Experts concerned for the youth 

In our times, students would not only follow their respective fields and jobs but respect their mentors too

Renowned educationist and human rights activist Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra said, as the famous American writer, lecturer and developer of courses on self-improvement, Dale Carnegie says, when dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with the creatures of emotions! I always say it openly that those who cannot endure failures, and losses never benefit. What we have been practising and proving for a very long time, is the fact that the piece of paper which is called a ‘degree’ is more important.

And because of that, we have moulded the education system into a decayed form of knowledge summarising it into multiple choices and quizzes.

Are we teaching parrots or intellectual, sensitive and intelligent beings called humans, the Ashraf-al-makhluqat? We teach humans and do not train them to use their minds. What a tragedy.

The basic reason behind this is the ignorance of upbringing. Education is never bound to the syllabus. I belong to the generation of the era Before Christ (BC) in the education system. During our time, moral values and ethical upbringing were an equal part of the curriculum. We were brought up with exposure to various co-curricular activities.

We were compelled to read out-of-syllabus textbooks and explore our interests under the guidance of experts. There was no hanging sword on the teacher’s head for course completion. Nor the anxiety of completing coursework was dumped on students. It used to be a healthy environment, where students would not only follow their respective fields and jobs, they would respect their mentors.

Do you consider the product of the current education system ever being respectful to their teachers? We were respectful. Do you see current teachers as good human beings? Our teachers were fine humans.

Do you see the syllabus based on multiple-choice and quizzes bringing up intellectually smart and intelligent beings? Leaving the answers to this question at your end.

Parents often doubt their children’s abilities, who may develop self-doubt and inferiority-complex issues

Renowned educator and trainer, Qasim Ali Shah while addressing the dilemmas of the Pakistani education system and its educators highlighted, “there is a famous quote of Hazrat Ali (AS) and Plato also emphasised the same thing.

The quote advises never to force your children to follow your way for they have been born at different times to endure different challenges. Parents, being the maiden teachers of their children and teachers being the spiritual parents of students, are unfortunately the first to point out the faults in children.

Some doubt their children’s abilities. The child becomes vulnerable and can easily suffer from self-doubt, inferiority-complex and zero-level self-confidence. It is true that our country faces a crisis in the field of education due to the mismatch of ‘the right person for the right job’ clause but let me tell you the reality.  There is a hyper-conundrum of poor teaching standards being practised with the young lot, the future of this country in educational institutions, which is inculcating pathetic norms and moral values among students.  The current education system is nothing more than a mere contradiction to the belief systems they are brought up to function. There is an extremely big difference between what and how they are being taught in comparison to what they have to face and experience.

I suggest students establish and normalise the culture of reading books and investing time in themselves first. Read ‘How to win friends and influence people’. Read ‘7 Habits of highly effective people’ and read a lot more.

The system plays a factor in exposing the youth to depression and other psycho-social disorders

Sharing her insight on the loopholes of Pakistani teaching methodologies, education psychologist Dr Ayeza Yazdani mentioned that the education system plays a major factor in exposing the young lot to depression, anxiety, phobias, complexes and several other psycho-social disorders.

What many of us, as teachers, have neglected to ponder over, is the need of the incumbent generation. As we are moving towards advancement, our teaching modules need to be improvised. I believe that teachers and parents play a major role in bringing success to the life of a child, adolescent or even youth.

I feel that it is high time to cater to that need, as soon as possible. There must be no void. Otherwise, the quality and purpose of the education system might become questionable very soon.

In the light of expert opinions, it can be concluded that the Pakistani education system not only lacks the capacity of delivering competitive knowledge and thinking ability as per the global demands, but it also compromises to cater to students’ basic need of being taught an advanced and practical skill-set.