the G.N.P, is a reasonable amount to be spent by the developing countries on education, whereas Pakistan presently is spending about 2.2% of G.N.P on education. Infact Pakistan is the only country in South Asia, where expenditure on education, as a percentage of G.N.P, has fallen since 1990.  [12]   Evaluation System. Prevalent examination system is marred by a number of evils. Tests are based on end of cycle certification rather than periodic tests. Dangerous trend of cheating and manipulation has also crept in the system. Language. Our education system suffers from a precarious struggle between education in English and Urdu. Presently, there are two standards of education each basing on one language. Other Factors Out of meagre amount spent on education, a huge portion is wasted through corrupt and inefficient system. According to a survey by Army Rs 1.5 billion per year were embezzled in head of teachers salaries.  [13]   52% of teachers in Pakistan use physical punishment. Curriculum of primary education is not in line with our objectives and national aspirations. Textbooks are sub standard and generally are not in conformity with the specifications/standards set by the curriculum bureau.  [14]   Political unrest and unhealthy political activities amongst students adversely affect education. Its however limited to beyond primary and secondary levels. School timings for the year do not take into account agriculture cycles, which limits attendance in rural areas.  [15]   Narrow research base in the universities. h. Non-employability of educated youth. j. Ineffective role of media. k. Education not being used at all for social change. l. Learning less in substance and more in volume. Effects of Existing Education System Lack of National Aspirations. The development of education is confronted with just about all problems that can be found anywhere in the world. A long detailed description of objectives and aspirations of all educational policies since 1947-98 magnifies the confusion as it has always been set in the absence of definite National Goals. Waste of Effort. The present education system does not prepare a student for the challenges of the life rather it only prepares him for examination. At the same time huge amount is spent on sending individuals abroad for higher studies and research but the country does not have requisite means and infrastructure to benefit from their higher standards on their return, thus the higher qualification become a mere status symbol with no advantage to the country and no satisfaction to the individuals academic aspirations. Loss of Inherited Trade. Most of our students come from the working class. The present system of education detaches them from their ancestral trade/business and imparts them a general education though at times it may be very sophisticated education. These youth are ultimately a loss to their trades, to their parents, to the society and to themselves as well. The present system of education is systematically producing a large number of unemployed, frustrated and dejected youth.  [16]   Unemployment. Education policies in the past made an effort to give an industrial bias to education. Hence a number of polytechnics and commercial colleges were opened throughout the country. The result is that now we have a daring situation of unemployment among technically qualified. Moreover trade and industry field in the country is still not sufficiently developed to absorb these trained people. Bad Governess. Giving higher education to those not possessing the intelligence and aptitude is a national waste. The present system of education in Pakistan is producing so many unemployable graduates of such indifferent quality that they are often not even good clerks and assistants. It is not the number of persons graduating that asses the efficacy of an education system but the quality of such graduates. When the incapable graduates grow in abundance and the society has no system other than the degree to determine merit, the incompetent are bound to infiltrate all walks of life and reasonable positions and threaten the very survival of the socio-economic institutions. The proliferation of facilities for higher education without appropriate merit criteria is, therefore, counterproductive. Waste of Female Strength. Women who constitute 52 % of the countrys population have literacy rate of only 26%. The dropout ratio for women during and after primary schooling is about 80%. The main reason behind it is that girls are not considered as an economic asset to the family hence their education remains a neglected aspect in our society. Production of Disgruntled Youth. According to education policy 1972-80, the existing system of education is one of the root cause of the general dropout in our education system. At present there are internal examination from class first to seventh, under which students are failed or passed on the basis of annual test. There is no test of observing or recording the performance of the student throughout the year. As a result the passing or failing of a students in the annual examination becomes a matter of the pupils memory. The high percentage of failures not only leads to heavy dropouts but also brings to life feeling of frustration and inferiority in the student. This is not only a national wastage but adds to our society a large number of handicapped people,  [17]  which ultimately produces disgruntled youth. Controversial Medium of Instruction. Notwithstanding the recognition of Urdu as a national language in the constitution, education policy on the medium of instruction is always based on compromises. The phenomenon of different languages being used in various regions as medium of instruction and even within a region has created a confused state. In these circumstances development of textbooks in indigenous languages has not been carried out in a systematic and co-ordinated manner. This apart, a student remains exposed to learning three/four languages. From this ensues limited linguistic ability which restricts the students horizon and forces them to rely on memorising and learning by rote.  [18]  The students mug up few topics that they expect in examination; if the question paper include those topics, the examinees are happy and if the expected questions are not asked, they protest violently and leave the examination hall. Lack of Pride in the Teaching Profession. Qualified and motivated youth in the teaching profession is essential to ensure a quality education. The best graduates join either engineering or medicine while the rest look for other outlets before joining as a teacher. Low pay grades, poor social status, meagre benefits and a missing career-ladder in teaching profession does not attract the best students. Presently, teaching is a difficult job with low salary, no status and ever-growing public criticism. These are making it difficult for the teacher to work with pride and dedication. Improvement Towards Betterment STRENGTH Having completed the analysis, it is felt that there are basically five major fields in the education system, which needs close attention to put the things at their right place. The recommendations are being made in these fields one by one which are:- Economic Reforms. Structural Organisations. Qualitative Improvements. Socio-Political, Ethical and Cultural Development. National Emergency Economic Reforms User Charges. There is a strong justification to gradually raise fee structure for secondary and higher level education. However, on social consideration the raise should be steeper for higher level than secondary level. Those poor outstanding students, who qualify for higher studies, should be provided a fixed stipend. Induction of Local Bodies and Private Sector in Education. Education is basically the responsibility of provincial government, but at the same time it is also a national concern and in certain major areas, decision ought to be taken at national level. There is a need to regard education as a federal-provincial partnership. Education planning has to be decentralised to the district level and still down to union council level. Moreover, there is a need to incorporate private sector particularly the NGOs and support them in a massive way through financial support to enable them to undertake literacy programmes on a much larger scale. Increased Budgetary Allocations. The government must allocate minimum 4% of G.N.P, to education as recommended by UNESCO. Additional resources be diverted from the budget to education by effecting some economy in defence /Non developmental expenditure. Structural Organisation Primary and Adult Education. Primary and adult education should form the bulwark of our education structure and should receive highest allocation. Emphasis should be laid on properly equipping the existing schools before establishing new formal schools or informal and community schools. However, the existing and new schools should take into account the socio-economic environment of areas in the matter of educational cycle and timings of schools. If this is not taken into account, high dropout rates and phenomena of ghost schools will continue. Secondary Education. Secondary schools are of two types, general and vocational/polytechnic. These schools should be unified and converted into complete stage of education with curricula of compulsory subjects and a few elective subjects for preparing the students for a definite vocational career. Tertiary Education. The colleges and the universities, both general and professional, have outgrown in number. The need is to consolidate and improve these seats of higher learning than expanding them. This improvement and consolidation should be brought about by: a. Admitting the students purely on merit after subjecting them to aptitude tests so as to determine whether they really qualify for specialised studies. b. Making the colleges and universities autonomous and research oriented. c. Throwing out politics and professional students from the campuses. d. Bestowing on Professors and Teachers the same social status as is enjoyed by them in advanced countries. Medium of Instructions. The issue of medium of instruction has continued to be skirted due to its sensitivity. The issue should be tackled rationally and boldly as under: At primary level the national language as unanimously agreed to by the representatives of the people and enshrined in the Constitution, should be introduced as the medium of instruction. At the secondary level also, the national language should be made the medium of instruction. English should be taught as compulsory subject and its curricula should be completely revised to encourage communicative and cognitive skills in this language. c. At tertiary level, English should be the medium of instructions. The possibility of introduction of national language can be reviewed later. Qualitative Improvements Teachers Education. The output of qualified teachers has lagged behind the expansion in the schools. Therefore, the number of teachers training institution should be increased and unqualified teachers should be compulsorily trained in these institutions. Those who do not qualify should not be retained. At the same time, the terms of service of teachers should be improved to make profession of education attractive. Teachers Supervision and Performance Assessment. With the expansion in the educational network, supervision and assessment of teachers has received a serious setback. This lack of supervision and support has resulted in large-scale absenteeism and low morale among teachers. Hence, in order to improve supervision and carry out on-the-spot support to teachers (model teaching, in service training etc) existing training and inspection system should be strengthened. Incentives. Suitable annual awards should be instituted for the meritorious work in the field of literacy at national, provincial and local level. It has been observed that government schoolteachers take up alternative employment while their attendance is recorded regularly by junior teachers attending the classes. In the rural areas the situation is much worse. Number of Students in a Class. To prevent overcrowding, the number of students in a class should be restricted to thirty-five or less. Physical Facilities including Instructional Material. The educational institutions are deficient in four areas, namely buildings and furniture, laboratories and equipment, textbooks and sports. These facilities are to be made available without any delay. Curriculum. Curricula in educational institutions are not only overcrowded but also out of pace with advancement of knowledge. Therefore, a major effort should be made to revise curricula at primary, secondary, college and university levels in order to make it meaningful and responsive to the needs of the society. Moreover it should be same for both the government and private schools throughout the country. Textbooks. Our textbooks are of poor quality lacking content, method of presentation, printing and set-up. At the same time, they are cost productive. These textbooks have also a strong flavour of foreignness which, to a large extent, owes to syllabus as also to scarcity of writers who can compose textbooks without relying heavily on plagiarism. Therefore, a massive reform of textbooks should be undertaken. Examination System. The examinations test the students for rote memory and largely exclude conceptual and cognitive tests. The system should be reformed with emphasis on internal assessment and its linkage with curriculum development process. There is also a need for the standardisation of the examination system. All examination papers should be prepared by one central authority, through one curriculum both for private and government schools. Effort should also be made to make evaluation system foolproof. There is also a need to take suitable measures to eliminate test papers and notes other than prescribed curr

Articles of Confederations Fails Essay

In order for a country to work to its fullest potential, it needs a great government. This government needs to do three important tasks. It needs to set up laws, enforce the laws, and provide many different services. Also, it needs to make sure it brings everyone together. Finally, if the government has a problem it should be able to be fixed easily. When the 13 colonies had the Articles of Confederation it couldn’t do many of the things it was supposed to do, thus it failed as a government. First, the Articles couldn’t fulfill the purposes of government like it was supposed to. They were supposed to set up many laws to keep the states and the country as a whole in order. They couldn’t do that; so instead the states made up their own rules and followed them. That also caused the states to become more independent. Also, since there were no laws, that means that the government couldn’t enforce any laws. Although, it could provide some services, but that was the only purpose the government could fulfill. Who wants a government that can’t do what it was meant to do? The Articles didn’t fulfill the purposes of government and that is why it failed as a government. Next, a strong a government can bring it’s entire nation together, unlike the Articles of Confederation. Nobody in the states really liked or agreed with the Articles. The 13 different states started making up their own rules and just followed them. This caused separation between the states, which was not good in the least bit. In order to have a good country, it is much better if the government can unite everyone. The Articles of Confederations couldn’t bring it’s nation together, so it failed as a government. Finally, the Articles couldn’t been fixed easily. It took all the 13 states to agree on something to be fixed within the Articles. If one state didn’t want a change it didn’t happen. That means that it would be very hard to fix anything with the government. The Articles could not fix itself for fulfilling the purposes of government or uniting the country. For a country starting out with its first government, they should’ve have known there were probably going to be problems. Usually, the first time you try something it doesn’t work out perfectly. With that, they should have made a way to easily fix the Articles, but they could not. With this huge problem, the United States definitely needed a change of government. The Articles of Confederation could not easily be fixed, a final reason to why it failed as a government. We had the Articles, for many reasons. They could not fulfill the purposes of government under it. Also, we couldn’t bring all the 13 states together as a nation, protect the people of the country, or fix the problems of government with ease. The states needed all of those items to become a great country. Instead, it caused many problems for the people of the states. In conclusion, the Articles of Confederation were overturned for the greater good.

E - Business - Individual Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2853 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Course: BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance Module title: E-Business Coursework: Individual Essay In this modern era, successful e-commerce firms have business models that create value to the firms, therefore the focus will be on how online social networking firms have takes advantage of the modern technology to turn into good business ideas. Thus, what will be cover in this essay is on the business model and strategies of the selected social networking sites (SNS). Facebook and Twitter are the examples of SNS that will be used. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "E Business Individual Essay" essay for you Create order Firstly, it is important to state how technology has evolve in the modern world because this relates to how SNS grown from the past. Therefore, history and the rise of social media will be one of the first area will be cover. Besides that, the following area that will be cover after history of social media is business strategy used by these two firms. An effective e strategy will keep the firm to sustain and grow but if these firms do not keep track with it closely might give them problems in the future. The next part that will be touching on is to look into detail of the business model on these two social networking firms. Different social networking firms have different business model, it shows the strength of these SNS. Besides that, comparison between these social networking firm business models will be made so it can understand how one is better than the other one in different ways. Lastly, risk face by SNS and the future of social media is another aspect that has to ta ke into account. Technology evolve in a very fast pace and is so popular nowadays compare to the past, whether is young or old, almost everyone uses internet. Some use for personal interest such as games and watching videos, some use it for online shopping and some use business purpose. Because of this reason, it also gives firms opportunity to enter into e-commerce and capture the business based on customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s preference. Understanding the needs of customers is one of the most important factors that firms have to look into. In the past decade, the rise of online social networking has been very popular and it is something that almost everyone in the world what is it about and uses now. Social network is an internet-based social media program that enables to make connections between friends, family, clients and customers. In other words, it can be done for social purposes, business or both. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIN are some of the examples of popular SNS. It is important to understand how social networks started and have grown into a big business. When social networking sites were first introduced, one of the very first useful and popular features that make social networking popular is that users can locate back their long lost friends. As time pass, there are more and more features that create joy and fun for users to use and it become a hit. Societies and people started to be aware of social networking when Friendster was introduced in Year 2002, it has 3 million users in the first three months. After that, social networks sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are one of the top social networking sites that came into the market and turn social network into to be something to be known to the world. It is true that the use of and popularity of Social Networks grown over the years. The reason behind it is the additional features that bring more benefits to users. Among all the social network sites, Facebook is the on e that won the web. Innovative features that puts Facebook ahead of the rest. In 2009, Facebook ranked as the most-used social network worldwide with more than 200 million. As we understand handset culture has rise over the years, therefore this has even made social media more popular as it becomes part of humanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s daily lives. For instance, in year 2011, there are 550 million people on Facebook, 65 millions tweets sent through Twitter in a day. Social media was on the rise along with mobile social media smartphones and tablets computers. It allows users to be connected with each other constantly and provides real time interaction and users do not have to wait until they get home to update their status or see their notifications. Smartphone and social media are two mediums that work together and represent the two most popular ways to keep in touch with friends. And because mobile technology is getting better and better, there are more people who access social network s via smartphones and tablets than computer. Besides that, many countries around the world heavily engaged with social networks such as United Kingdom, United States, Canada, China, Japan and etc. Since social media is so popular, many businesses change their landscape for marketing and advertising. The reason that businesses should use social media for advertising is to create brand awareness. It not only able to reach more customers, it is also able to monitor competitorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s latest updates and news. In terms of business strategy, Facebook and Twitter do have similarities. Both adopt diversification strategy. The way it diversifies is by acquiring its competitors. For an example, Facebook acquired Instagram in year 2012 and acquired WhatsApp this year, whereas Twitter acquiredf Namo Media and MoPub. One of the main reasons of acquiring these companies is to eliminate the competitors. Because competitors pose threats to them, an effective way of reduce the threa ts is eliminating its competitors which is what Facebook and Twitter did. Apart from this, Facebook also diversify by creating its own application, Facebook papers. Facebook paper is an application for Facebook users to discover news and share it with friends on the social network. Its feature is almost similar to Flipboard. Thus, besides having its own social site, it also expand to other areas by diversifying. For any e-commerce firms to be successful, an effective business model is needed. Business models separate into different components such as value proposition, revenue model, competitive environment and competitive advantage. The most simple reason that organisation need business model because it is a base or a guideline to lead organisation to make money. A business model is about how organisation solve customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s problem in a profitable way and it will be a very useful business formula oganisation can use to understand it. With an effective business mod el in place, it able to create unique qualities of the web, provide customers real value, effective and efficient operation, avoid any legal issues that will affect the firm in a negative way, and as a result it will turn into a profitable business. As we understand that most of the SNS are free for users to register and use it, they cannot rely on users for revenue; therefore they need a unique business model in place to produce revenues and profits. There are reasons behind the success of social network sites. By having an effective business model is the key factor why some social network sites are better than another. As it mention above, Facebook and Twitter will be the two examples that will be used to discuss on their business model. It will be understandable that most of the people would agree that Facebook has the best business model among the social network sites because it is the most users. Therefore, by looking into detail in each of these components enable a bette r understanding on what that makes Facebook so special and standout against the competitors. Value proposition is one the first component of business model. It concern on how SNS create value to businesses that uses it as a tool to conduct their business. Facebook and Twitter have different value proposition. There are approximately 1.4 billion Facebook users at the moment. One of the very obvious answers is to advantage of the number of Facebook users. This is good reason why should business advertise their business on Facebook Average of 700 million users per day shows how active is Facebook is. Due to this reason, it will be a good start for business to use this as a platform to advertise so that customers will be aware of their firm and latest news or products. To relate to this point, firms can use as a marketing strategy at low cost. This will be very useful for small and medium firms with limited budget. Based on this reason, it is clear enough why firms should use Faceboo k as a tool conduct the business. On the other hand, Twitter have more or less similar value proposition as Facebook. There are about 650 million users currently. Twitter strongest advantage or its value proposition is the real time conversation and feedback and this is an area where there are slight difference compare to Facebook. The databases of tweets consists of comments, observations and opinion of the audienc leads to search engine that mines these tweets for patterns and therefore, these are real-time and spontaneous obversations that business. Business environment is very competitive in the modern world, it need to interact customers in a very fast pace and understand the needs of customers and their feedback. Statistically, 92% of all activity with Tweets happens within the first hour of the post being made. Compare it to Facebook status updates, the interaction will continue to go on for hours or days. For instance, Snickers posted a similar status on Twitter and Faceb ook : à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Hey @luis16suarez, Next time you are hungry just grab a Snickersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  As a result, it got 39,000 retweets and 17,000 favourites but it only have 5,000 likes, shares and comments on Facebook. Therefore, Twitter will be a better choice if business that prefer instant feedback from customers. In addition, firms can also use Twitter with low cost like Facebook. Furthermore, revenue model is also part of key component of a business model that needs to take into consideration. The way Facebook generate its revenue is by firms advertise their business in Facebook. Some of the examples of big spenders are Nike, Electronic arts and McDonald. Facebook rely on user engagement to ensure viability of site for external investors. Whenever users click on the firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s advertisement page, it will cost them range from 5 cents to 5 dollars to Facebook for every click. In addition, Facebook revenue do not only come from advertising, it also due to large part to its virtual games. For example, for the first quarter of 2012, 186 million US dollar revenue generated from non-advertising, such as selling credits for game like Farmville. As for Twitter, revenue also comes from advertising. 85% of Twitterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s revenue comes from advertising of its sites. Promoted Tweets is part of Twitterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s advertising. Twitter charge its advertisers based on the amount of interaction their content generates, there is usually a budget set at the start of campaign and advertisers pays per click or by per tweet. It also has a bidding system where advertisers able to compete with each other to have their content appear in a particular space. Promoted Trends is another way Twitter generates its revenue. It is a section where Twitter home page that allow users to know the popular news and whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hot. An organisation able to place Promoted Trend banner at the top of Trend Section and when users click on it, it will lead the users to the follower page for the movie or product. Promoted Trend is reportedly to be Twitterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s best source of revenue. Unlike Facebook, it does not have feature where it can generate revenue through virtual games due to its simplicity. Competitive environment will be another important element of a business model. It refers to what other companies or competitors in the same marketplace that sells similar products. SNS is very competitive industry, each of these SNS are competing for market share. Both Facebook and Twitter have many competitors. Many SNS see it as a business opportunity to attract firms to use their site as a platform. Facebook and Twitter itself is a biggest competitor to each other but there are some other big competitors such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google plus and etc. In addition, Facebook and Twitter have unique competitive advantage is the reason they are in firm position compare to competitors but they have different fe ature or platform that make them unique. First and foremost, Facebook platform is key to Facebook current success. What make them special is it made it possible for third party developers to create application that work together with Facebook. And this is where it gain massive amount of attention. Currently, there are thousands of applications built on Facebook platform, it is so much that Facebook has to launched its own App Store to organize all of it. Twitter competitive advantage is more or less the same as its value proposition. What makes Twitter special is its real time sharing and spontaneous observations. Although SNS such as Facebook and Twitter generate most of their revenues from business that advertise on its platform, it still faces issues that result in reduction of profit. There are certain factors which are out of its control such as government control. For instance, Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China. China has the biggest population in the world and it i s massive of advertising revenue opportunity. It is not only a missed opportunity but it also creates advantage to its competitors. As RenRen is new leading site in China, it could pose threat to top SNS such as Facebook and Twitter because if RenRen expand and move out of China. Besides that, bad publicity could also be another factors could have a negative effect on SNS. Government surveillance, child molesters and stalkers are some of the examples. Bad publicity affects its reputation, as a result, it will be hard to retain users and this relates to associated revenue. Since many firms are using social media for marketing and advertising purpose, the future of social media is an important factor to consider too. Facebook and Twitter might be the leading SNS that business use for advertising currently, but whether both of these can sustain as the top in the future is an area that have to take into consideration. Because there are e-commerce firms are heavily relying on technolo gy or Facebook in order to conduct their business, it will also directly affect firms that rely on Facebook if Facebook cannot sustain its popularity. Based on the recent development, social media in the future might be open source or even community-run. One of the good examples for it is Diaspora, this site function as a small, open-source, community social network that is almost similar to Facebook in terms of appearance and operation. It is growing well since it was introduced. No SNS have overtake Facebook or Twitter, but unstable landscape of internet in this modern era, there is a possibility it will not remain true in the future. As a conclusion, we understand that technology evolve very fast, it create more and more business opportunities and it is important that businesses take technology into consideration in this competitive business environment. As SNS is seen as a very useful platform for business to use, it is important for it to cope with competitive business envir onment. As a result, business model and business strategy of Facebook and Twitter were analyse in detail to get a good understanding of it. Examine the similarities and differences between Facebook and Twitterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s business model and business strategy is an important aspect because it shows how their platform provides benefits to the business in a different way. Reference The Brief History of Social Media. 2014.The Brief History of Social Media. [ONLINE].Available.at:https://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html. [Accessed 02 August 2014]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The History of Social Media | Digital Trends. 2014.The History of Social Media | Digital Trends. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/#!bpWb7N. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. Social Networking Definition | Investopedia. 2014.Social Networking Definition | Investopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-networking.asp. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. Why Every Business Should Use Facebook | Search Engine Journal. 2014.Why Every Business Should Use Facebook | Search Engine Journal. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/every-business-use-facebook/71281/. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. How Does Facebook Make Its Money? | The Big Picture. 2014.How Does Facebook Make Its Money? | The Big Picture. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/02/how-does-facebook-make-its-money/. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. The Importance of Business Models | Resources | Connecticut Innovations. 2014.The Importance of Business Models | Resources | Connecticut Innovations. [ONLINE] Available.at:https://www.ctinnovations.com/resource/35/importance-of-business-models. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. Twitter Statistics | Statistic Brain. 2014.Twitter Statistics | Statistic Brain. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. Twitter Vs Facebook. 2014.Twitter Vs Facebook. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.visualscope.com/twitfb.html. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. BBC News How does Twitter make money?. 2014.BBC News How does Twitter make money?. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24397472. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. Twitter Wins Real-Time Marketing Smackdown; Agency Strategist Declares Facebook Organic Reach 100% Dead. 2014.Twitter Wins Real-Time Marketing Smackdown; Agency Strategist Declares Facebook Organic Reach 100% Dead. [ONLINE] Available at:https://marketingland.com/twitter-takes-bite-facebook-organic-reach-smackdown-89016. [Accessed 02 August 2014]. 1

Marketing Plan For A Marketing Strategy - 1326 Words

Marketing Plan Once when our business is planned and everything is done in proper manner than our time starts doing marketing and introduce our services to our target customers and place the image of our product in our customers mind. Actually language translation business is not same as product selling business, in product selling business, you have a product which customers can touch and check butt marketing and selling services is the hardest job because some our customers are unaware that they need it or not. Marketing strategy Creating a marketing strategy is compulsory for any business. Without an effective marketing strategy our energies to attract target customers are same as haphazard and wasteful. The main focus of our strategy should be to provide our services according to the need and wants of our customers and creating long-term and valuable relationship with them. 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