The present survey research was aimed at identifying the ICT facilities, skills, usage, and the problems faced by the students of higher education while using ICT. The population of the study comprised the students of public sector universities of Lahore, Pakistan. Instrument was developed by the first author. About 250 students were selected from three public universities. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the students have computers and Internet facilities at home and universities. They are expert at simple skills like MS Word, MS Power Point, Searching and Browsing at Internet, Social networking, Email, File attachment, and Computer games but are less skilled or poor on other skills like using digital library, discussion forums, and Blogs. Students spend more time on computers for recreational and other purposes than for academic purpose. They believe that the use of ICT supports their learning. Slow speed of computers, signal problem in Internet, virus threat, poor working condition of computers, load shedding, and lack of access of Internet are the problems faced by the majority of the students. The universities should invest more on improving the infrastructure to address the ICT related problems of students at the universities.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the perceived job stressand stress coping strategies used by the teachers in Pakistani universities.The study used a survey research design comprising two segments: a)first section identifies how the presence of negative factors and theabsence of positive factors cause stress for university teachers in theircareers. b) The second part identifies the coping strategies used by themto explore the ways for effective stress management. The data wascollected by the instruments Perceived Job Stressors (Kanner, Kafry, &Pines, 1978) and The Coping Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub,1989) to identify the stressors and the preferred coping strategies used bythe faculty. The data indicate that university faculty experience stressboth due to presence of negative factors and absence of positive factors.The most important stress coping strategy used by them was positivereinterpretation & growth, followed by turning to religion, planning,suppression of competing activities, active coping, restraining coping,seeking social support for emotional reasons, acceptance, mentaldisengagement, alcohol-drug disengagement, focusing on & venting ofemotions. Moreover, age of teachers influence the adaptation of abovementioned three coping strategies namely positive reinterpretation &growth, turning to religion, and mental disengagement.

Problem statement: Gender disparity is a worldwide phenomenon. This disparity is not only with respect to opportunities and resources but also in rewards, and exists in all regions and classes. Gender disparity exists in the field of education as well. Females experience overt and subtle gender discrimination to some extent nearly at every stage of their career. Males represent the majority of the faculty of higher education institutes across the globe. Managerial positions are usually held by males, who not only have more decision making power but also have more opportunities of social networking. Women have to achieve a successful career at the cost of their family life.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the effect of different variables on the locus of control of secondary school students. About 520 students participated in the study. Brown Locus of Control Scale (BLOCS) was used to assess the internal, external social, and external other loci of control of students. The t-test and ANOVA were applied to find out the difference in locus of control of students of different gender, age, grade level, subjects, and family income. Results revealed that external social and external other loci of control of female students were significantly higher than the male students. External other locus of control of younger age group (12-to-14-year) and lower grade level (9th) students was significantly higher than the students of older age groups (16-to-17 and 18-to-19-year-old) and higher grade level (10th) students. Internality and other externality of arts group students were significantly higher than the science group students. Family income was found to have significant effect on external social locus of control. However, the effect was not decisive as social externality of students of only one low-income group was significantly higher than the students of a high family income group.

The present study analyzes the English textbook of Grade 8 published by Punjab Textbook Board in Pakistan in the light of student learning outcomes (SLOs) of four competencies: reading and thinking skills, writing skills, oral communication skills, and formal and lexical aspects of language of the latest English curriculum in Pakistan. Competency (C), standards (S), benchmarks (B), and SLOs are the parameters given in the National Curriculum. A semi-structured checklist was developed by the researchers, validated by three experts from the relevant field, and improved in the light of experts’ opinion and pilot study findings. To evaluate the textbook competencies and their SLOs, the evidence was sought from the textbook, and remarks were given in the last column (remarks/analysis) of the checklist. The results revealed that the textbook understudy focuses on reading comprehension only. There is thus a dire need to incorporate thinking skills, writing skills, oral/aural communication skills, and formal and lexical aspects of language in the textbook.