Mainstream Textbooks and What They Teach

Several articles and letters have been published lately, mainly in the English-language press, of certain apparent problems and deficiencies in the Urdu syllabus prescribed by Cambridge for O levels in Pakistan.

Prior to that, the issue had been raised on the floor of the National Assembly by some legislators who wanted the education minister to give an undertaking that the issue would be taken up with the examinations authority. The minister had at that time adopted a very defensive position and had assured the members of parliament that her ministry would take this matter up with the British Council and the examining authority.

However - and, yes, this question is worth reiterating - what about the content of the books used by the majority of students in Pakistan? Doesn’t the ministry of education and its curriculum wing have a responsibility to ensure that students in the country’s mainstream primary and secondary system of education have exposure to good books, to material that makes them think, sharpens their analytical and questioning abilities and arouses their creative and intellectual juices?

Well, the answer to that, after going through some of the standard texts used at the matric and intermediate level, would have to be a resounding ’no’.

A closer look at the English textbook prescribed by the Sindh Textbook Board for Class IX, Secondary Stage English, revealed some of the following points.

It has this poem "The Neem Tree" which has probably been in the syllabus for more than the past 20 years (so much for change). It is written by Elsa Kazi, a German married to the former (and late) vice-chancellor of the University of Sindh at Jamshoro (incidentally the Sindh Textbook Board is based also in Jamshoro).

The merits of including a poem in English written by a native German speaker notwithstanding, "The Neem Tree" has the following questions: (1) "How can the Neem tree prevent the burning heat of the sun from troubling us?" (2) "Why does the poetess say that the Neem tree is unafraid?" (3) "What does the Neem tree look like?" (4) "How does the poetess compare the Neem tree to man?" (5) "What according to the poetess is the highest aim of life?" (6) "Notice the last word of each line. What peculiarity do you find in the last words?"

Not a single question - and we are talking about students of class IX - tests or seeks to develop the thinking skills of the reader. Most questions are of the ’how’ or ’what’ variety and not a single one asks the student to give his or her opinion on the poem on what the "poetess" (archaic use now, and ’poet’ is preferable now in current usage) is saying. The last question would probably be better suited to a class II or III text because all its asks the student is to see for him/herself that each sentence of the poem ends in a rhyme.

The same book also has a small story on Helen Keller (which like "The Neem Tree" has been in the syllabus for years). Ms Keller was an American who fought her blindness to enroll at Harvard. The story on her (quite unoriginally titled ’Helen Keller’) also mentioned the fact that she came to Karachi in 1956 and visited a school for the "Blind, Deaf and Dumb". Now, even after ignoring the politically incorrect nature of such terms, one has to question why ’blind’, ’deaf’ or ’dumb’ have to have their first letter in capitals. Some exercises follow this story about Helen Keller.

One is called "study of structures" and reproduces a couple of sentences from the story itself. All the sentences end in exclamation marks and the students are then given four examples of apparently similar sentences, all of which end in an exclamation mark. The first example, however, shows the standard of English in what is supposed to be an English language textbook because the sentence goes like this: "What a long hair?" - a mistake that a child even in class one probably would not make. (Now it maybe all makes sense why so many of us adults, especially those who have recently entered the job market, tend to have such atrocious English skills.)

Following this story on a blind American woman is a poem, "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth. Now, there is nothing wrong in including a poem by a poet as accomplished as him but surely the Sindh Textbook Board could have bothered to change this selection from Wordworth, which has been in the syllabus for over 20 years. The poem has a section called "Notes" after it. In it there is a sub-section containing "difficult words". The first stanza’s difficult words include ’host’ and ’wandered’.

For the second stanza, the writer’s of this textbook include ’bay’ and ’at a glance’ in the list of ’difficult words’. So students of class IX are being told that the phrase ’at a glance’ is in fact a word, and a difficult one at that. In fact, the two following stanzas are said to include such ’difficult words’ as ’what wealth’ (explained by the writer of the book as ’here, what happiness’), ’the show’, ’inward eye’ and ’bliss of solitude’.

Secondary Stage English also includes a chapter called "What the Quaid-i-Azam said". It is followed by five comprehension questions that ask students about the Quaid’s date of birth, his early life, his views on education, the importance of August 14, 1947, and "what other advice" he gave to people. The composition part has two questions. The first one asks students to "write a paragraph" on the Quaid, and this can easily be done by reproducing what has been already done in the comprehension part. The second question asks students to write "ten sentences" about how they would "serve Pakistan".

A more useful question in the chapter on the Quaid could be to ask students to write a short essay on whether any of the Quaid’s aims and objectives had been achieved, or what the events of the past 54 years showed in terms of people heeding his advice. Instead, the books asks questions that put goals of the students in an entirely subordinate position to the goals of the state - hence, he question asking them to write "ten" sentences on how they would serve Pakistan. How about a question that asks them to write down, in ten sentences of course, their views on the performance of the government of the day in terms of fulfilling its basic responsibilities towards citizens.

Then there is a chapter "Responsibilities of a good citizen". Notwithstanding the questionable relevance of such a topic to an English language textbook for students of Class IX, the chapter goes on to list several responsibilities. It takes an extremely simplistic view of society - talking down, as it were, to the reader as if he or she (the reader) is a blind moron who has no idea how a basic society functions. However, all is not lost. There is one good paragraph in this chapter which tells students that if they disobey traffic laws then they not only endanger their lives but of others as well.

However, the next paragraph is a sermon and in fact some of its words are in bold font (as if the writers of the textbook are screaming at the students reading the chapter). The following is in bold: "He (the citizen - the book, it seems, assumes that there are no women or female students in Pakistan) must cooperate with the Government in solving them [the problems of this country].

Problems facing Pakistan are poverty, illiteracy and population growth. For the establishment of a better society, these problems have to be solved through proper education and hard work." Then the chapter goes on to read like a government press release (though the following is not in bold): "The Government of Pakistan has started many programmes to solve these problems. These are, for example, programmes for rural development, literacy and adult education, health, sanitation and social welfare, and population planning.

Education centres, family and social welfare and population planning centres have been set up throughout the country (if one were to even ignore the bad grammar here, all this is quite an exaggeration and mentions nothing of the fact that colossal defence expenditures and costly debt servicing eat up the major chunk of government expenditure). Many benefits we enjoy are provided by our own country and society. It is, therefore, our duty to be loyal and patriotic to Pakistan."

The last line is followed by one stating the importance of paying taxes. Now this is good and something that the CBR should be using in its slogans but surely it seems a bit misplaced in an English language textbook, and that too not for university or college but for class IX

Proof, if more was needed, that such textbooks should be drastically modified, or better still discontinued, because they paint for students a misleading picture of our past and current predicament, comes in the chapter "A letter about the [sic] village life in Pakistan".

It is written by ’Shahid’ to his cousin ’Nomi’ who apparently lives in Canada. In his letter Shahid describes a recent visit to a village (name not mentioned). The letter contains sweeping generalizations and misrepresentations of what a typical Pakistani village might look like today: "The villagers are very simple and straightforward people. They lead a simple, happy and contented life." Now, even if one were to admit, for the sake of argument, that those who live in village are simple and straightforward compared to city people, it can hardly be conceded that hey live a "happy and contented (wrong English) life".

Do those in charge at the Sindh Textbook Board really believe that life in, say, a village in interior Sindh is ideal and something to be envied by all? It is doubtful that a province plagued with problems like karo kari, kidnapping by dacoits, tribal battles, superstitious practices, a highly unequal distribution of wealth, chronic water shortages, and a centuries-old tradition of feudalism can claim to have villages where residents lead a "happy" life.

The chapter seems to have been written a long time ago, or whoever wrote it probably has never been to a village lately. Otherwise, he would not have said the following: "Lassi is the main drink. Nowadays, tea also appears to have found its way into the homes of some of the villagers". It’s not just tea but many other consumer products which have reached, not some but, many village homes all over Pakistan. Then it says something else which is not entirely true now and misleads students to think that the rural countryside has escaped the damaging effects of pollution.

"Village life has its own charms. It is very pleasant to go and live there for a few days. In cities there are various kinds of pollution [sic], air pollution, water pollution and noise pollution. In villages the atmosphere is peaceful and people enjoy the fresh hair and natural beauty. You can watch a villager working in his fields (as if no women work in the field) from dawn to dusk. You can seem him working with a sickle in his hand reaping the crop under the scorching sun. The farmer’s life is a model of hard work."

Perhaps, those who write such textbooks would like to explain the reasons why our villages have such chronically high unemployment levels and why most of their able-bodied men migrate, and want to migrate, to the cities.