Book review: Rethinking Education in Pakistan

[Harold Schiffman]

February 01, 2008
Imparting Education

Muhammad Ali Khan

Rethinking Education in Pakistan' is a product of Shahid Siddiqui's
scholarly pursuit in the capacity of teacher educator, researcher, and
social thinker. The recurrent theme of the book is critical thinking
and reflection which is very carefully built up in the book. Dr.
Siddiqui's aim doesn't seem to reject or accept any school of thought
in totality but to analyse and assess in order to offer a holistic
understanding of the beliefs and practices and explore potential
alternatives.

The writer draws the evidence for building his case from a very broad
range of sources, ranging from his personal experience as a teacher
educator and researcher, indepth study of the educational policies of
the country, and contemporary literature in the domain of education.
Talking about various components of education he refers to teacher as
a central actor in action. He firmly believes that teachers can play
an important part in initiating and sustaining educational and social
change. In his words "A well- equipped teacher can create ways to
improve the situation even under given constraint. The pivotal
position of a teacher signifies the crucial role teacher education can
play in Pakistan."

The structure of the book enables the reader to think and reflect on
the Policy issues, Teacher and Teacher education, Curriculum and
Materials which has its bearing on the other sections of the book:
Language Issues, School, Home and the current Research and Assessment
practices in Pakistan.

In the first section of the book under the heading Policy issues have
six articles that offer the critique of the philosophy of
neo-liberalism and its unquestioned, unchecked pervasive impact on the
entire education system of Pakistan. The main concern these articles
show is the need to revisit the educational policy of Pakistan
striking the balance between the qualitative and quantitative aspects
in all areas of education in Pakistan. The article 'Commodification of
Education' clearly shows that the entire academic system of the
country has turned into a supermarket. "A large number of educational
institutions emerged as 'industrial Zones' or 'production units' whose
sole aim was maximising the profit by producing more." In this
corporate model that is being followed, the writer makes his readers
see that knowledge is seen as commodity, Knowledge is commodity, and
teachers are reduced to the level of sales person. To drive his point
across, the writer gives the example of famous private schools with
their chain across the country which Rehman (1998) calls them business
empire. Siddiqui sees the mercantile practices in opening the branches
which he calls 'outlets'. His description evokes Conrad's 'Nostroma',
'Heart of Darkness' and the classic of 'Robinson Crusoe' where the
main principle is the maximisation of profit and the exploitation of
the simple masses. The major difference is the exploiters in these
novels are the outsiders but in our case they are both outsiders and
insiders.

Dr. Siddiqui supports the efforts made at improvising the Higher
education in Pakistan but he raises the question of the qualitative
aspect of it. The present practices of research in the local
universities needs to be revisited. It is the absence of "research
tradition" at par with the standard of world universities. In our
education policies we have not given the due importance to the
qualitative aspect of our educational institutions.

The second section of the book: Teacher and Teacher Education have
eight articles whose main thrust is on changing the beliefs and
attitude of the teachers. Unfortunately Teacher Education Programmes
in the country have focused on methodology and strategies instead on
enabling teachers to re-conceptualise basic educational issues. Like
Tagore's short story 'The Parrot's Training', for educating the bird
to please the Raja, all the stakeholders put in tremendous effort. A
cage of Gold was made for the bird and scribes wrote books that could
touch the sky. However, no one notice that the bird had died long in
the cage. Teacher education programmes in the country has lost sight
of the teachers.

The article 'The Work shop syndrome' demonstrates how novel idea of
Learning by doing given by John Dewey, has been misused in Pakistan.
The author is not against the novel idea of workshop whose entire
philosophy was to add practical dimension to learning but with the
practice of using the workshop as an end itself. The result of this,
as Siddiqui argues that how educational change is possible without
changing the frozen belief system. The touch and go teaching culture
practiced at all levels of education known also as "briefcase
teaching" culture is critiqued on the ground that it has not only
created stasis and stagnation for the practitioners but has adversely
affected the value system of eastern education.

The fourth section titled Language Issues explores the paradoxes in
the language policy of the country and the practices of English
Language teaching in the country. 'The Language Factor' questions the
centrality English language in the power corridors of Pakistan.
"Various governments, for their political interests, played wantonly
with the issue of Language". Shahid Siddiqui (2007) together with
Tariq Rehman (2000) and Sabiha Mansoor (2005) takes a stance of
offering Language options and choice to the people of the country. The
streamlining of the policy matters require consensus and debate and
practical efforts to restore Urdu its due place as written in the
constitution of the country and various policy documents. Moreover,
this section also offers analysis of the ELT practices in the country.
In Pakistan teaching of English Language is taken as teaching of
English Literature as majority of the teachers perceive Language
teaching as teaching of novels, dramas and poetry. The author proposes
a middle ground of teaching language through literature.

Section 5, 'Curriculum and Material' reviews the latest literature
published on curriculum and Material development. Siddiqui, as usual,
is careful not to be carried away by the new slogans but analyses the
impact of these on our educational context. He views curriculum not as
something which sits on the shelf of policy makers but "a vibrant
phenomenon of which students, teachers, teaching material and school
culture are important components."

The last section of the book 'Research and Assessment' analyses the
quality aspect of existing research practices carried out in the local
university. "Most of the research in established universities in
Pakistan is mere repetition of earlier ones. In some cases even the
subsidiary questions of an earlier research are replicated. The
ultimate aim of such researchers and research thesis is to get their
authors degrees". Before making the generalised statement the author
has unpacked his idea of quality which is the addition to the existing
knowledge of the world. One can disagree with the author on setting
such stringent benchmark considering the intellectual infrastructure
of the country.

Rethinking Education in Pakistan offers a fresh perspective on the
traditional ideas and notions about issues in education in Pakistan.
Written in a lucid manner, the articles in the book form a coherent
whole, engaging enough to be recommended to the widest possible
audience, i.e., research students, practicing teachers, teacher
educators, curriculum planners, and policy makers.

http://sajshirazi.blogspot.com/2008/01/imparting-education.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************