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.
