Article HAQ NAWAZ ODHO
Syllabus uniformity: the way forward
Outlines:
Ø Education, not Indoctrination
Ø Brief view of three various educational systems operating in Pakistan
Ø Statistics of students
Ø Unequal access to education paves the way for unequal access to livelihood
Ø Freeing education from control of the state
Ø Singaporean model of syllabi synthesis
Ø Syllabi synthesis in Pakistan
Education is considered to be the matter of life and death for the societies throughout the world. It is the only tool for scientific and moral upturns. The fundament, upon which the beautiful building of education erects, is syllabus. For the common and equal provision of education, uniformity of syllabus is indispensable and that is only possible through the participation policy-making experts from the educationally developed countries as well as from the existing three spheres in Pakistan: Urdu, Arabic and English.
Pakistan is the only state on the surface of the earth wherein three different systems of education operate simultaneously at a time. These systems are divided into three categories of institutions: elite schools, non-elite private and public schools and lastly the religious seminaries. These can also be simplified as: English, Urdu and Arabic schools/systems. All three systems follow completely different rather contradictory syllabi and produce three categories of students in one society.
According to statistics, 30 million students study at non-elite and public schools; other 3 million studies at religious seminaries/Madersahs and the rest 1 million study at elite schools. Resultantly, their standard of education differs from each other only because of the syllabi which they follow at their respective institutions. The first category revolves around Urdu; the second one is Arabic centered and the last one’s axis is English.
Unequal access to education paves the way for unequal access to livelihood. In the countries, like Pakistan where English is used as medium of instruction; the students having fluency in English are preferred to those having no such fluency. Moreover, the graduates of religious seminaries are stuck to vicious circle of poverty as their education does not support them to seek the jobs with handsome package. Recently the COAS said, “Education of modern science and technology should be dispensed to Madrsah students because it is impossible build enough mosques to employ such pass-outs.”
Syllabus uniformity is only possible when education is altogether free from the control of the state. Pertinent to prevalent educational situation in Pakistan, Miller’s words glitter in their fine colors. He said, “Education should be free from the control of the state to produce enlightened and liberal generations.” History testifies that whenever education has remained subject to political interference, it has always lost its power and core value. For the first time in the history, Napoleon maneuvered the syllabus design to earn the sympathy of masses and he succeeded in doing so. In Pakistan, education also witnessed the same experience during dictatorship stints.
From the upshots of above-mentioned historical facts and prevailing educational situation of Pakistan, it is better to follow the Singaporean model of syllabi synthesis. With an end to know the said model, its brief view is given here. Lee ko on yu was the first prime minister of Singapore. During his regime, there emerged two educational systems (Chinese and British) which followed completely different syllabi and produced two categories of students in one country. The PM worried about the situation and dared to change it at any cost. He called on the educationists and policy-making experts from the educationally developed countries and handed over to them the task of syllabi synthesis. After a long deliberation, they synthesized both the syllabi with each other and carved out one common syllabus that contained the elements of both the preceding syllabi. Today there is only one category of students across the entire Singapore and all enjoy equal access to livelihood.
Pakistan should also step upon the footprints of Singapore by calling on the policy-making experts from the educationally developed countries as well as from all three spheres of education existing in Pakistan and be given the task of synthesizing them to churn out one syllabus that must be common for all the students regardless of whether they belong to elite, non-elite, public schools or even religious seminaries. Based on common syllabus, twelve years broad-based education should be guaranteed to every student.
HAQNAWAZ ODHO
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