A beacon of hope

The advent of Meesaq-e-Ilm elucidates that teachers in public education have the correct intentions.

The Meesaq-e-Ilm, a charter drawn up by teachers across Pakistan and endorsed at a recent national conference of teachers organised by Alif Ailaan to reevaluate the status of education in Pakistan’s future, is an uplifting and promising development. The initiative was a much-needed one to combat the wilting state of education in the country and comes refreshingly just before the start of a new year. The charter defines the goals teachers and other stakeholders should have towards children’s education in Pakistan. It also states the obstacles that hamper teachers from dutifully fulfilling their roles as educators, particularly outlining the politics involved in ranks and transfers and the menial jobs that teachers are tasked with other than teaching.

One of the biggest ailments of our public education system is biased content in school books, which is sometimes written so as to encourage discrimination against various groups in society. The academic teams responsible for teaching this material patronise the biased information to promote their own personal or political agendas on to naive young minds. Then, there are the issues of ghost schools and lack of school infrastructures. Most government educators also neglect to keep up with research and development in their fields to move focus away from centuries-old rote learning practices.

If the charter is implemented, many ills of our education sector could be eliminated. It would not mean that current teachers need to be replaced. Rather, they must be trained through workshops and provided feedback and evaluations on their teaching methods. The advent of this charter elucidates that teachers in public education have the correct intentions. With the correct intentions in place, there is no stopping the Pakistani education sector and our youth. The education sector must now fulfil the needs of teachers that are explained in the charter so that they can fulfil their roles with integrity.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2014.

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