THIS is apropos the opinion piece ‘Beyond theory’ (Aug 18) by Themise Khan.

I can relate to what was meant by the author when she highlighted the lack of connection between what is happening in the surroundings and what has been taught.

I had enrolled in the mass communication programme at the University of Karachi back in 2015. Most of our courses were related to journalism. What really boggled my mind was one of the courses in which we were supposed to study the history of newspapers dated back to the invention of the very first newspaper.

Throughout the six months of that course, I kept on thinking about a single way in which this course could help us resolve today’s problems.

We all know how important and relevant the media has become in today’s world especially in Pakistan. Furthermore, technological advancement and emergence of social media has completely altered the way media used to function. However, what one can expect from such students who have been fed on completely out-dated course-work.

I would like to appeal to all academic institutions to kindly update their syllabi and give the subjects of social sciences same importance as they do to hard sciences.

Tariq Faruqi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2019