KARACHI, March 14: Speakers at an educational conference stressed the need of doing away with the conventional models of schooling and developing a system envisaging respect for diverse knowledge, enabling the learners to question the dominant discourses and power in a meaningful way.

They were of the opinion that what the students in the country and the subcontinent were being taught was not relevant to the surroundings of learners and as such efforts should be made towards creation of knowledge and wisdom through interactions, rather imposing some particular type of learning.

The conference on “diversifying learning” was organized by the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES) at a hotel on Monday. Attended by foreigners as well as local experts and educationists, the moot was aimed to regenerate and diversify learning possibilities for school children and teachers, while analysing the failures of current education system and standards in supporting the learners and learning environment.

During the plenary and open discussions the speakers and the participants of the conference, mostly senior school teachers and members of NGOs, emphasized that “one type fits all” mode of education had destroyed innovation and the spirit of learning in every one including parents, children, teachers and the society.

They underlined that the diversification in our thinking and interactions was essential to bring about any meaningful change in the lives as well as state of education in Pakistan and the subcontinent. They further maintained that reclaiming the creativity, values and confidence in our knowledge forms should become an immediate target for schools and every one associated.

The director of Arab Education Forum, Harvard University, Munir Fasheh, said that wisdom and knowledge was created through interactions and as such there was need not to put the available resources in one form of expression and communication or to impose it. There was need to regain a pluralistic attitude for different and diversify ways of living, he added, saying that we must open the possibilities of recreating meaning by listening to the elements in our surroundings, including one’s inner voice and the voice of nature.

A Palestinian mathematics teacher, Mr Fasheh, however, valued the basic message of the human element in any educational transformation process and emphasized the treasure that existed in every individual.

According to him, producing something, whether materially, socially, culturally, intellectually or spiritually was important in building feelings of self-worth and empowerment and in encouraging creativity.

The coordinator of Shikshantar, Rajasthan, Manish Jain, said that students had systematically been dragged away from doing things of their choice, while textbooks were aimed at imposing some particular type of learning. Among other steps, teachers should be allowed to play as social activists and move and interact with the society, he added.

While advocating for alternatives to the existing system of education, a social science teacher at Zayed University in Dubai, Yusof Progler, however warned that there was need to find diversifying lines that helped benefiting and viable for a turn around in a real way.

Qurutul Ain Bakhtiari of Institute of Development Studies and Practices (IDSP) in Quetta, said that it were the people for whom the learning came and it should be ensured that alternative or diversification disturbed the harmony among them at any stage. Any turn around was possible only when the learners and their facilitators were allowed to work in a fear free environment on path created by them only, she added.

In his welcome, Habib Peer Mohammad, chairman of AKES, emphasized the need to empower teachers and ensure that they considered themselves as learners as well.

He observed that more spaces for dialogues and deliberations on the issues, potentials and possibilities for overcoming the challenges faced by Pakistani students and teachers and the education sector at large would strengthen the hope to regenerate learning.

Raziq Fahim, a community development worker and member of IDSP and Wasif Rizvi and Amima Sayeed of AKES also spoke. Plenary session was followed by group works and presentation, exploring possibilities of “recreating learning’.