Higher education for lower learning

University is a place to elevate the mind and nourish the spirit, which is why it is known as ‘higher education’. It is the ultimate destination of many in pursuit of a knowledge upgrade.

In most developed countries the number of graduates who reach masters and then doctoral level of education is a direct indicator of a country’s progress and prosperity. Universities, such as Harvard, Stanford and Oxford are brands that are associated with not only top class education but an opportunity to explore, discover, debate and share diverse ideas with a versatile mix of nationalities, experiences and ages to develop new thinking that leads to innovation.

The story of the deterioration of Pakistan’s economy is that of the country’s education system. The condition of primary and secondary education in Pakistan has been a topic of serious debate, but little has been done to improve it. Higher education never received the attention it should and the resultant damage has almost gone unnoticed.

The recent spate of violence on university campuses in Punjab and Mardan are evidence of the fact that how far spread and complex this desecration of learning has become. The traditional perception of the poor and illiterate men in remote areas being easily brainwashed, is no longer the story. This segment of young educated and exposed middleclass males and females, who ‘volunteer’ to join extremist organisations, is far more dangerous.

Psychology of mind is vulnerable to the learning influences around it. The socio-cultural influences traditionally were dominated by family and community interactions. However, in this age of information, the influence of what you see, read, hear, debate, question and respond has a much greater impact on your thinking than just family and surroundings. Amongst the educated youth the time spent online is between six to nine hours per day, and hardly one to three hours with family. This is an indicator that the hardwiring of the brain is now based on a huge variety of uncontrollable sources. This influence has given rise to what I call the MMRT generation, ie, Millennial Mobile Restless Tweens. This is a generation born in a world where the globalisation’s goods and ills have been felt with equal velocity. Cold wars turned to hot wars and capitalism lost its shine as a solution to world’s economy. Lynching at the Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), Noreen Laghari, a student of Liaquat Medical College, and the Safoora Goth terrorist, a student of the Institute of Business Administration, all indicate that terrorism is much more complicated than that perceived to be a combination of illiteracy and poverty. There are three main reasons for young, educated people to be attracted to such activities:

1) Many MMRTs get caught by the contradictions in their life. Their parents teach them the traditional values as a way of life, while they see the opposite all around them. Their textbooks tell them about the glorious history and their Facebook tells them about the inglorious reality. They read about the fall of communism and the rise of capitalism, and see the slide of capitalism and the rise of materialism. This disconnect starts to bother them and neither universities nor families are able to bridge this disconnect.

2) Many MMRTs find it difficult to settle into traditional routines, careers and education. They may become doctors, engineers or business graduates because that of their parents’ wishes or because it will pay their bills, but they find these jobs unfulfilling. They have a lot of information about the outside world but little about the inside world within them, which causes restlessness and an intense desire to escape the normal routines.

3) Many MMRTs suffer from identity crisis. They feel a lack of meaning and purpose in life and in this restive mindset start considering themselves as misfits. This creates a tendency to rebel against the status quo. They tend to change their education fields, jobs and hobbies in search for identity, purpose and direction.

Terrorist organisations, such as the ISIS are much more diverse than al Qaeda and have done their homework on this generation. Their target is 18- to 24-year-olds for whom they use the social media extensively. Their goal is to produce 30-40 high quality videos per day, in almost every language. They have an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Twitter accounts and guides for discovering true meaning of life, carrying out jihad and how to join the Islamic State. Thus somebody, like Noreen Laghari will receive videos on how unfair the West is to Syrians, and how she as a medical student is empowered to do whatever she can to Christians in Pakistan, in retaliation for what Christians are doing to Muslims in Syria. These videos are based on clever facts and appeal to the restive nature of MMRTs to stand for a cause and have a unique identity.

Universities in Pakistan need a complete overhaul of curriculum, teaching methodology and student relations. However, like most institutions in the country, Vice-Chancellor (VC) appointments in universities are now in political hands. Punjab University has violence erupting every week. The National Accountability Bureau is already investigating the appointment of its VC and his subsequent illegal appointments on key posts. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has not finalised the appointment of many VCs, including that of the AWKU.

The first two years in college, as are abroad, should contain liberal arts subjects, such as psychology, comparative religion and literature. Universities need to have psychologists, specialising in student therapy. The incidence of drugs, depression and suicides even in the best private universities is alarming. Colleges and universities need to have talent aptitude tests that can guide the MMRTs to find their passion and direct them to follow it. Parents need to understand this social networked generation, discover ways of communicating with them rather than rejecting their desire to be pursuing different careers and help them to do more meaningful work.

Without these changes, we will be widening the gap between this young, smart but extremely disenfranchised generation and society. We need to understand them better, communicate and connect differently, and create an enabling environment in their learning places to control the damage of this mass social disruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2017.

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