Be prepared, Pakistan! Imran Khan’s government is poised to inflict damage upon this country’s education system in a manner never seen before. Its so-called Single National Curriculum (SNC) hides systemic changes going far deeper than the ones conceived and executed by the extremist regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq. Implementation is scheduled for 2021.
At first glance a uniform national curriculum is hugely attractive. Some see it striking a lethal blow at the abominable education apartheid that has wracked Pakistan from day one. By the year, a widening gap has separated beneficiaries of elite private education from those crippled by bad public schooling. So what could be better than the rich child and the poor child studying the same subjects from the same books and being judged by the same standards?
But this morally attractive idea has been hijacked, corrupted, mutilated and beaten out of shape by those near-sighted persons now holding Pakistan’s future in their hands, and who, like their boss, kowtow to the madressah establishment. Prime Minister Khan was widely criticised in 2016-17 for making huge grants to madressahs of the late Maulana Samiul Haq, self-professed father of the Taliban who was murdered by an associate in mysterious circumstances.
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As yet only SNC plans for Class I-V are public. But the huge volume of religious material they contain beats all curriculums in Pakistan’s history. A column-by-column comparison with two major madressah systems — Tanzeemul Madaris and Rabtaul Madaris — reveals a shocking fact. Ordinary schools will henceforth impose more rote learning than even these madressahs. Normal schoolteachers being under-equipped religiously, SNC calls for summoning an army of madressah-educated holy men — hafiz’s and qaris — as paid teachers inside schools. How this will affect the general ambiance and the safety of students is an open question.
The push for a uniform national curriculum idea derives from three flawed assumptions:
First: It is false that quality differences between Pakistan’s various education streams stem from pursuing different curricula. When teaching any secular subject such as geography, social studies or science, all streams have to cover the same topics. While details and emphases obviously differ, each must deal with exactly seven continents and water being H2O.
Instead, learning differentials arise because students experience very different teaching methods and are evaluated using entirely different criteria. So, for example, a local examination board will typically ask a mathematics student to name the inventor of logarithms whereas an ‘O’-level student must actually use logarithms to solve some problem. The modern world expects students to reason their way through a question, not parrot facts.
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Second: It is false that a hefty dose of piety will somehow equalise students of Aitchison College and your run-of-the-mill neighbourhood school. The legendary Mahmood and Ayyaz prayed in the same suff (prayer line) and established a commonality without ending their master-slave relationship. Similarly, rich and poor schools will remain worlds apart unless equalised through school infrastructure, well-trained teachers, high quality textbooks and internet access. How the needed resources will be generated is anybody’s guess. Under the PTI, defence is the only sector seeing increases instead of cuts.
Third: It is false that school systems belonging to the modern world can be brought onto the same page as madressahs. Modern education rests squarely upon critical thinking, and success/failure is determined in relation to problem solving and worldly knowledge. Madressah education goals are important but different. They seek a more religiously observant student and a better life after death. Understandably, critical thinking is unwelcome.
While some madressahs now teach secular subjects like English, science and computers, this comes after much arm-twisting. Soon after 9/11, madressahs were spotlighted as terrorist breeding grounds. Musharraf’s government, beholden as it was to America, ordered them to teach secular subjects. Most rejected this outright but others were successfully pressurised. However, madressahs teach secular and religious subjects identically; reasoning is sparse and authoritarianism dominates.
While the new Class I-V SNC document also discusses secular subjects, much of this is pointless tinkering with the minutiae of teaching English, general knowledge, general science, mathematics and social studies. They are not accompanied by plausible plans for how the necessary intellectual or physical resources will be garnered and the plans implemented.
Still bigger changes are around the corner. The Punjab government has made teaching of the Holy Quran compulsory at the college and university level. Without passing the required examination no student will be able to get a BA, BSc, BE, ME, MA, MSc, MPhil, PhD or medical degree. Even the Zia regime did not have such blanket requirements. To get a university teaching job in the 1980s, you had to name all the wives of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and recite some difficult religious passages such as Dua-i-Qunoot. Still, students could get degrees without that. That option is now closed.
Starkly inferior to their counterparts in Iran, India and Bangladesh, Pakistani students perform poorly in all international science and mathematics competitions. Better achievers are invariably from the elite ‘O’-/‘A’-level stream. More worrying is that most students are unable to express themselves coherently and grammatically in any language, whether Urdu or English. They have stopped reading books.
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Significantly, as yet the PTI’s new education regime is mum on how it will advance its goal of closing a huge skill deficit. So poor is the present quality of technical and vocational institutes that private employers must totally retrain the graduates. That’s why private-sector industrial growth is small and entire state enterprises, such as PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills, have collapsed. Pakistan’s space programme flopped but Iran has just put a military satellite into orbit and India is well on the way to Mars.
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. Pakistan’s greatest need — and its single greatest failure — is its tragic failure to impart essential life skills to its citizens. To move ahead, the priority should be to educate rather than score political points.
Pervez Hoodbhoy teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad. Views are personal.
The article was first published in Dawn.
You should be ashamed to call yourself writer as nothing has been attracted in your rubbish than the RSS defaming agenda and am sure you are one of their own.
We are all aware of the standards you have been relating and talking about.AH
I had huge respect for the author….but after reading this, I have my doubts.
“madressah-educated holy men — hafiz’s and qaris — as paid teachers inside schools…….will affect the general ambiance and the safety of students…….”
Can anyone put some sense in the so-called highly educated minds of this sort?
Whats your problem with more religious teachings has been made mandatory in it??
Quran like all other religions teaches equality, peace, honesty, its stops people from injustice, encourages to live modest life and help poor in society etc if children’s learn these values early on it will help them become good human beings. I think every nation should teach more of their religion to thier childrens early on in thier lives And also they should be taught about modern day subjects this will make them better humans. I see nothing negative in this decision of Pakistan government your whole article is biased and makes no sense!!
I am so much disappointed to see your biased article. I don’t understand how you can anyone master hate skills .. get some education bro.
The writer mentioning “(In Islam) critical thinking is unwelcome”, is completely untrue. Clearly the writer hasn’t deemed it necessary to learn about Islam before imparting with this incompetent piece sans critical thinking.
Your priority should be to study the topic before mindlessly filling the pages
Sounds like someone’s parroting.
Put yourself in his shoes, and only then you probably would get an idea of his vision. He’s a man of his words!
Extremist Indian is all i can read. Can’t believe your getting paid to write such hate crime
First of all How India is involved in this is beyond my understanding..secondly news papers like the wire and the print etc r left leaning.. they r known to publish anti Modi and anti Hindu news all the time.what author of this article wants to achieve by writing this piece into an Indian news paper website is also not very clear..most of the indians have hardly any interest in domestic affairs of the neighbouring country..if it was about education policy of developed countries like USA uk we would have liked to scrutinize it..so bringing India into equation is not a good idea overall
Hahaha..hoodbhoy..is a joke..a sellout..go rot in your jealousy..u r a loser in this world n the next…lousy self professed intellectual..
What can you expect from a person like pervez houdbhoy. Rubish.
I dont think there’s anything wrong with ‘heavy dosage of religious content’. Hoodhboy has always tried to impose his sense of “modernism” and “open mindedness” on others. Present day scientific curricula and religious studies can go hand in hand, in absolute harmony. Presently, there are several education systems being followed in Pakistan, and the result is that the nation stands more divided than ever. No matter how hard you try to hide this fact, there is a visible hatred among people of various ethnicities and provinces for each other,that benefits none other than the filthy politicians. They feed off this hatred to maintain their relevance and keep their gutter politics alive. PPP has been doing this for years in Sindh.
The whole article doesn’t make sense to me except trying to be provocative and using all the possible adjectives which could certify the liberal credentials of the author
Question is, why is this new education curriculum not being discussed & debated in the Parliament. Any curriculum just can’t be thrusted on the entire nation just because this selected government & PM wants to. One should follow a balanced path that has been given in Islam.
Dr pervez sb, you must study the quran first by yourself, quran always welcomes critical thinking that is why the ayas ” why dont you think/ponder upon?” Is mentioned in several places in different chapters. What impact the education system has made so far that we have right now? Let him change it. support the change.
The writer seem to have anti- Islamic agenda
What a poor story crafted with no reality. The writer seems very extermist and used very harsh words to prove his point.
Author’s hate for Imran Khan is real.
I doubt if any professional content writer should be allowed to write and publish such a hate-teeming content.
Despicable content.
Stupid article no sense of the context.
What utter nonsense. The above read was a waste of life. One sided opinion with a blatant bias towards his own agenda. How does Islam undermine critical thinking? Please elaborate, we had some of the greatest critical thinkers to have walked the Earth.
It shows the deep burning inside the Hindu mentality at any positive step in their neighbors, mere their anger is indicator something good is happening to their neighbors which causes wretching in Hindu stomachs. Well done Imran. Abhinandan will never be forgotten by Hindus.
Well, let’s accept for a minute that the exposure to religious beliefs can be somewhat volatile, considering the conservative landscape of Pakistans morality. But there is no denying that the religions, including Islam have brought about collective leaps of civility and served as moral compass to derive value. Now if the youth of Pakistan is offered a chance to study this phenomenon deeper, their understanding deepens. Rather than blindly believing in a literal perception of say any Mullah or Scholar, the ideas are broken down and presented in Schools, making sure that everyone indeed carries this pivotal information of societal leaps of morality and thus is liberated from the extreme imperatives that might be presented later in life. I believe the act of making knowledge of value extraction common, creates more free thinkers rather than extremists. Extremists originate from an environment, where motivation is fueled by fierce rhetoric backed by dogmatism, and not by civilised learning.
It’s as simple as this statement itself goes “ it’s our country we will rule it the way we deem fit”.
The writer mentioning “(In Islam) critical thinking is unwelcome”, is completely untrue. Clearly the writer hasn’t deemed it necessary to learn about Islam before imparting with this incompetent piece sans critical thinking.
Your priority should be to study the topic before mindlessly filling the pages.
Sounds like someone’s parroting.
Absolutely. Ijtihad which means independent thinking is compulsory. In Islamic legislation Ijtihad plays an important role and has central position in the whole process.
The writer mentioning “(In Islam) critical thinking is unwelcome”, is completely untrue. Clearly the writer hasn’t deemed it necessary to learn about Islam before imparting with this incompetent piece sans critical thinking.
Your priority should be to study the topic before mindlessly filling the pages.
Sounds like someone’s parroting.
Nonsense and what waste of time reading this article.
Writer wrote that Pakistani students perform poorly internationally and Bette achievers are from elite O level schools. To improve his knowledge, I would like to inform him that more than 90% of the medical students are not from these “elite” institutions, and these medical students prove to be among the best in the world when they go abroad. He says that students had to know names of Prophet’s wives and to learn difficult passages like Dua e Qanoot. Just to inform him that Dua e Qanoot is a part of Isha prayers (Witar). Every Muslim should learn it by heart as he also should know the names of Umma Ha Tul Momineen. Is there anything wrong knowing their names? In fact not knowing their names is a matter of shame for Muslims.
I totally disapprove writer’s opinion as on one hand he is ignorant of country’s educational situation (despite being a teacher himself) and deficient in Islamic knowledge on the other.
Whoever has written this article in the news…
A big big laugh for him/her.
You are just a narrow minded person ???
The writer values freedom of expression, but not for religious people. He is under the false pretense of a western utopia. He needs to accept the fact that not everyone considers physics to be the key to everything.
It’s amazing this article which is WRONG INCORRECT INFORMATION is allowed to be published 🙂 idiots everywhere
Look Mr ur issue is ur own likeness or dislike of imran khan success… Sorry but u r behaving like a sore loser
Again western written garbage, when ever someone does positive about Islam, western media are out in force to critisize something positive,. Remember it was Islam brought algebra, numerals when Western world stuck in darkness and if it wasn’t for Islam there would be no algorithms and if there was no algorithms the ipads computer’s that you so called western world use, there would not be any of it, so keep going you bunch of patzi’s
To learn religion seems to be a extremist thing to the writer. We are low in ever field of life because we are far from our religion. Writer should at least learn religion first.
Will he who embraces the Western attitude accept Islam everywhere? He can only serve the West, he is dangerous for the country and the nation. Doesn’t he see in the Qur’an where Islam is called the perfect religion? Has he not heard the meaning from any Haqqani scholar?
Rather, we should now unite the Muslim Ummah and equip the Muslim countries with a full religious environment and raise the banner of world Islam together and pay close attention to whether those who oppose it are hypocrites, apostates, atheists and not Muslims at all. And let them know that no matter how much they borrow their intellect and speak like the westerners, Islam will be victorious, whether today or tomorrow, or at some point. And that day is not far away. So we cooperate to implement Islam in every field of individual, society, state, world. I save the country as much as I think of saving myself from the conspiracies of Jews, Christians and pagans.
کیا جو مغربی طرز عمل اختیار کرے گا وہ ہر جگہ اسلام قبول کرے گا؟ وہ صرف مغرب کی خدمت کرسکتا ہے ، وہ ملک و قوم کے لئے خطرناک ہے۔ کیا وہ قرآن میں نہیں دیکھتا جہاں اسلام کو کامل مذہب کہا جاتا ہے؟ کیا اس نے کسی حقانی عالم سے معنی نہیں سنا ہے؟ بلکہ اب ہمیں امت مسلمہ کو متحد ہونا چاہئے اور مسلم ممالک کو مکمل مذہبی ماحول سے آراستہ کرنا چاہئے اور ایک ساتھ مل کر عالمی اسلام کا بینر بلند کرنا چاہئے اور اس طرف پوری توجہ رکھنی چاہئے کہ کیا اس کی مخالفت کرنے والے منافق ، مرتد ، ملحد ہیں اور مسلمان بالکل نہیں۔ اور انھیں یہ بتادیں کہ چاہے وہ اپنی عقل سے کتنا قرض لیں اور مغرب والوں کی طرح بات کریں ، اسلام فاتح ہوگا ، خواہ آج ہو یا کل ، یا کسی موقع پر۔ اور وہ دن زیادہ دور نہیں ہے۔ لہذا ہم فرد ، معاشرے ، ریاست ، دنیا کے ہر شعبے میں اسلام کے نفاذ کے لئے تعاون کرتے ہیں۔ میں اس ملک کو اتنا بچا رہا ہوں جتنا میں یہودیوں ، عیسائیوں اور کافروں کی سازشوں سے اپنے آپ کو بچانے کے بارے میں سوچتا ہوں۔
Poorly written article with no vision whatsoever. It’s completely logical to have religious studies inside schools. Imran Khan has been saying that since the very beginning. That’s the only way you can shut down the madrassahs and keep a check on all the religious teachings that are going on in the country. It’s a smart move.
Secondly there is no rote learning being implemented in the final curricula. The curriculum itself is being established from the Cambridge education system and the system at Singapore. How can make such an absurd claim when the curriculum isn’t even competed yet? You’re just throwing random BS probably because you’re getting your pockets filled by Mohdi.
“.. Recite some difficult religious passages such as Dua-i-Qunoot” Hahaha this is hilarious. That tells you that this writer is no where near a practicing Muslim. No wonder he’s afraid of religious texts being implemented in schools. It’s ok. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has failed to educate you in the past. You can enroll in the new Single national curriculum and we’ll make sure you don’t consider Dua-i-Qunoot a tough ayat.
The author is renowned athiest. He always been critical of any religious revival in Pakistan. In fact for decades I have considered an enemy of Pakistan because of his pro-Indian and pro-Westeren views. There is a feel of hidden agendas of almost everything he put out in the name of journalism. It also shows the fear of real Islam and Muslims if ever to materialised in our life time. Unfortunately Pakistan has many characters like him.
What is wrong with being an atheist Mr Khurshid Ahmed?
Your ilk has problems not only with idol worshipping Hindus, but also Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs, Baha’ai – you name it. Indeed, even within Islam, there is violent factionalism and theological turmoil with Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiya, Ismailis, Bohras and so on not seeing eye to eye.
And to that list, we now have to add atheists.
No wonder Islam is tearing Pakistan asunder.
This writer is like a street thug who can sell his soul for pennies. No facts but fictions. I believe people don’t buy this blind and bias criticism anymore.
This writer is like a street thug who can sell his soul for pennies. No facts but fictions. I believe people don’t buy this blind and bias criticism anymore.
The writer himself is very biased. And fill with hatred towards imran khan and government he did not clarify what will be in the syllabus other than blaming imran.
writer cry cry
India just wait Our Target Is Whole India not kashmir
You are right
Science gives us much boons to this world not any religion.Even I am commenting this is a part of that platform.pakitani people got drowned in their stuffs. Oh God , such extremisms. Science gives us all things
What has Kashmir or India got to do with Pakistan’s education system ? Even with current system you have fake degrees and license mills. ex. fake pilots at PIA.
I can see most comments (99%) are against a highly educated Pakistani. and unfortunately equate western education as anti Islam etc. etc.
If Pakistanis want this new curriculum well so be it.
The author is dump and has no idea what he is talking about . I will equate his frustrations with opposition parties camp. The author praised India (going Mars) clearly demonstrates his level of knowledge on current affairs. Imran Khan is a vision and the school system that Pakistani students graduated /trained were deliberately paralyzed so that feudal system always control the poor is now undergoing changes. By introducing Islamic Studies is as good as introducing Moral Science within the education systems so that (suma tatafakaroo) “keep thinking” on morality and ethically on Islamic Principles would be restored in order to fix the education systems within Muslim Countries . Pakistan is NOT India or Bangladesh and it must NOT be compared with also Saudi Arabia / Middle East because Pakistan is an idea and dreamed by Sir Iqbal not by those who studied physics doesn’t even know difference between Moon and Mars
Your current affairs needs to be refreshed not the writers. He is right when he says India has reached Mars. India is the only country to send a Mars orbiter successfully in first attempt and its also the cheapest in the world. Even nasa could not do it in first attempt
What issues the writer has with learning Qur’an in school it is the only book that leads you towards critical thinking. And if he has any issues he shouldn’t learn it himself stop imposing your believes on us
We do want our children to learn dua qunoot the writer may be is not even a Muslim and hasn’t prayed once. This silly hoodboy must know that dua qunoot is compulsory part of namaz and if he doesn’t want to follow religion he should shut his filthy ideas in his mind. Life after death is important you don’t believe it then don’t impose your filthy liberalism on our generations.
Waste of time dear writer
Pay attention on teaching physics ?
?????
This guy did one thing all life talking against Pakistan and Islam
For the pleasure of his slave mentality
Excellent writing! Such far-sightedness is direly needed at this point in our country.
It is quite testing that a prior ability to be reasonable is required to understand the article itself. Let us retain confidence in our public that they may succeed in lending it a bit of ear, and contemplate on what has been said.
The name of the writer is enough to understand his crap۔ This is an easy way of making money writing such things in an indian paper.lol. keep crying. Your audience has PM and MPs who call for drinking cow urine to fight covid 19. Lol.
Stupidity conceived article. Clearly shows intent to create hinderance toward any good step taken by the government for betterment of Pakistani people
Agreed.
The opinion writer is an extremist himself. He has no idea about what he has written. Absolutely deplorable and poorly written opinion to make Hindutva fascists happy.
Who wrote it ? Oh God 🙁 .. Writers should do complete research at least before publishing something for public. What a negative negative energy you are sending towards people.
It okay to have different opinions but deliberately trying to show the negative side ‘Only’ while eliminating all the positive impacts is pathetic. Extremist
Such a ghastly and nonsense writer, having no logic in his words, just waging his tail so for to please his Indian Masters.
Pathetic use of words, his ideology speaks volumes of his stupidity.
If you are so much disgusted by imran and his policies, then why not go to India or Israel. Have fun there, retard.
What bullshit. Who the hell are you and what in the world do you know about Pakistani education system. Refrain from making an opinion as this… What is your source, your bias.. Stop damaging the image of our country.
Are you paid by Hindu lobbyist. What nonsense is your journalism all about.
The writter has a shitty mindset. He couldn’t even comprehend the decision of enriching the Curriculum with real knowledge, consequently speaks non sense about this great deceaion.
Adding Islamic education in the Curriculum will cause No hurdle to the development and Technology but it will make Pakistanis more piety, humble and God fearing. Also reading the Quran will also show the new gateways and empower students to do research on new things as there are hundreds of Quranic verses about Modern science and Allah encourages the human kind to research and discover new things in this world so as to see the signs of Authority of the Greatest Creator and Sustainer, Almighty Allah.
Moulana Sami Ul Haq played key role in KPK during elections in success of Imran Khan . Therefore Imran Khan is also called Talban Khan . They have misguided the nation by making false promises. He has not honoured even a single promise and is incapable and inefficient person.