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Singular National Curriculum= The Madrass-ization of Education by Rizwana Khan

 

Imran Khan, the Prime Minister comes out of his office with his cronies and speaks of madrasas and its importance especially in Pakistan. Every time he speaks he starts on Pakistan maintaining madrasas and giving them the level field to jobs. While his speeches are all about that the country’s education but we can hear the faint ticking sound of impending doom as Single National Curriculum enters our school system .

It is obvious that improving the quality of education cannot be achieved without a heavy financial input. Education department has a low budget and how to go around a corner is a problem. But the federal government reveals their new task that is to implement SNL in the provinces on that low budget. On the other hand private schools did well in developing a viable curriculum that match well with the modern strategies. In addition, there is no indication at all of any serious effort to move the examination system away from rote learning. All of this means that, if the new curriculum is imposed on the elite private schools, their educational standard will suffer.

The educational equality is said to be the reason behind the need for a SNL. As is well known, the Pakistani education system is split along three broad lines: a tiny sliver of expensive private schools preparing students for foreign examinations; low-to-middle end public/private schools that follow the federal/provincial curriculum; and madrassa education, that aims to produce the clergy.

Now federal government becomes the flag bearers of Islamic education. In 2006 or post 9/11 most madrasahs were persuaded by the Musharraf government to introduce contemporary subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Computer Literacy, etc in their list of courses

Tariq Jamil and others consider themselves as the custodians of Islamic tradition, culture, values and ethos and brag of controlling so may madrassas in the nation.  Others who are more likely to be found to be going in the private schools consider another point of view. They think that the children should get their values from home and not the schools. They consider the private schools as the sole cause faced by nation today, citing their role in sectarianism, and now in westernized values also. The graffiti war outside on the wall reflects different point of views that creates class rifts in the society.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) surveys for over a decade highlights  the quality of learning in public and private, urban and rural, schools. The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MOFEPT) refers to their data rather than that from the official National Educational Management Information System.

Further shuffling off reason of existence of madrassas is political. Consider the leaders of madrassas followers like Tahir Qadri and Hafiz Rizwan who are able to come out on the roads with nation stopping rallies. Their support in the lower and middle class of the society is strong and palpable. Therefore the humanities and sciences are never considered as a top teaching priority in the madrassas. The Islamic theological disciplines, can’t debate intricacies of belief and practices.  So critical thinking is discouraged.

If the history be revisited four centuries ago Galileo the astronaut is killed for saying the Earth is round and that the earth orbits the sun. But, the idea of a heliocentric solar system is so controversial that the Catholic Church classifies it as a heresy, and warns the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei to abandon it.

So what’s the point of supporting madrassas?  The madrassas exist to produce clergy to keep the knowledge of Islam alive as it is hundred years ago. Further the poor children are admitted and get the option of lodging and food on its premises.

When the nation turns to look for progress the war happens with the neighboring countries. USA and Saudi Arabia realizes that the importance of Pakistani madrassas rests on their producing Mujahideen and Talibans that fought against Russia and then Al Qaeda.  The madrassas’ importance rises and the religious parties push their importance on everyone.


Why were madrasas important to the Muslim world? They encourage young men to develop military talents and find the job as a mercenary. These men are sent to Occupied Kashmir, Bosnia, and then Afghanistan to prove themselves as martyrs the highest level of death.

After 9/11 with changing environment of information and technology medium of communication, the madrassa is somewhat transformed. Imran Khan think that Madrassa students equipped with communication skills, media sciences and Information technology skills can turn around the face of Pakistan and Islam in the world.

The rest of the education taught in private schools, and government schools are ripped down to the level of madrassas so that everyone gets the playing level field. Madrassas curriculum is taken to the private schools and the work load is increased.

Now finishing off the class segregation, the government wants to pulls off the standards used in the private schools to level off with the government public and madrassa schools. Thus SNC serves to knock down the tiny sliver of expensive school preparing students for foreign examinations. The parents know how expensive their children’s education is in private schools charging exorbitant fees. The drivers, cars and private tutors are expensive and only rich can afford. Their demand for education that is based on Western methodologies becomes redundant.  

Regardless of what kind of schools people want their children to learn English, they know that job opportunities open up if proficient in English only. The progress is measured in English, therefore.

But in SNC the schools are forced to turn back to Urdu and memorize Quran. They have to follow the SNC from now onwards. During the regime of General Zia ul Haq the Urdu medium was introduced for one year.

The students weighing to the ground with their backpacks load up in the rickshaws, vans, cars, and motorbikes will be studying this new curriculum. They will prepare for exams that require rote learning. While minority of the students barely makes it to the university, the rest drop out. Also 24 percent children don’t even go to school.  This is the second highest figure in the world after Nigeria. Instead of making the curriculum engaging the curriculum is weighing down the children.

 These schools work on a very low budget and the curriculum needs improvement and so does teachers training.

The parents don’t have any choice but to continue sending children to the schools where they know they won’t last.  The parents hit and tackle with the education that government department spends so little upon and probably will not spend anything more with SNC, either.

On one end of spectrum are madrassas that are usually free of cost or charge minimum while on the other hand are private schools with exorbitant fees.  The goal of the private schools is to create professionals while madrassa produces clergy. In SNC every school is required to get a clergy to teach specific subjects.

Prime Minister recognizes that madrassas at the lowest rung of job opportunities.  But lest no one forget that madrassa’s already have the science subjects as others. Similar to the public schools, madrassas assessments is based on rote memorization. The new SNC should be changing the existing curriculum by developing modern assessment that hinges on critical thinking and not rote memorization.

Instead SNC goes ahead overloading the curriculum of all three tiered schools the extra religious subject material that requires extra memorization. In religious studies The rote learning plays an important role. As nobody can question the religious tenets there is nothing to stall its implementation in SNc.  Instead of developing the modern methodology and sciences, the curriculum implements religious education.

The main perception why the greater dose of religious education is injected in the curriculum is because it will produce more ethical citizens of Pakistan and a strong clergy class. 

It is a contradiction to the Pakistan’s goal set by Prime Minister that remittances from abroad will increase. If the greatest revenues come from foreign remittances why is SNC forms to influence education that deters job skills like critical thinking. The human resource when not well-equipped will have a problem getting jobs abroad.

The teaching style implemented in madrassas is peppered with a flurry of blows when mistakes in memorization are made. So it leads to singular thinking dictated by the instructor. Therefore the assessment is based on memorizing sheer quantity of information. As the children are overloaded with information that they can’t dissect and make sense of anything that they are taught they drop out.

In SNC because of the sheer quantity of information rote learning and memorization becomes the primary focus of assessment. The religious counterpart requires a large amount of memorization in Arabic and, in places, in Urdu translation as well. Further It requires memorization of ahadith in Arabic and in Urdu When rote learning is important in government and madrassa syllabus, critical thinking is central to modern knowledge becomes a second priority.

One would think that in madrassa the curriculum is a lot more than other schools. But SNC has made it clear that the Islamic curriculum is going to be much heavier in public and private schools than in madrassas.  Besides memorization SNC wants books published by the Education board to be given out to all schools

A heavy investment in high-quality textbooks is an essential requirement for improving educational quality. The textbooks provided by the state are of abysmal quality, both in content as well as in presentation. Pakistani textbook boards are unable to provide good-quality learning material. A comparison between the books used in public schools with those used in the elite private schools easily shows the differential quality. There is no reason to restrict the choice to local authors and printers. For the sake of investment in our national future, we should keep open the option of buying the best teaching material regardless whether it’s from abroad as long it engages the students in different schools. These books have been edited because of local cultural sensitivities.

In private schools, imported text books come and with large fonts and clarity in subject matter encourages thinking.  But in SNL all the schools are required to engage only published by Pakistani textbook boards. The small education government budget produces bad quality books .The government’s schools are published on bad quality paper and small fonts.

The public examinations of today only require reproduction of text. Unless the assessment system is radically altered, the quality of education in the public schooling system cannot improve. Those who set high-quality examinations do not come cheap.

As the SNC turns down the private schools’ syllabus that produces good results and  installs the curriculum that is already inapt. For example, the 2019 national survey of public and low-fee private schools by ASER shows that 15 percent of grade V students still cannot read Urdu sentences, 11 percent cannot read English sentences and eight percent cannot do simple two-digit subtractions. These are all recorded in the annual ASER reports. Universities lament the poor quality of their new admissions, and employers are unhappy about the quality of graduates they receive from universities.

 

 

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The judgment by Supreme Court Judge is another blow to women's rights. The sons of dead women lose the case against their maternal family.  It’s definitely a problem trying to unravel the Sharia and the laws of the state.

The women are the responsibility of the men in her father’s family. Therefore the sons get remarkably more than their sisters. The logic behind the Sharia law and women getting half of the men’s inheritance, therefore is simple.

Who decides the laws in Sharia law? A group of Islamic scholars come up with the cohesive logical reasons and instruct the locality to live by them from then onwards. Therefore Sharia laws names Fiqh laws legal. But remember that they are different from every other parts of the Muslim world.

The grandsons get up and walk to the court to get their rightful share. But then who is going to talk to their mother for she’s dead. All right fine. Her sons became lawyers and decide to get their rightful share.

Now Judge Bandial who has sisters and who might or might not be asking for their inherent rights.  The supreme court judge maybe therefore in self-defense gives a damaging judgment against the grandsons who are asking for their dead mother’s inheritance, Surely Judge's sisters and daughters, also, sit on a case that catches their interest so that he thinks that he'll send to them this  message to clear off.  In most of the cases the males of the family know how to make a pool in their backyard and drown their daughters and sisters so that they don’t come back asking for their rightful share.  

As always the women links with their families make them weak and it translates into ‘sorry brothers you like your sister, mother, daughter but they are dumb as a post and have never done anything right.  Her sons become a proper example of patriarchy gone awfully wrong. Also she got the facts wrong and died before she can register her complaint in the court. Then there is the Islamic law of witness. One male witness equals two women.

A group of lawyers stride down the hallway of the courthouse. Everyone gathers papers with nothing relevant in them. The crowds part like the Red Sea when a lonely woman wrapped in a dark chador walks towards them. The woman approaches the judge with one a lawyer and a weak case. The judge checks the proof but knows fully well that the woman will never bring the right kind paperwork that’s needed to make a strong case or in that matter any case. Why? Its simple. All the fards are kept with their brothers

She realizes that the case is going to shatter her wonderful, important shelter that she has formed in her father’s family. Her mother and brothers are all against her going to the court to get her rightful share.  Well whoever the woman thinks she is, people who support her aren’t sure that she’ll gain her rightful share. Therefore very few women come forward with their identity in crises to fight for their rightful share in their inheritance.

It’s a patriarchal society; everyone reminds her. She knows that she will never forget that important aspect of the society that she grew in. The system of patriarchy doubles the power of men over the females. The mothers, also, help men to look through the bag of inheritance and take the choicest parcels of lands or all of them for their sons.

The woman is disempowered and told to shut up in every way and every day of her life. Patriarchy tells them they know what they ordered from the menu. But when, for example, the women say where’s my sandwich’ the men refuse to give it to them.

How much of inheritance did you get? The brother refuses to answer any line of questioning and especially that. The land papers are locked up in the metal safe. The reason being that sister might see a discrepancy and call out foul. So he says, “What I tell you, you believe.” As an afterthought he says, “I just got a small morsel you can have it.” He gives her a small bite instead of the full sandwich.

“Why and when did you got to be so selfish,” the sister says, and the brother flies off the handle. With this patriarchal set up, mother keeps on saying that the sister should establish a line of goodwill with her brothers. Then that’s what happens when the sister goes back and searches in her heart patience to bear all the injustices with a great smile on her stiff face.

Similarly in the case grandson who went out to get their inheritance from their uncles failed. They failed because their mother didn’t register her complaint against her father and brothers when alive. The mother was another victim of injustices prevalent against women in Pakistan.

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Language Culture Confusion in Schools

by Rizwana Khan

In Pakistan’s school two different languages are practiced Urdu and English i.e. heritage and academic. But another language Arabic is, also, being implemented that has added more to the workload rather than advance the education. It’s this mix of languages that is creating confusion in the educational institutions and therefore increasing the school drop out rate and decreasing the quality of education.

 In the school curriculum that develops innovation, critical thinking and a successful career, language plays an important role. As Urdu is the heritage language used by majority of population is used in the school but not given as much importance as English. But now Arabic is being introduced in the schools, although it is not even heritage or an academic language.  It isn’t even spoken in any province.

Over the ages, the Indo Pakistan subcontinent different cultures ruled. Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, English, Hindi and Urdu were some of the major languages spoken during those times. Urdu has evolved into presently the mixture of all these languages.

Heritage language is the language spoken in a student’s home or by older relatives.

While in the schools emphasize is on the language that is perceived to bring them jobs after graduation. In Pakistan, learning Urdu is important because the masses communicate in their heritage language. the construction, the labor, everyday life, and other sectors of life requires speaking in Urdu. Even though English is the language of the privileged but Urdu is the language of the masses. Everyone realizes it but the end of the year; the parents discover that their children failing in Urdu are losing their heritage language or mother tongue. Blaming the school they forget that at home, with their friends and in school their children speak in English, only.  Their children’s maids are also encouraged to speak in broken English with their children.

Acquiring bilingualism is beneficial. But if the family members and the community don’t value Urdu then Urdu will be dropped when English is learned.

If they don’t speak in English they will be labeled as lower socio-economic status. Due to the British legacy and globalization English has become the most valued language for the privileged socio-economic classes.  Though the advantages of bilingualism seem clear, but still English language is considered important for upward mobility. The English medium used to teach in schools. In the elite private schools students are punished if they don’t speak in English in classrooms and outside in recess.

Children in school face discrimination if they are lacking English skills. Further, they stop interacting in the class and become isolated. In a school, where I taught second grade, I noticed Erum (a fictitious name) whose parents weren’t college educated didn’t speak English was being ostracized by other girls. So Erum gravitated towards the hearing impaired girl who didn’t speak. They started speaking to each other in sign language. While other children who gained proficiency in the new language stopped speaking in Urdu, their heritage language. When the Urdu language is neglected then so is the culture. Learning different languages mean learning different cultures.

Being multilingual is a normal phenomenon.  Our brains form neural pathways that result from being  multilingual. According to the research the languages can be acquired before age of five years easily. In Pakistan, in all the province different heritage languages are spoken i.e. Urdu, Sindhi, Seraiki, Pashto, and Baluchi.

The parents do not understand why their children are not appreciative of their culture of storytelling, poetry and so on. Thus the loss of their heritage language reflects in the celebration of the foreign holidays, and food. The import of special holidays like Valentines, Halloween and Thanksgiving Day are introduced and consequently clash with the local values. While gaining proficiency in English culture the extremism increases.

This is highlighted by the Mullahs wanting to an Arab culture as practiced in madrassas. The most important vocational training they have learned in madrasahs is to teach religious studies, how to run the mosque and raise funds for it.

The vocational training taught in school are based on American and UK curriculum. The worksheets are plagiarized in elementary school while, later on, expensive programs charge for the O levels, IB and American High School syllabus in secondary schools. The copy and paste worksheets are enough for grammar and spelling. But their excellence stops there. The way the text is organized in English is considerably different from Urdu. Therefore, a cultural clash rises.

Heritage languages embedded in local cultural rules differ from English. Urdu language is derived mostly from Eastern languages rooted in romance. Therefore schools in Pakistan can’t figure out the process involved in a different set of rhetorical rules which are grounded in cultural ways of being.

In the Western culture Plato was an important influence. His discourse was based on logic. In Eastern literature, the emphasize was on elegies, poetries and figurative speech. It was the land of Mughals, and Rajas. While British rule brought in English, it made a privileged class of the bureaucrats.

In around 2000, when I arrived from USA after completing my studies and earning a credential from CSUN, I started training teachers. Then, the teacher students seldom had heard of the thesis statement, organizational rules, cohesion, coherence, or other features of discourse, were the beginning of a new trend. ELT, TOEFL and other exams gained popularity while local provincial languages were ignored.

 As Urdu was assigned the heritage language, English became the academic language. Academic language is used in elementary and secondary schools and universities. In fact, academic language must learn in order to succeed in school. So all students, but especially those who may not speak formal English at home, must become bilingual and bicultural; they must learn the new ways of speaking and cultural rules required for school. Academic language includes the general words and concepts used in many subjects such as analyze, evaluate, or summarize, as well as words and strategies specific to disciplines such as factor the equation or derivative in math, a factor in statistics, or a derivative in finance (you see how complicated this gets when the same word has two very different meanings in different fields).

Nowadays the challenge is whether Urdu can become academic language and be associated with abstract, higher-order, complex concepts. When the students graduate from schools and still not able to use basic or contextualized language face-to-face in conversations It takes about 2 to 3 years in a good-quality program for children who are learning a new language.

It’s difficult to assess English skills of children from rural areas or from backgrounds where Punjabi or other languages are spoken is unreasonable. For these children Urdu is the second language. Now they have to translate English to Urdu and then to Punjabi. Urdu is their second language. Thus to “know” a second language in conversation is possible only available in good quality education program otherwise children may still have great difficulty with complex schoolwork in that language.

It was only in late 2000s, the need for logical grouping and bubble maps of thought was introduced like the 6 step process writing, organizing ideas into paragraphs and organizing charts. The organization of thoughts into essays, thesis statements and conclusions were important. Then afterwards the landscape of teacher training changed. Beacon House Schools created their own teacher training workshops. English as a Second Language techniques that guided the students how to organize our thoughts and how to write in school ways. In an elite school that I taught the principal refused to acknowledge the students as ESL and therefore needing extra guidance in the language. Later the student tried to master the academic language by brainstorming in English. Urdu was still left behind because the worldwide innovations were happening in English and not in Urdu or Arabic.

The Arab syllabus basically forced the classroom is not culturally compatible nor engaging. When teaching a seventh grade text, for example, the lengthy last sermon of prophet was written in a vocabulary beyond that grade level. Further, the sensitive nature of belief doesn’t allow the religious essays to be critically analyzed and criticized. Why not? Because it’ll be sacrilegious and therefore punishable by the state. Also, the importance of Arabic language defines the Saudi culture or riyasat of Prophet. Arabic language was never spoken before, also. while Urdu that is spoken is being lost because of the emphasize on English that guarantees economic opportunities.

Rather than losing one language to gain another, the goal should be balanced bilingualism— being equally fluent in both languages. Students’ home language connects them to extended family and important cultural traditions, but outside their homes, while English connects them to academic, social, and economic opportunities. Arabic language should be the prerogative of the people to learn or not.

The Arab language supposedly binds the local religion together, but it clashes with the English language that represents with the Western culture. The imported textbooks have stories with about things that are culturally thought to be unclean like pigs and bacon and also, with unfamiliar things.

The three languages Urdu, English and Arabic represent the three different cultures but neglect the local provincial cultures like Punjabi, Swati, Sairaki, Pushto etcetras. The languages spoken at home should be given importance. If teachers are not knowledgeable and respected, they will not engage with the students. And that will instill respect in the people.

Having more knowledge about the student and his or her circumstances outside of school should help teachers make better decisions about what programs are appropriate. For example, in universities in Punjab, students arrive from Baluchistan and KPK based on minority allotted seats. The teachers’ lack of preparation for working effectively with ethnic minority students creates a cultural chasm between the minority students. Bullying, fighting and harassment become a regular issue in the campuses thus creating an insecure environment insecure.  Higher Education Commission of Pakistan started twenty years ago to resolve higher education issues hasn’t been able to target the sectarian violence in the universities.

Further, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan should be actively involved in training teachers and adapting curriculum to the changing environment. The languages taught in the school should be the ones that reflect student’s success in the future and not just Hereafter.  Every student deserves respect for their culture and acknowledgment for their identity. Appropriate awareness for social and ethnic class will help unite the country in harmony.

 

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The judgment by Supreme Court Judge is another blow to women's rights. The sons of dead women lose the case against their maternal family.  It’s definitely a problem trying to unravel the Sharia and the laws of the state.

The women are the responsibility of the men in her father’s family. Therefore the sons are get more than their sisters. The logic behind the Sharia law and women getting half of the men’s inheritance, therefore is simple.

Who decides the laws in Sharia law? A group of Islamic scholars come up with the cohesive logical reasons and instruct the locality to live by them from then onwards. Therefore Sharia laws names Fiqh laws legal. But remember that they are different from every other parts of the Muslim world.

The grandsons get up and walk to the court to get their rightful share. But then who is going to talk to their mother for she’s dead. All right fine. Her sons became lawyers and decide to get their rightful share.

Now Judge Bandial who has sisters and who might or might not be asking for their inherent rights.  The supreme court judge maybe therefore in self-defense gives a damaging judgment against the grandsons who are asking for their dead mother’s inheritance, Surely Judge's sisters and daughters, also, sit on a case that catches their interest so that he thinks that he'll send to them this  message to clear off.  In most of the cases the males of the family know how to make a pool in their backyard and drown their daughters and sisters so that they don’t come back asking for their rightful share.  

As always the women links with their families make them weak and it translates into ‘sorry brothers you like your sister, mother, daughter but they are dumb as a post and have never done anything right.  Her sons become a proper example of patriarchy gone awfully wrong. Also she got the facts wrong and died before she can register her complaint in the court. Then there is the Islamic law of witness. One male witness equals two women.

A group of lawyers stride down the hallway of the courthouse. Everyone gathers papers with nothing relevant in them. The crowds part like the Red Sea when a lonely woman wrapped in a dark chador walks towards them. The woman approaches the judge with one a lawyer and a weak case. The judge checks the proof but knows fully well that the woman will never bring the right kind paperwork that’s needed to make a strong case or in that matter any case. Why? Its simple. All the fards are kept with their brothers

She realizes that the case is going to shatter her wonderful, important shelter that she has formed in her father’s family. Her mother and brothers are all against her going to the court to get her rightful share.  Well whoever the woman thinks she is, people who support her aren’t sure that she’ll gain her rightful share. Therefore very few women come forward with their identity in crises to fight for their rightful share in their inheritance.

It’s a patriarchal society; everyone reminds her. She knows that she will never forget that important aspect of the society that she grew in. The system of patriarchy doubles the power of men over the females. The mothers, also, help men to look through the bag of inheritance and take the choicest parcels of lands or all of them for their sons.

The woman is disempowered and told to shut up in every way and every day of her life. Patriarchy tells them they know what they ordered from the menu. But when, for example, the women say where’s my sandwich’ the men refuse to give it to them.

How much of inheritance did you get? The brother refuses to answer any line of questioning and especially that. The land papers are locked up in the metal safe. The reason being that sister might see a discrepancy and call out foul. So he says, “What I tell you, you believe.” As an afterthought he says, “I just got a small morsel you can have it.” He gives her a small bite instead of the full sandwich.

“Why and when did you got to be so selfish,” the sister says, and the brother flies off the handle. With this patriarchal set up, mother keeps on saying that the sister should establish a line of goodwill with her brothers. Then that’s what happens when the sister goes back and searches in her heart patience to bear all the injustices with a great smile on her stiff face.

Similarly in the case grandson who went out to get their inheritance from their uncles failed. They failed because their mother didn’t register her complaint against her father and brothers when alive. The mother was another victim of injustices prevalent against women in Pakistan.

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Schools syllabus and environment is created to develop skills in better dealing with the complexities of the modern world. The economics and technology of the modern world is constantly changing.

The curriculum is planned to fulfill the economic objectives. The reality of the world are simple i.e. to be able to raise a family while fulfilling your passions. The shrinking world resources affect the earning power of future generation. Also it results in more competition.

The world is speeding forward at a very fast rate. The information is reshaping our environment. If we don’t develop our capacity to foresee the changing environment, adapting to it and to reshape it we will be left behind. The students are being equipped to face the fast changing world. The IQ has gone up and the children are talented in different areas.

Definitely Some explanations include better nutrition and medical care for children and parents, increasing complexity in the environment that stimulates abstract thinking, smaller families who give more attention to their children, increased literacy of parents (particularly better-educated mothers), more and better schooling, and better preparation for taking tests. If education curriculum in the schools is not current to the demands of the ever changing world the countries well lag behind.

In the countries where latest scientific discoveries and critical thinking isn’t prioritized in the school curriculum the progress lags. For example, Pakistan has recently enforced four year Quran course in the universities. Already there is so much knowledge to be absorbed that the extra religious course will create a havoc.

Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy a physicist, Muhammad Hanif, author , Dr. Ammar Jan and other scholars have been fired from their jobs at the universities for voicing their protest at the government’s decision.

Basically advancement in science raised ire of the religious people centuries ago, also.  Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī or Rhazes was a medical pioneer from Baghdad who lived between 860 and 932 AD. One of his books, Continens Liber, was a compendium of everything known about medicine. The book made him famous, but offended a Muslim priest who ordered the doctor to be beaten over the head with his own manuscript, which caused him to go blind, preventing him from future practice.

But the repercussions of going against the progress and taking up esoteric subject have made the country suffer before also. In dictator Zia ul Haq’s time with the Saudi Arabian funds the scientist arrived with religious reasons for science concepts. Later, during the dictator General Pervaiz Musharrah regime, the minister of science promoted a car that was supposed to run with water. The innovator was an uneducated repairman at a workshop. With this kind of support for ignorance, there is a reason why the countries lag behind from the rest of the First World countries.

Pakistan begs and borrows from the countries who keep their religion and secular beliefs separated and provide education that develops innovation and critical thinking.

In 20th century students are getting smarter and with result these countries are gaining strides and wealth from their education curriculum that encourages innovations.

Reverting to Fourteenth century of when the religion flourished is not a solution. The  emphasis on Arabic translation and with the zeal to focus on same code of conduct for everyone will distract the whole nation. It will create religious bigotry and strengthen laws like blasphemy laws. Thus we will lose our innate abilities to deal and find solutions in the complex new world. As the vast knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate, the people will lose the ability to stay valid with the present world and its changing dynamics.

For instance in Covid 19 era, people who are not equipped with skills to face the changing environment are caught in a quagmire. Pseudo medical treatments and conspiracies are rampant. All of these are extremely harmful to the psyche of the nation and have no roots in rationality and instead results in fatalities.

Therefore it’s important that the school curriculum should target intelligence that helps foresee the obstacles, adapt to the environment and then shape the environment. Also, motivation, and hard work are important values when to accomplish the goals leading to progress and finding solutions for ever present problems faced by both rich and poor.

 In the schools the students should be fascinated with Robotics, focused on a social issue, or totally absorbed in computers, drama, or geology. These are the subjects that will take the country out of despair of joblessness and poverty and provide meaningful productivity that could feed their families and help them actualize their passions.

 

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Post Covid 19 Education

Covid 19 has changed the landscape of education. Online classes on Zoom, Microsoft Group and other platforms are the norm. As the education institutions weren't prepared for the shut down in March because of Corona, the teachers weren't trained and lessons were not planned. Education Therapy helps develop the understanding of how the students should be motivated and the lessons delivered in the best way possible.