The Future of Education

Education is the wholistic development of an individual; intellectually, morally, emotionally leading to an end result where the person becomes a socially responsible compassionate functional member of a society. Education is more than what any school can provide to the child, because education does not stop once the child steps out of the boundaries of the school.  Yet, in Pakistan a peculiar and curious trend is catching up; keeping curriculum a secret from the parents/families. The teachers are given curriculum guidelines as set by Cambridge, however the parents are not allowed to review the syllabus under the pretext that sharing the curriculum feeds into the parental competition, causes unnecessary stress to the students as they are enrolled in extra  tuition  to get ahead and reduces the effectiveness of the teachers at school. While all these points are merely trying to treat the symptoms of a problem, it also takes away the ability of providing a more wh...

A few years ago, I was approached by a friend... She asked me, How old is your son now? 20 months? Does he know his colours, animals and modes of transport yet? I thought she was kidding. she was absolutely serious. Run, Run, Run as fast as you can! Schools pressurize parents to enroll their babies as young as 18 months into play groups. In some schools registration is done while the mother is still on the family way.  This isn’t something new. Over the last 7 years, I have been observing this mad race, as a mother. A race to get the child educated  as soon as  the schools dictate you to, to get the child ahead of other children as per the school’s expectations, and to proudly announce to the whole world that you are blessed with a gifted child because a school panel decided so. When you have a baby, every month, you will meet family and friends with one critical question, When is your child starting school? All first-time parents in Pakistan face this qu...

According to Prof. Dr. Gülden Ertugrul, Utopia is a word derived from the Greek Outopia meanings 'Nowhere' and Eutopia meanings 'Someplace Good'. It basically represents an imaginary place where all institutions and the actors in the society are perfect, a place that does not exist, but a place that one dreams of and can visualize as the ideal community, working in perfect harmony, free from all ills, injustices and discrimination. The concept of Utopia also serves as a contrast effect against which we can measure the inefficiencies and short-comings of the existing society and the corruption of the present day institutions. Education is a key tool to realize the ultimate goal of utopia. Life-Long Learners In an ideal world, there will be class difference, no socio-economic discrimination and no gender biases and education will be accessible by all. The learners will be life-long learners, not bounded by the routine school structures and learning will be for th...

To pretend that the current schooling systems are anything but mediocre and ordinary would be the underestimation of the century; in fact, make that two centuries. While we see a lot of emphasis on bringing in foreign schooling models and inspirations from the world leading schools (as decided by PISA), there is little focus on developing a system from grassroots level as governed and directed by the local needs and requirements. As more and more schools scramble to copy paste short-term solutions and marketable ideas that sell, a large majority of learners/students seem to have been left behind.  Product of an Authoritarian System I went to school some 34 years ago. I have experienced one of the most authoritarian schools, with all the emphasis on rote-learning, and cramming as much as was humanly possible. There was very little focus and time available for extra curricular or any any kind of skill building. The curriculum was set by the education minis...

A teacher should be more than a didactic; an interactive figure, a guide, a mentor and a in some cases an assistant to the student to help them pave their own way and the future of their own learning journey. According to the philosophy of Sugata Mitra, a teacher's role is to guide the innate curiosity and wonder of the children and direct to them to the right resources and let them explore, with an occasional pat on the back and/or premeditated general queries to excite them and motivate them to learn and find the answers themselves.  Teachers as Pedagogues In my own personal experience, the teachers who stood out from the rest and made a lasting experience were the ones who knew that the their role as teachers is about more than just teaching, more than just delivering a lecture and cramming as much as possible in a limited time to finish the assigned curriculum. These teachers were the ones who'd take an initiative to stop, take a step back and learn about the unique ...