It is a bitter truth that the education system that we are used to boasting about is actually a hollow structure that is neither making students into informed citizens, nor researchers, nor artists, nor human beings who can play a positive role in society. If the meaning of education is found in the dictionary, it is not just the transmission of information, but the process of imparting consciousness, thought, and feeling to man. Unfortunately, with us this “process” has been limited to just putting up a rata and dividing the numbers.
The education system up to class 12th, which is the foundational phase of life, is not only ill-planned but also a masterpiece of intellectual sterility. The first and foremost problem is our severe lack of extra-curricular activities. Education is not just about memorizing a few chapters of books. Art, sports, debate, drama, music, and other creative activities are integral to building a healthy society. But in our schools and colleges these activities are either considered unnecessary or are completely absent. The result? A young person who is socially disabled, creatively barren and mentally stagnant.
This system emphasizes making the student only “useful”—and that too, useful from a capitalistic point of view. It means that the youth is molded in such a way that he can get a good job in the future and earn more money, that’s all. There is no training in creating collective consciousness, connecting with the problems of one’s community, one’s society, or one’s country. The student is made like a part of a machine, which only performs, not asks questions.
Here, the scientific department of the education system has also lost its soul. Science education, which encourages inquiry, curiosity and questioning, has been reduced by us to “remember chemical equations and remember numbers”. Students are made to sit in coaching centers instead of labs and solve test papers. What kind of science is it where asking basic questions like “why” and “how” renders the student “useless”? If Einstein, Newton, had been educated in our system, they would probably have failed.
And what is the greatest tragedy—and one that is considered almost a “sin” to discuss—is politics. Our educational institutions treat politics as a word as if it is a disease. Even if there is a mention of politics in the curriculum, it is only in the form of a few pages of history or dry points of the constitution. But the reality is that politics is the process by which an individual gains collective consciousness, recognizes injustice, learns to question, and develops the courage to dream of change. When you deprive a student of politics, you are actually indoctrinating him into slavery. Then wonder if the same youth sells votes tomorrow, stands with the oppressor, and becomes the protector of the corrupt system?
There has been an unofficial ban on student unions in Pakistan’s educational institutions for a long time. This silent ban has deprived an entire generation of leadership. The talent that once emanated from institutions like Aligarh and Government College, has now been buried. We have taken away the art of debate from our young generation. He does not know how to speak the truth. All he knows is to pass the exam and get good grades, whether he understands the book or not.
All this is not only a problem of education, it is actually a reflection of our entire social behavior. How can a society that does not tolerate dissent, considers questioning to be rebellion, and silence as a standard of “decency” provide an education system that fosters thought, research, and progress? There is no literature, no philosophy, no social research in our curriculum. If anything, it is simply a race, in which the winner is the one with the highest number, whether or not it carries the news of the world.
There is a need for us not to think of our education system as just an exam and job preparation system, but to go beyond that and embrace it as a human, social and intellectual process. We need to change our curriculum. We have to make students part of social services, community work, and social projects. We have to take extracurricular activities seriously. And above all we have to embrace politics as a medium of consciousness instead of discrediting it.
If we want our youth to become not just an employee or a clerk, but an informed, conscientious and active citizen, we have to rethink our education system. Otherwise, generation after generation we will continue to produce people who will live for themselves and not for society. Who will obey instead of questioning. And those who would go around picking up degrees in the name of knowledge — without any insight, without any concern, and without any dream.
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