BE prepared, #Pakistan! #ImranKhan ’s govt is poised to inflict damage upon country’s #education system in a manner never seen b4. Its so-called Single National Curriculum (SNC) hides systemic changes going far deeper thn ones conceived & executed by extremist regime of #ziaulhaq
At first glance a SNC is hugely attractive. ...Bt this morally attractive idea has been hijacked, corrupted, mutilated & beaten out of shape by those near-sighted persons now holding Pakistan’s future in their hands, & who, like their boss, kowtow to the madressah establishment.
It is false that quality differences btw Pak’s various education streams stem from pursuing different curricula. When teaching any secular subject such as geography, social studie..each must deal with exactly seven continents and water being H2O. It is false.....
that a hefty dose of piety will somehow equalize students of #AitchisonCollege & ur run-of-the-mill neighborhood school...rich and poor schools ll remain worlds apart unless equalized through school infrastructure, well-trained teachers,high quality textbooks and internet access.
It is false school systems belonging to modern world can be brought onto same page as madressahs.Modern education rests squarely upn critical thinking..(In #Madressah)... they seek more religiously observant student, a better life after death..critical thinking is unwelcome.
Empowered by the 18th Amendment, Pakistan’s provinces should vigorously resist the regressive plan being thrust upon the nation by ideologues that have usurped power in Islamabad. Else Pakistan will end up as the laughing stock of South Asia, left behind even by Arab countries.
M.H. ASKARI, my colleague in Dawn and an Urdu short-story writer of eminence in his youth, wrote about his experience of joining the Anglo-Arabic School in Daryaganj in the late 1920s. On the first day, his principal asked him, “Will you study Sunni Deeniat or Shia Deeniat?”
Not being aware of the sects,Askari went home & asked his father Mirza Mohammad Said, an outstanding scholar who was widely acknowledged and had been Patras Bukhari’s teacher at Government College Lahore. Prof Said promptly replied, “My son will not study any Deeniat at school.”
By the time my daughters startd school in 70s,religious studies ws firmly entrenched in educational scene in Pakistan.Worse still, it was tightly woven into a strong anti-Hindu/India sentiment. I had to work hard to neutralise ths negativity & show my girls other side of picture.
The infiltration of orthodoxy in our education curriculum at all levels is disturbing... Wht triggered off a public outcry was Punjab Assembly’s move to adopt an amendment to Textbook Act, 2015,which made it mandatory for all textbooks to be approved by the Muttahida Ulema Board.
(Excerpts from #PervezHoodbhoy &
@zubeidamustafa
articles published at
@dawn_com
under titles " #Education: #PTI ’s plan exposed " & "Teaching #Religion" on July 17 & July 18, 2020.)
@zubeidamustafa
articles published at
@dawn_com
under titles " #Education: #PTI ’s plan exposed " & "Teaching #Religion" on July 17 & July 18, 2020.)
