Reimagining Education
The moment a child takes its first steps, the entire family
is taken by joyous surprise. No one taught the child how to walk. Did it learn
from observation? Is it an innate instinct similar to a foal who stands up
unsteadily as soon as it is born? What has however been agreed is that the baby
needs a safe environment, lots of play time, and the opportunity to be
independent and experiment.
Those are the conditions that remain essential for learning
all through our lives. Yet those are the very things we deny during the
learning process. Many children learn under the gloom of fear of a demanding
parent or an impatient teacher, play time is considered a distraction from
‘studies’, and there is an expectation to conform and obey instead of
experiment.
Clearly there is a need for structure and boundaries, even
if these change over time. Defining these structures and boundaries determine
the best environment for learning, teaching methodologies and curricula.
If we start with the premise that humans are naturally
inclined to learn and seek new knowledge, then the question arises of why
students shy away from studies as they get older. One explanation may be that
they do not see the relevance of what is taught to their personal ambitions in
life, or they did not have the benefit of an inspiring teacher.
Socrates said Education is the kindling of a flame, not the
filling of a vessel. The Socratic method of teaching was to answer questions
from his students with more questions to enable the student to arrive at an
understanding in his own way, thus internalizing and owning that piece of
knowledge, and being transformed by it. Education
is in essence about transformation – from ignorance to clarity.
Ibn e Arabi taught that learning is a process of recognizing
what we already know. While it may require an outside stimulus, such as from a
teacher, true understanding comes from within. We are born with knowledge
latent in our hearts because God taught Adam the names when He created him. The
goal of human learning is to remember what we have forgotten. Plato similarly
spoke of the elimination of our amnesia.
In Arabic a distinction is made between
ʿilm and maʿrifa – knowing and recognizing. Knowledge that comes from the outside is
called ʿilm. Knowledge that comes from the inside is called maʿrifa. William Chittick explains maʿrifa “is an
unmediated knowing, not received from any book or teacher. It may come to be
known because of an outside stimulus, but, once it is found, it is as if the
heart has always known it.”
The teaching of the creative arts is a good example of this
awakening of self-knowledge. The student is nudged into self-expression by the
teacher, by the study of creative works and by interaction with fellow
students. Little can be taught in the traditional sense other than a few skills
and methodologies. In other words, a teacher can explain how to hold a pencil,
but not what to draw. The requirement of
teaching in not a process of pouring in, but drawing out.
Ken Robinson a global authority on education endorses the
idea of teaching creatively, even if one is not teaching creativity. All children are gifted differently. The teacher has to use a creative approach to
draw out the individual potential of each student.
Robinson says creativity is not unique to the arts. “It is
equally fundamental to advances in the sciences, in mathematics, technology, in
politics, business and in all areas of everyday life.” Creativity is not the
talent of a very few gifted people. “Many people who are being creative do not
recognise that this is what they are doing.” It’s something we often see in the
jugar culture, often considered a negative term, but in fact consists of
creative solutions to a problem.
The prime mover in
education is the teacher. When mass education began in the Industrial age, prescribed
systems were taught in a uniform manner, to create a uniform work force. The
teacher had merely to transfer information and assess the student’s absorption
of the information. Much has changed today. Young people now have direct access to
information via the internet and may be better informed than their teachers.
The nature of jobs has also altered with technological advances and we expect
AI is poised to take over many tasks people were trained to do.
The teacher’s role is now to prepare students to be able to
adapt to an ever-changing work environment, becoming an enabler, encouraging self-directed
learning, problem solving, imagination, curiosity, self-confidence and originality.
Educationist Ben Johnson says “Great teachers don't teach, they engineer
learning experiences that maneuver students into the driver's seat and then
they get out of the way.” He suggests “A great teacher will keep the students
wanting to come to school just to see what interesting things they will explore
and discover each day.”
Education is not something to ‘complete’ but enable life-long
learning. The modern formal educational
system creates an artificial definition of education in a finite number of
years. An education through life
experiences, whether alongside or instead of a formal education has an equal
value, provided it is a focused effort to achieve excellence. Behind informal
learning is always a teacher, a mentor or Ustad, a wise elder, that one person
who at the right time and place can alter the course of a person’s life.
There is no fixed age for learning.
Adults seeking better opportunities want to know that if they missed the boat,
there is another one coming. Recognizing this need, opportunities for adult
learning are becoming increasingly well subscribed, from accepting mature
students in universities, to free open online courses and even academic credit
for work experience. This is an area that needs to be formally developed in
Pakistan, enabling a lost generation to feel relevant now, instead of pinning
hopes on the next generation.
Pakistan’s state education system has stagnated. It adopted an
international educational system to become part of the world community, but has
not kept up with its evolution over the years. Schools are still rigid,
streamlined into the sciences or the humanities, abandoning the holistic
learning of our traditional systems. Teachers are fixed in a cycle of notes and
rote learning where memory rather than understanding is assessed.
We need to question why so few study beyond matriculation,
which itself is a mere 7%. Are we failing our youth? Why do they find education
unnecessary? Most turn to Ustad Shagirdi
training, which continues to flourish below the education radar. Should that be
seen as an indication of the kind of education Pakistanis want? Can a schooling
system evolve that incorporates this need?
Country statistics are far too focused on literacy rather
than education. Literacy is not an end to achieve – only a means for a
meaningful education. The definition of
literacy in Pakistan is simply the “ability to read and understand simple text
in any language from a newspaper or magazine, write a simple letter and perform
basic mathematical calculation.” Education is a far more complex concept. It
teaches people to think not merely to read. The 19th C British
reformer Henry Peter Brougham reminds us: “Education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive; easy to
govern, but impossible to enslave.”
It is only through educational
excellence, whether in the formal or informal sector, that Pakistan can break
the cycle of dependency that holds us back.
Durriya Kazi
January 16, 2024
Karachi
Comments
Post a Comment