DECADES of neglect has ruined our education system to the extent that the students are now solely taught to follow the ‘copy culture’ from the day they enter the world of educational institutions where rote learning is encouraged and conceptual learning is discouraged.

It is no wonder then that the country has not produced a single world class engineer, scientist, doctor or a thinker in a long time.

Instead of encouraging conceptual learning among children, we instruct them to write the lessons verbatim in the examinations, and this, in turn, crushes their ability of understanding and dealing with complex situations.

Even our media runs news reports only for two, three days with regard to cheating in matriculation and intermediate examinations and then goes back to reporting on other stuff.

Even at a higher level, critical thinking is not given the importance and attention it deserves. It is high time we set our priorities right and focussed more on critical learning to be able to do some essential critical thinking.

Ayub Sheikh
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2021