Daily Times

The Federal Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan has sought suggestions from various stakeholders for developing the Pakistan Education Policy 2021. This is indeed a commendable and much needed initiative. With 35 years’ experience as a professional, educationist, teacher and researcher in various areas of information management, information behaviour, information use, library services, communication skills, social skills and quality of education, I would like to share in the following a few points to ponder upon in this regard.

Firstly, it is most important that before making Pakistan’s Education Policy, we consider the phenomenal changes which have taken place in the learning, knowledge and information seeking behaviours of the Generation Z and the following generations called Alpha, Gen-Tech, Post-Millennials, iGeneration, Gen- Y-Fi and so forth and the context of rapidly evolving digital paradigm in Pakistan. Secondly, our education policy, aims, contents, and curriculum are designed usually by the most senior experts, who are knowledgeable in their fields but often exhibit a generation gap, i.e., non-considerate to the changing inner and outer world of the current and future generations. They often tend to forget how as young students they would think and act. As a result, they fail to make a connection with young adults and create communication/generation gap between the intended objectives of an academic program and its learning outcomes. I would say it is similar to the gap at our homes between adults and their children. Thirdly, the two common sources of getting education and dissemination of knowledge have been: i) Teachers— with a focus mainly on textbooks. and ii) Libraries — as sole houses of knowledge with shelves upon shelves of books, and rules aimed to protecting books instead of making them conveniently available to users. We call it collections-centered approach instead of usage-centered. The developed world has moved to usage centered approach whereas our mindset is stuck in still towards collections and saving them. We must consider that these two main sources are no more the only options. The digital revolution with availability of full text information now on smart phone devices with 4G connections has made it much easier to find what one needs. One can learn at one’s own convenience at 24/7. In this backdrop, the educational policy, plans and curriculum must be prepared to develop future generations as independent lifelong learners, fluent in information, digital and news literacy skills, information ethics in virtual environment and grow as socially sensitive and responsible citizen.

INCLUSIVITY The learning materials must sensitize students towards inclusiveness: which means respecting different opinions, religions, cultures, casts, sects, languages, genders, etc. Mutual respect, harmony and equity must be introduced from early years through interactive lesson plans. These learnings must create peace in society while exhibiting the world true face of Islam. The Transformative Theory of Learning by Mezirow (2003) based on “a process of examining, questioning, validating, and revising our perspectives” should be considered as pedagogical base for instructing young adults. [Mezirow, J. (2003). Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1), 58-63]

SKILLS TRAINING The 21st Century students need to develop the following capabilities grouped under three categories of skills. These are intended to help students keep up with the ever-emerging market needs and succeed in their careers during the Information Age. Each skill is essential in the age of the Internet to make them lifelong, independent learner with responsible and ethical information behaviours in the virtual and real world. I have added a few more skills (in italics) under the following categories of the skills found in the literature.

1) Learning Skills: Observation; Critical thinking; Creativity; Collaboration; Communication, Professionalism 2) Literacy Skills: Information literacy; Media literacy; Digital literacy; News Literacy, 3) Life Skills: Flexibility; Positivity; Leadership; Initiative; Productivity; Social skills 2) THE COMPULSORY SUBJECTS

The teachings of compulsory subjects of Islamic Studies and Pakistan Studies needs a fresh approach. The content must be prepared and delivered in a manner to induce their value among learners and create interest for further exploration. Whereas, honestly speaking, in the present form the students consider these subjects cumbersome or boring.

Pakistan Studies is focused more on rote learning of history and memorizing dates. The fact of matter is that these are sensitive areas, hence, we stay away from bringing into open discussion or to write on the intertwined dichotomies related to nationalism, humanism and Islamism. The outcome is that even our educated elite is either confused or rigid on these matters, and not open to deliberations on alternative school of thoughts in a scholarly manner. Regarding option given to the non-Muslim students of studying Ethics instead of Islamic Studies for Muslims, it seems absurd. It would be better to title as ‘Ethics in Islam’ for Muslim students.

The teachings of Islam should not be merely under generic Islamic Studies throughout from early education to higher level. Islamic Studies should be grouped as faith, ethics, history, community service, humanism etc. Furthermore, the contemporary challenges are not addressed in the modern context, and only limited topics are included using taking references from early medieval era contexts. Hence, our youth stays confused about basic aspects related to faith and their application, universal ethics, understanding the value of mutual respect and harmony with other creeds and sects.

Then, the Urdu text is half or more of Islamiyat instead of short, interesting and meaningful stories to develop reading habit amongst juvenile while learning the language and lessons of life in a subtle manner. Last but not the least, the equally important aspects are the delivery of the content, instruction methods, teacher’s training to get the required results. Otherwise, the changes will remain merely cosmetic.

The writer can be reached at kanwal.ameen@gmail.com