A Failed Education

The pathetic state of the education system is emulated in the quality of our country’s graduates. There is a problem in our education system, which is being numbingly ignored by everyone. This repetitive, outdated textbook based education is not working. This country is providing the lowest number of doctorate degree holders in this part of the world. Yet the number of expat Pakistanis going abroad for PHds, have increased dramatically. Pakistani Nationals teaching in overseas universities are increasing. Why is there such a great gap of educational achievement in Pakistan.

The answer lies at the very core of the state education boards. Mostly run by people who believe “change” is an African epidemic, which cannot be allowed anywhere near the education system. They have let the education system become a squalid, outdated gunk that holds no meaning to the generations of today. It is based on a pattern of repetitive learning, which abolishes freethinking. Consider History for example for both Matriculation and the coveted GCSE systems. The first preaches a certain patriotic song all the way through with details of strange resolutions passed by strange people at hill stations. The latter goes into the middle ages and is grotesquely keen to depict the life and times of Henry VIII and his seven wives. I mean what on earth would they expect us to learn from how the Muslim League operated in pre partition Pakistan, instead if one has to learn the real history of this nation and its fathers, one should read the historically accurate and bias free “Shahabnama” which is an education in itself. And as far as Henry goes, there is this saying that comes to mind about insertions and the sun not shining.

I am sure that some Anglofied reader must be furious at my suggestion. And in their sub-continental English accent must have uttered something like” Who on earth does this Chappie think he is”. Two quick answers to that are 1) A Pakistani inside out 2) Someone who was born in a free country. To the more avid readers I would say that I will not deny the importance of history, but our state of affairs doesn’t allow us the luxury of an imperial history. We should be reading about how that moronic and disabled Ghulam Mohammed as our second Governor General laid the foundation that till this day undermines Democracy in Pakistan. (Note: Definition of Democracy: The leadership of a country will listen and act upon the consensus and wishes of its people and serve them, rather than the American meaning of democracy where the leadership will only listen to the West.)

And the consequences of our love affair with America in terms of the talibinisation, violence in society, drug use and economic death traps. But no, instead we learn about how virtuous and noble Queen Elizabeth was (Virgin , sure and I am Superman), and how the Simla act was the corner stone for a resolution that was related to this legal infringement upon which the provinces were to be equally divided between India & Pakistan.(right and was it divided equally, “aap bus jo kitab mein likha hai who parhein”)

I can remember once as a child in my history class, after looking at the historic 1947 Map of Pakistan and comparing it to the modern map, I asked my teacher “so what happened to the other half madam”, at which point she replied “well ask that from your geography teacher”. As a kid that was suffice for me to never ask that question again, yet today I cant help laughing at the incredulity of my teacher and at her ironic reply that resonates deeply the indifference and apathy that West Pakistanis had for the East Pakistanis. Yet our history textbook ignores this chapter in our nation’s history instead recalling the soldiers who received the Nishan-e-Haider. In fact thinking about it there is a patriotic tag for almost every important point of history, 1965 war, the Lahore battle. 1971, MM Alam’s shooting down 7 indian migs in so many minutes. Hang on, what happened to East Pakistan, as Micheal Jackson would sing it, “Blame it on the Boooongali”.

So what do we do about this extremely important aspect of civil life that nurtures and promotes our future. Can we be ignorant in the bliss that we made it through only partially damaged and did indeed make it with the western universities for which our parents paid millions and millions of Pakistani rupees in Fees. Why can we not nurture this talent and innovative mind set at home and from the outset. And what should our modus operandi be. After the Education Boards, the mullahs and in particular to Sind the feudals who would like to impose Sindhi on us, which is absolutely ridiculous as all one remembers is that extremely shabbily dressed Sindhi teacher trying to teach you “ Baba , Munjo Naal cha aye”, yep sure that would definitely help my career up the corporate ladder if I was employed in a property dealer business in Sukkur.

After all these barriers there is an even greater barrier to our objective, the Westernised Upper and middle classes of Pakistan. I was visiting a friend recently in Karachi after a long time and he would not stop going on about this extremely great American School that his daughter was going to. After the epilogue about the greatness of the American School and its American System and its American teachers I was introduced to the 9 year old who came in and was immediately addressed to in English by the visibly proud parents. She was asked to sing that song she loves and I was then presented to a little girl version of “ I am a teenage dirtbag Baby”. And as normal as it may seem to some readers, I was taken aback at hearing American slang by a nine year old, Pakistani girl living in karachi with the Maghrib prayers in the background. I asked her to stop which was done but was frowned upon by all parties involved. It is ironical that the Azan that was given by a Maulvi of that area, who is renowned for his extremist views. How consequences twist together in bouts of implicit irony.

So there you have it the indictment of the Pakistani education system. But I think any of us can indict, but who is willing to produce an alternative. There fore I would like to ask for probably a first at chowk. I request that all interactors on this site present their own solutions to this major problem. I know that in our hearts we would all like the betterment of our nation and after pseudo differences of creed, tongue and regional identities we can all feel the collective pain of our country and of our society. I would also like to ask for the Indian perspective on this matter, as their own experience with their growing society will be a learning curve for us Pakistanis. This is therefore an open article, which will be finished by the interacting chowkies. I would also point out the fact that abuse will be ironic as it is education that we are talking about. The pool of learned thinkers that we have here on chowk should produce something new and unique. OUR perspective on how to improve OUR society.