KARACHI: The importance of teaching children thinking and reasoning skills was highlighted at the “Teachers as critical thinkers” dialogue on emerging possibilities for teachers’ educational reforms organised by the Teachers Resource Centre at a local hotel here on Friday.

“Our DNA comes packed with critical thinking but we have managed to crush it and somehow managed to have gone off course,” said Baela Raza Jamil, one of the trustees of the Idara-i-taleem-o-aagahi.

“The culture of asking questions and seeking answers and play without fear is lost somewhere. Instead we are making children stay quiet and sit or stand whenever ordered to do so. But how can the higher classes study subjects like science without critical thinking? We must organise a mutiny against this culture of doing things and obeying with no questions asked in order to get back on course,” she said.

“Who wants to live in a society that gags people? We need a social reform involving critical thinking. If anything is to change for the better here it will be through critical thinking,” she said.

A panel discussion conducted by Aziz Kabani of the Sindh Education Foundation, followed.

Shehla Rasheeduddin, education specialist with Unicef, shared her observation during a visit to a school.

“I was very worried when I saw disciplined children standing in line with a finger on their lips. I visited a class where no one was smiling, no one was speaking and one by one the students were told to read out portions from their textbook. Then the teacher read sentence after sentence while the students repeated after her. There was no discussion about the lessons, no other interaction between the teacher and her students,” she said.

Mohammad Nasir Khan, a curriculum director from Islamabad, said that teachers should have the ability to communicate with all his 60 or so students in class.

Faisal Ahmed Ukaili of the Reform Support Unit discussed transferring the role of teachers from task masters to thinkers and what the government can do about it.

Mr Kabani observed that early childhood education was the right time for developing critical-thinking skills among children.

Senior educationalist and principal of Habib Schools Nargis Alavi pointed out that critical thinking won’t pick up until it was appreciated here because the present system was based on rote learning.

“We will train master teachers who’ll train other teachers to develop child-friendly classrooms. Besides, we also hope to work with textbook developers and policy makers in this context,” said TRC director Ambreena Ahmed.

Nargis Sultana of the Open Society Foundation said that quality education was a big issue in Pakistan with a large number of dropouts and a low enrolment rate.

Finally, Nausheen Khan of the TRC presented a multimedia presentation about “Teaching in the 21st century” where she discussed how the child of today with easy access to all kinds of information through Google or social media could be taught in the classroom.

“They need to think and reflect. And their teachers also need to keep pace with their quick thinking processes,” she explained.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2015

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