Curriculum reform
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Curriculum reform[/SIZE][/B]
Dr Fahad Rafique Dogar[/CENTER]

A hot topic these days is education reforms. All major political parties are promising to restructure our education system if they come into power. The specific details of the party manifestos differ, but there appears to be a consensus that education reforms must include revamping the curriculum. The next step is to identify how this can be achieved.
Biology, history, and Islamiat are three subjects that will prove to be most difficult to reform – most other subjects are relatively easy to fix.
For most subjects, we just need to modernise the curriculum. The motivation behind modernisation is straightforward. Western countries have made tremendous efforts in planning how these courses should be taught. They have identified the three key aspects of teaching a subject: what needs to be taught, and when and how it should be taught.
While the western curriculum is not perfect, it is still the best that is out there. More importantly, the western system is constantly improving, in line with latest research on human cognition and the tools for education (eg, computer technology). Pakistan, with its limited resources, cannot be a leader in this field. Instead, what we should do is to follow the western curriculum wherever possible.
Of course, using western curriculum in Pakistan would require some tinkering as well as translation into local languages. These steps are manageable and there exist real world examples of how this can be successfully done.
By now you must be wondering why chemistry is a relatively easier proposition while biology is problematic. Biology involves the teaching of evolution, a topic seen by many to conflict with our beliefs. Even in the west this question is controversial.
The easier option is of course to simply ignore evolution from our curriculum, as we do right now. Many educationists, such as Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, are critical of this approach because our students miss out on essential knowledge. Perhaps the solution lies in seriously considering the views of modern religious scholars like Javed Ghamidi who have tried to reconcile the process of evolution with the teachings of the Quran.
While biology’s influence is somewhat limited and academic in nature, the two other subjects – history and Islamiat – have relevance to our entire society and some of the major problems we currently face.
The problems with our history curriculum are well known. Important facts are either distorted or completely ignored. On more subjective matters, our curriculum takes a one-sided, rightist approach.
These issues lead to horrific problems in our society. We are told that India started all the wars against us. Similarly, the army is portrayed as the only honest institution in the country. Not surprisingly, we find ourselves as a security state that spends most of its budget on defence. No wonder then that we are so receptive to martial laws.
Our curriculum also takes a one-sided view on subjective issues such as the ideology of Pakistan, Afghan-Soviet jihad, East-Pakistan separation, and many more. No wonder our nation remains confused on many important issues and we keep repeating past mistakes.
To fix the history curriculum, we need to make some tough decisions. Omissions, inaccuracies, and distortions have to be corrected. On more subjective issues, such as the ideology of Pakistan, we need to present all the popular views. Only a rich and thought provoking discourse can enable our students to understand the historical context behind our present day problems.
Finally, Islamiat (or more broadly religion) is as important a subject as History, if not more. The growing religious extremism in our society can be partly attributed to a disconnect between our strong desire to follow religion and our insufficient knowledge of religion itself.
Our Islamiat curriculum focuses more on the history of Islam rather than the core concepts and teachings. More importantly, little effort is spent on understanding the rationale behind different things. Controversial issues are ignored altogether.
All this produces students who are blind followers of religion. When confronted with contradictions and challenges, they don’t know how to respond. They don’t have the training on how to approach questions of religion. Naturally, such students are likely to be influenced by the emotional and theatrical discourse of the local maulvi.
Just like other subjects we need to give Islamiat a deep thought. What do we want to teach as part of religion? When is the right time to introduce different religious concepts to students. How should the teachings be communicated?
While experts need to figure out these details, the solution must have two overarching themes. First, we need to focus on understanding religion rather than blindly following it. Second, we need to emphasise the virtue of tolerance and acceptance of other beliefs and make this a prerequisite to learning religion.
As is evident from the above discussion, fixing our education curriculum requires making several tough decisions. Politicians with myopic vision will never make these tough decisions. Only leaders who care about the next generation (rather than the next elections) can undertake such challenges. The question is: do we have such leaders?
The writer is a computer science researcher with a doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
He tweets @fahadrdogar

[url]http://e.thenews.com.pk/5-9-2013/page6.asp#;[/url]