In a recent letter entitled “Slide-based education” published in these columns, Ms Eman Samiullah Malik rightly observed that higher education in Pakistan has been reduced to a slide-centric exercise where teaching is confined to PowerPoint presentations and students are conditioned to reproduce them verbatim in examinations. As the writer noted, this may appear efficient, but it is intellectually crippling and fundamentally at odds with the true spirit of higher learning.
The issue is not the presence of technology but its misuse. Instead of serving as a tool to complement critical reading, dialogue and research, PowerPoint slides have become a substitute for them. Whole courses are reduced to a few bullet points, stripped of context, debate and intellectual rigour. The classroom, which should encourage inquiry and exploration, has been transformed into a space of passive reception where memorisation triumphs over analysis.
The outcome is predictable and troubling. Students lose the ability to think independently, to question, and to connect ideas across disciplines. Libraries remain neglected, research quality suffers, and examinations continue to reward conformity rather than creativity. Such practices may produce degree-holders, but they do not produce innovators, problem-solvers or leaders.
If Pakistan is serious about reforming higher education, it must go beyond slides. Teachers should be encouraged to promote independent reasoning, libraries should be revitalized, and assessment systems must reward originality and critical thought. Abandoning the culture of slide-based education is not just an academic reform—it is an urgent national necessity.
Dr Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi
