The brewing crisis in education

The state-run school in the suburban Australian town where I was attending a yearlong training course had asked parents of aspiring students, especially the international students, to meet the teaching staff. Our concerns were addressed and queries answered. The school had no uniform; however, kids were encouraged to wear a loose track-suit that could be acquired new or second-hand from the local store. All three kids were to pay an annual fee of fifty Australian dollars. Kids were not required to buy textbooks, notebooks and other items, as these were school-supplied. They were not given any home work. Teacher would explain the lesson using one set of textbooks, kept in his/her custody, on the white board. Students would thereafter do their exercise on loose sheets of paper, which would subsequently be filed in their respective subject folders, and left in their lockers. Each class would have a games’ period. Small kids were expected to play in the sand, kept purposefully in the school yard.

I tried adopting the above model while commanding the Hyderabad Division in the Army-run school in Badin for one year; and in spite of parents’ initial reservations, the results were good. Kids unencumbered with heavier school bags, stressful school routine, tiring homework and a daunting learning environment did well comparatively. The same was suggested to the KP government, but generally such suggestions hit at privileges, vested interests and never see the light of the day for ‘other’ reasons.

One is aghast at seeing the school kids of these times. The little souls have no time to play. Over-ambitious school syllabi, teachers with mostly perfunctory skills and interests, and the consequent compulsion of attending the evening ‘tuition academies’ have literally made life miserable for children all across the country. In one of the biggest rackets of our times, the same teachers who would not satiate a kid’s knowledge curiosity in the classroom would be more diligent in these tuition academies. Kids run in between rigorous school routine and longer commute to the evening academies; and hardly have time to play or enjoy themselves. On weekends, these exhausted souls over-sleep, get on with their cell phones or prepare a project.

Over-ambitious parents, mostly compensating for their own failures in life, overburden kids with academic rigours. They would demand flawless academic performance, perpetually pester kids for more marks, and encourage them to compete headlong in a vicious pseudo-academic environment. The emphasis has shifted to getting more marks, rather than getting educated. Schools and tuition academies are all excessively commercialised and geared to maximise their profits in an unholy alliance with the relevant industry and official mafias.

Where is this obsession with more marks taking us? Anybody’s guess. A recent interaction with some instructors at one of the Military academies revealed that our youngsters have weaker bones. If the tougher physical standards required of the Military are so inadequate, one can conjecture the overall physical standards of our society. Kids’ over-indulgence in social media has hit the remaining nails in the gloom-box of contemporary education. Although one can still see some outdoor sports in rural Pakistan between late-afternoon and evening; cities are mostly dead zones due to lack of adequate facilities.

Plato, in his famous ‘Theory of Education’, considers education a means to achieve individual and social justice. He considers that individual justice can be attained once individuals nurture their abilities fully. Justice to him is akin to excellence, which is virtue. Plato groups knowledge development into three tiers: self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s job, and knowledge about ‘the Idea of the Good’. According to Plato, the main function of education is ‘not to put knowledge into the soul’, but to exploit the latent individual and group talents by correctly directing these towards right objects. He advocates equal educational opportunities as basis of social justice and does not support commercialisation of education. The great sage ‘was against the practice of buying knowledge’, which he considered a ‘heinous crime’.

In elementary education, emphasising grooming of children in healthy environment, implanting ‘truth and goodness’, Plato initially recommends teaching literature (mostly story-telling), and poetry. His second suggestion is music, and third arts. Following a 10-year phasing, he emphasises physical education mostly for the first 10 years, implying a gymnasium and a playground in each school. Examination at age 20 was to filter those continuing education from those forming part of workforce .

Those passing were to continue education for another 10 years, studying apart from body and mind, subjects like mathematics, astronomy, geometry and dialectics. He also recommends history, science and moral education. Plato believed knowledge acquired under compulsion is transitory. Exam at the age of 30, much harder, served as elimination test. Elimination at each stage filled occupational ranks. Qualified students were to receive another 5-year advanced education in dialectics. Those passing had to study another 15 years for practical experience in dialectics. And at the mature age of 50, those qualifying were to be entrusted with the ultimate task of governance.

The above discourse identifies two correctable errors in our educational philosophy — the neglect of education’s true purpose i.e. individual and societal improvement through excellence; and our obsession with form and format through misplaced diligence that takes fun out of the whole process, contributing to weak bodies and weaker minds.

West generally validates the consequences of new social normals much before us. So, a recent study (Richard V Reeves’s new book, Of Boys and Men) finds ‘men are struggling’, in the US and worldwide. They are struggling in the classroom. They are struggling in the workplace (around 10 million American men are out of labour force). Men are also struggling physically, as close to 75% cases in the ‘deaths of despair’ category (suicide, drug overdoses, etc) are men. Over-competition is responsible for student-suicides in Korea and Japan before the yearly entry level exams.

It is about time the whole gamut of education and social upbringing was looked into. Pressure needs to be taken off our kids allowing them more leisure time. Competition be weaned away from obsession with marks and jobs, towards social harmony, maturity and perfection. Syllabi need to orient towards individual and group well-being. Imparting education should come back to its noble moorings of knowledge dissemination and grooming of the soul, rather than greed and money-making.

The system needs an urgent reboot — now.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2022.

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