By Ayoub Khan
The word education has been derived from Latin word “Educare” education of Educare, education and Educare” means to train to bring and to nourish while educare means to lead out, so we can say that education is to bring up, to develop and shaping up the individual talent and his inner potentialities. Aristotle said “Education is a process of creation of sound mind in a sound body”.
All education is useless until it teaches you the wonderful qualities of yourself. The present education system of our country is exactly the opposite of this phenomenon. The education system of our country is promoting mugging up (Ratta maar) culture, which results in making mentally slaves not intellectual generation. Our education system rewards for scoring more rather than better understanding. A student who mugs up early in life may end scoring more than a child with better understanding. The same problem is of grading system in higher level education (university), students lose their creative sides in a struggle to obtain ideal grades. And some Professors in higher level education coveys the message to students that think and debate academically, it means that students should not be biased or against of anything. What is taught and written in the academic books should follow that; otherwise you would never succeed in the future, because criticism is not allowed in any competitive exams. According to Dr Zaidi, history in Pakistan has been badly treated due to several reasons. Students are forced to study history or Pakistan Studies as a compulsory subject and hence the focus is just to pass the exam and get over with it.
I read somewhere about criticism that a critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest…Criticism is a matter of flushing out that thought and trying to change it: to show that things are not as self-evident as one believed, to see what is accepted as self-evident will no longer be accepted as such. Practicing criticism is a matter of making facile gestures difficult.
Professor Tahir kamran wrote in his article (Vagaries of higher education) about sub standard of research work of MPHIL and PHD students and their Charlatans supervisors. He said that “Higher education is not for everyone; it is privilege of the intellectual elite and should be treat like that. It is not like school education that is the fundamental right of every citizen. That’s why HEC stopped 31 PhD and 26 MPhil programmes of different universities due to lack of fulfillment of minimum quality standards.
Yes he is right but if our grass routs level education is based on the principle of mugging then how someone can expect of producing intellectuals. The irony of our country education institution and system is that they didn’t actually appreciate critics and those who are criticizing the policies are blamed traitors and mad. To be honest Pakistan didn’t appreciated in the past as well critics, the word traitors is the invention of our founder father for Bengalis.
As Winston Churchill said “Criticism may not be agreeable but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things”.
This is not the way or face of advancing country; it would seem that we are moving towards flashback. Education means inspiring someone’s mind, not just filling their head.
If a child can’t take in the way we teach, maybe we should educate the way they learn. It is called Reform in training. We need to make changes in training field as much as we can. While without appropriate arrangement of instruction, Pakistan will neglect to gain any sort of ground in any of its divisions. The doors of information are constantly open to the individuals who set out to look for them. They’re simply holed up behind a billow of what our idea of learning truly is. So don’t be afraid to deliver some helpful criticism, in reasonable amounts obviously, to those you care about. Sometimes it might not be easy to do, and to those on the receiving end it may not be easy to take, but it’s good for all parties at the end of the day. For me, the quest for training is a commitment any longer, as well as an enthusiasm, a craving, an oddity. As put by writer of kids’ books, Dr. Seuss, “You have brains in your mind. You have feet in your shoes. You can control yourself any course you pick.
Ayoub khan. Student of M.A political science at Government college university Lahore…