Modern educational science has argued strongly in favour of classifying different subjects and breaking them down into separate, much more comprehendible entities. Such narrowing down is good as it has borne results in contemporary times both, academically as well as commercially.
However, concerns arise when this approach leaves the disciplines and seeps into an education system itself that prevails in any society and segments it further. A perfect example to be cited: The public and private sectors operating in our own education system in Pakistan.
Speaking of the private sector, it appears as if it caters to the needs of the elite and affluent only. Most of the private institutions tout a foreign curriculum along with a highly impressive foreign affiliation, but at what cost? Granted, the opportunities for students to groom themselves and get the right exposure in such institutions are immense. However, what needs to be kept in mind is the fact that in a country where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line, are these opportunities of grooming for the already-well-groomed only, enough to take this nation forth as a collective unit? Is it not creating another societal divide amongst a nation that is already fragmented due to various socio-political factors?
“People who go through the private sector get better jobs whereas the public sector students usually have to struggle a lot before they finally get somewhere. This is all because of the polarised quality of education that is imparted in these two sectors.
Generally, the private sector students consider themselves superior to the public sector students which is really sad,” reflects Muhammad Zahoor, an O-Level student.
The public sector on the other hand is faced with its own problems; out of the plethora of problems here, the mother of all problems is the corruption that has been incorporated in the daily affairs with an outrageous audacity.
It is extremely rare that classes are conducted as per the given schedule especially, in government colleges. The reason is simple: the unavailability of teachers. Most of these ‘facilitators’ opt to take this modern pedagogy-notion of ‘facilitating students’ to a whole new level by choosing to generously ‘facilitate’ students in their own private coaching centres. After all, what can be a better approach than this to keep Stephen Krashen’s ‘Affective Filter’ down?
The graciousness does not end here as the integration of the 21st Century Skills in the teaching methodologies has also been kept in mind by engaging the students and giving them ample opportunities to be creative and innovative.
Sarmad Khan, a student studying in a local government college, highlights: “Sometimes, the teachers ask us to distribute the leaflets advertising their tuition centres — they ask us to spread the word as effectively as we can! Most of the times, the classes are not conducted in the college. I got to be friends with my own college fellows at several tuition centres since we never got to see each other at the college! The more subjects we choose to study at a teacher’s private tuition centre, the more discount we are given. Basically, we are enrolled in a government college, but we study privately only and we end up paying a lot.”
Based on the aforementioned comments, anyone would be able to infer that by following such practices these traders of knowledge, if you can call it knowledge, have turned even the public sector into private sector. Who is to be blamed here … the teachers, students or the system? That is a highly debatable topic and there has been a debate going on it for years in Pakistan.
However, as hard as it may be to believe, there is something graver and a great deal more harmful for this nation in this situation. And that is the products of such an education system; private or public. In the wake of such a trying process and tediousness that the students have to go through, their ability to rationalise and being critical is being severely hampered. What we are generating is a mind that flounders on the surface level only.
The following comment from Fatima Iqbal, a student in a private school, will sum it all up: “My parents pay a lot of money for my education. Once I finish my education, getting that money back will be my primary objective.”
Such an upbringing of a young mind can only lead to disaster for a society. The role of good education is to develop a wholesome personality and not simply career-oriented or blatantly put, money-minded individuals.
If such educational practices are to be continued then it would be better if a parallel education system is developed to produce such thinkers who can think beyond materialism so that at least a certain level of balance could be stricken.
Students are the building blocks of this great nation, but slowly and gradually this self-centred, commercialised approach towards the all important element of education in the development of a human personality, is weakening the life cells of this otherwise, truly promising nation.