EDUCATION aims to nurture responsible social behaviour. Thus, socially responsible behaviour is an explicit reflection of an effective education system. The majority will agree that our social behaviour does not reflect this true spirit of education. We behave irresponsibly at home, in public, and during physical and virtual interactions. This points to a flaw in our educational system, with consequences for education’s quality and its ability to contribute to social transformation.

The main issue appears to be the antiquated, top-down educational administration and bureaucratic structure. It forces a blind following without leaving room for critique. Consequently, education is governed by poor monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, little clarity of roles, procedures and responsibilities, and few parameters of accountability. Periodic tweaks and revamps are lacking, leaving hardly any opportunity to add value to the system that would have helped it respond to the needs of the time.

Educational changes — under the guise of modifications — are politically motivated. For example, the Single National Curriculum (SNC) and its subsequent rebranding as the National Curriculum of Pakistan are efforts to change merely the label for political popularity. It is intriguing that all new interventions are driven by political and bureaucratic whims rather than a thorough evaluation of previous reforms and estimates of future needs.

Such reforms, and others, disregard the ramifications across various components of the education system, including professional development for teachers, assessment, educational administration, and above all, the needs of the learners. To create compatibility and harmony among the various components of education, modifications to one component, such as the curriculum, necessitates adjustments in other areas such as teacher professionalism and assessment.

Education does not respond to learners’ needs.

As an example, would it be possible for someone to develop a complex computer programme and run it on an obsolete operating system? Obviously not, as the software is incompatible with the operating system. To successfully run the programme, one must consider the compatibility of the operating system with the new programme. Similarly, without understanding the context and systems, educational interventions, such as SNC and others, will not work.

The mismatch between intervention and ground realities is reflected in knowledge and social behaviour asymmetry, as education does not respond to learners’ real-world needs and experiences or vice versa.

Following the same approach, our apex institutions continue to stress compliance and uniformity in dress and discipline. It is unfathomable why any university should require students to wear uniforms, leaving no room for choice as part of students’ aesthetic development. Some may argue that the uniform is an option to prevent class segregation, but the question is: do they live in a classless society or are they subject to societal class-based treatment?

Similarly, females are urged to dress ‘appropriately’ by universities to prevent sexual abuse, despite the fact that there are still many cases of abuse. In fact, the vast majority of cases are never reported. We mistakenly believe that women’s protection will result only from covering them up. Curriculum and institutions must take into account the emancipation of women and the education of their male counterparts to learn how to coexist with dignity. Instead of lowering women’s potential, hiding who they are and making them more vulnerable, they could help them see how valuable women are and teach them the skills they need to reach their full potential.

What we require is educational management that is less centralised, and reforms that are evidence-based. More importantly, there needs to be a system of empowerment and accountability, instead of just obedience and following orders. Reforms should change the way people learn instead of just maintaining the status quo.

Education processes, at the policy and implementation levels, need to aim for harmony between learners’ educational and social experiences and their learning needs. There should be no hesitation in empowering learners by providing them with the relevant knowledge and skills to improve their aesthetics through liberal arts and music, nurture their civic sense, and above all, provide them space to raise their voices and discuss what learning they require.

Educational institutes must overcome their fear of allowing students to establish forums, clubs and other entities, either co- or extracurricular, to taste aspects of real life as part of their learning experiences and practise the same in society as responsible citizens and future leaders. Otherwise, we will continue to witness a widening gap between knowledge and practice and will be forced to deal with social misbehaviour.

The writer is an educationist.
nazeer.khan53@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2022