The new education minister, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, has invited public comments on the national education policy. The draft of the policy document can be found here.
It is hoped that we will have a fruitful discussion on this issue and ideas for improvement in the national education policy here at Pakistaniat, possibly leading some of the participants to even give some valuable suggestions to the education ministry.
I hope to read the document in the coming days, but in the mean time, here are some general thoughts on how we should approach such issues.
We would love to have instant reform, which unfortunately is not possible. Our suggestions and criticism should be made while keeping this basic reality in mind. We can however break down reforms into short and long-term ones and see what can realistically be achieved over what time frame.
Secondly, there is absolutely no denying that funding is important, but the utilization of existing funds is also equally important. We have a tendency to overemphasize the shortage of money and use it as a convenient excuse for a lack of serious effort for institution building and the failure to make proper use of available resources. As a general rule, we should always be weary of overly steep increases in funding. Too much money going in too fast, though good for making impressive news headlines for the concerned ministry, can often lead to more corruption and institutional decay instead of bringing about a genuine improvement.
So while the education budget certainly needs to be increased to at least 4% of GDP as soon as possible, it must not be forgotten that such an increase by itself will not lead to much improvement if there is no prior ground work for ensuring that the extra money will not just be wasted away through corruption and inefficiency. And such ground work will inevitably require a bit of slowing down and setting achievable targets instead of unrealistic ones.
A somewhat related concern relates to how we see ‘big picture’ ideas as opposed to apparently smaller and basic things that are not even very hard to implement, but can make a significant impact. Both are very important, but we sometimes grossly underestimate and dismiss the simpler, but less grand ideas by saying that they do not ‘address the big picture’ or some other such ridiculous criticism. In the end, the ‘fundamental paradigm shift’ or ‘revolution’ does not materialize, but we also forego the smaller and incremental but more achievable improvements that can accumulate into something substantial over time.
Lastly, a good education policy should produce socially aware individuals and not just money making robots. We need people who can have the sense to start thinking ahead before an economic bubble bursts, before the severity of an energy crisis hits them right in the face and before a food shortage leads to a famine or violent riots and are willing to make compromises to their personal lifestyles and start agitating for badly needed policy reforms for their own selves if not out of any concern for the society.
References:
1. Ministry of Education, Pakistan
2. Photos for this post are from flickr.com
Re: Saraiki Organizations
Language is the most contentious issue in third world education policies. It must be addressed leaving aside any biases, solely in national interest. If my understanding is correct, the sequence English/Urdu/Regional Language is congruent to Lingua Franca/National Language/Regional Language. We are going through a revolutionary age of information and it is vital that we accept the ground realities. What this means is that our children must be able to communicate globaly, nationaly, and localy. It does not mean that we, in any way, compromise our cultural heritages in the persuit of this objective.
One of the possibilities that can be looked into, solely to reduce the burden on both the child and the system, is to merge the Lingua Franca and the National Language. It may seem politically preposterous, but keeping in mind the objective of nation building, it is not unthinkable.
Religion is an important part of our culture too. I find it interesting that religion has been reduced to a debit credit system in Pakistani society. The word Debit is ‘Gunah’ (sin) and Credit is ‘Sawab’ (blessing). It has become a numbers game. One of the reasons, that I believe, is lack of understanding of the Arabic language itself and dependence on third party interpretations which mostly results in abuse and misguidedness. Recitation without understanding is widely accepted, which may satisfy a spiritual need, but definitely lacks the purpose of Learning which is hugely emphasised at all levels in Islam. The same goes for people of other beliefs. Children of other belief systems must be given the same opportunity. I endorse secular concept in governance which is both just and fair to all citizens regardless of their race, creed, or religion and must recognize and respect their human rights in every respect.
Thus the sequence becomes Regional Language/Religious Language/Lingua Franca. I have reversed the order simply to emphasis the fact that the child must start with its own language and then graduate into religious and global languages. It is upto experts to determine the age and level of introduction.
God bless us all!!
I want to share some points
1. After 60 years we could not have a long term education policy
2. It changes with the change of government
3. No security for it (Any single person can change it without seeing its future effects,atleast with the permision of parliment)
4. Every student, every educated person have the responsibility to struggle for the protection of the educational system.
5. Real solution is to make a good education Policy and than its protection and implementation in real means.
THE COMMENT AND THE SUGGESTIONS
1. The Siraiki speaking people have great love for their language as for all the languages of Pakistan. After successful struggle for official recognition of their language
I think this discussion should be linked to the discussion on libraries going elsewhere on this blog. Libraries and their development should also be integral part of the education policy.
Glad that the topic is bit back on track after that over-emphasis on the IIT model. Well i would give some suggestions briefly, being a student i would prefer to state the ‘student’s views’
1. At all levels of examination the traditional essay type questions must be abolished. The short questions and MCQs are a tool of opening new horizons and some ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking.
However, it is essential that those short questions not be handed over to the old-fashioned guru’s of education…..they simply can’t think NEW!
2. Let’s not jump blindfoldedly to a single education system. The first step to bring uniformity could be to make it compulsory for all students all over da country to take some standard board exams. Moreoever all the boards must be combined under a single umbrella to bring homogenity in all country.
3. After the 8th grade students must be allowed to take any subject combinations according to their choice of career and not to stack them with extra non related subjects!
4. What our country need is a lot of consultation. A STUDENT BODY must be formed to get feedback from the students regarding their curricula. Afterall its students who suffer, and still they are denied their chance to voice their opinion. The middle aged men can not simply think from the student’s point of view!
5. Software competitions, science contests, exhibitions etc must be held throughout they country for students below 8th grade too. Such events would open the mind of students.
6. All the professional careers must be given due respect so that whole point of our higher studies are not for being an engineer, doctor or an economist! We need professionals in all fields and students must be made to feel this!