A different take on learning
Kamila Hyat

In many households across the country, it is that time of the year again. Examinations are about to begin and timetables are pasted on walls. Levels of stress are at an all-time high among both students and their parents.
In many cases it is the mothers who tend to be even more keyed up than their children, spending sleepless nights worrying about the exams, poring over textbooks themselves, struggling with maths equations and science formulae, sharing stories of insomnia with friends as ‘exam day’ nears.
It is as if the rest of the universe has stopped to exist and life has been put on hold, only temporarily of course, as the mother-child/parent-child team pore over books. In extreme cases, paranoid parents go through this whole stress cycle during every class ‘test’.
The situation becomes still more frenzied when a child is applying for admission to a particularly prestigious/foreign school, where thousands apply, for, at best a few hundred places.
Some parents have raised the bar so high that their children are unable to achieve the goal, which leads to chronic stress for all involved.
As good as it is for parents to take an interest in their child’s education and general well-being; limits should be set of how much pressure the child, who is in the middle of this emotional roller coaster, should be put through even though it is a tough feat in today’s competitive world.
But in some instances children have literally cracked under extreme pressure. It is not fair on a child to constantly be under the microscope and live under the pressure of always trying to live up to their parents’ expectations.
This may sometimes lead to the children never able to demonstrate the ability and intelligence they possess within a system based almost entirely on rote which is the shaky platform upon which a large part of our educational system stands.
Although every child deserves an education, the question is are those attending school actually learning anything there. And then there is the problem of rote.
Much of the problem lies in our ignorant, semi-literate educators, and is also rooted in a desire to discourage thinking in children, for thinking can be dangerous in a situation where we just wish to retain the status quo.
The key issue is the overall low investment in education. And it does not help that barely ‘literate’ parents teach their children – especially in a country where women are not granted much education.
It is also true that a large number of families cannot afford tuitions due to financial constraints. Unfortunately for Pakistan, the concept of tuitions took firm root in the last decade or so.
But over the years, the quality of education in schools fell so drastically that the number of children who joined tuition centres increased dramatically and now there are several such centres virtually in every locality.
The better-off scramble to get into classes run by the most sought-after teachers; notes they hand out are rumoured, like a magical potion, to ‘guarantee’ success in exams.
Taking opportunity of this booming ‘business’, some of these learned people have become technologically savvy and offer classes through various new methods like Skype, which not only helps them save time but increases their income as they charge by the minute.
We need to take a look at the world around us. An extraordinary example of education success comes from the tiny Scandinavian nation of Finland. What we find there would shock most teachers, parents and even students in our brainwashed country.
Finland is a small, highly developed country with a population of 5,387,000 people spread across its icy fjords and pastures. Since 2001, Finnish children have come at the top or very close to the top while appearing for standardised international tests in science, mathematics and reading, when compared to their counterparts in the USA and across the world.
But Finnish children do not attend ‘cramming sessions’; toddlers barely able to walk are not forced to learn their ABCs, and nor are examinations a set practice.
The education system as been refined over many years, children do not start school till they are at least seven years old. There are no examinations or homework until they are well into their teens.
They are not tested at all for the first six years of their education and primary level children enjoy 75 minutes of recess every single day, compared to only 45 for their US counterparts. In Pakistan, this length of free time during school hours is generally even shorter than in America.
Despite these methods, which would stun many seasoned educators in Pakistan, the gap between the best and worst children in any class is the lowest in Finland compared to anywhere in the world.
There is no discrimination in the classroom between children on the basis of academic performance, unlike the ‘streaming’ system still used in some schools in the UK, the US and at home. In all 93 percent of Finnish children graduate from high school, compared to about 75 percent in the US.
What is more, their schooling experience is a pleasant, largely non-stressful one, turning them into willing, happy learners who also excel at tests of their knowledge compared to children who have been subjected to extremely heavy doses of pressure and constant testing in the classroom. Finland has proved these are unnecessary.
There are lessons we should all learn from the Finnish example. There are of course reasons behind this success story. Finnish teachers enjoy the same status in society as doctors or lawyers, are highly paid and are chosen from among the top graduates.
Professional training continues for them through their careers. In this, Finland is well ahead even of its other European neighbours in the region, attaching great priority to selecting only the best as those who will impart knowledge to the next generation.
As we all know, just the opposite is true at home. Qualified teachers are hard to find, pays even at elite schools are dismal, especially when compared to those offered in sectors like banking, finance or now even the media.
Images from Finland’s happy classrooms prove just how unimportant exams and tests are. They seem to have little to do with actual learning.
This is something to ponder over in depth and consider whether lifting the burden they place on the weak shoulders of young children may in fact create for us a generation of better, more able thinkers who have acquired true knowledge rather than simply learning useless information they will soon forget.
The writer is a freelance columnist
and former newspaper editor
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com