WE have talked and read a lot about educating our youth if Pakistan is to progress. But this has not been addressed properly as the level of education in our society is very low.

Education plays a vital role in enhancing the mental abilities. The modern world’s requirements are much greater than what conventional education provides. Our youth desperately needs to be de-radicalised and become visionary and liberal.

But how is this to be achieved? Pakistan has limited resources when it comes to youth development programmes. Good strategies can bring better results, not merely the opening of more schools. Our schoolteachers, especially in the rural areas, teach only how to read or write, or how to calculate. This is just basic education, that too of a poor standard. Teachers are untrained, mostly closed-minded, radicalised, and even extremist.

I firmly believe that we can utilise our electronic media with the help of the ministry of education, Pemra, universities and scientific research institutes. We have TV sets in almost every household. Different channels air lots of programmes. Drama serials are viewed by the largest number of households. But they only portray only in-law, marriage and divorce issues, or beautiful faces and fashion. This is not helping our youth in any way.

The education ministry, with the help Pemra, must make it mandatory for every channel to devote 60 or 90 minutes of airtime every day to educational programmes. Further, the ministry can launch its own channel to promote intellectual curiosity.

These channels, with the help of university faculties and students, can air programmes that open up our youth’s mind. Interactive and interesting lectures and workshops must be televised. Our scientists, doctors, technicians and thinkers can participate voluntarily; Unesco and other international organisations can also provide material and research-based programming, which can be dubbed in our national and provincial languages.

The time has come to change our thinking, and let go of obsolete ideologies.

Fayyaz Ahmed Sheikh

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2017