Learning losses?

The year 2020 has changed the perspective of the world about society, economy, work culture and self-development in personal and professional life. However, educationists in Pakistan have refused to learn any lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. The motto of ‘covering the syllabus’ is now obsolete in the world as the focus is more on helping students learn transferable skills from primary to tertiary levels. Our educationists must come out of this obsession with ‘completing the syllabus’ at the expense of the mental and physical wellbeing of students and teachers – in our country a child and a teacher’s wellbeing is also a foreign concept. Those subjects and textbooks which do not enable students to develop their skill base for meaningful employment should be reduced. For instance, it is surprising to see that government and private schools teach computer skills only from textbooks and don’t conduct practicals. I have met students in Punjab villages who have only seen the computer in a lab from outside the window while they have had memorised the C++ programming language and completed their Intermediate degree in Computer Science with good marks. And this attitude about ‘learning’ is also evident in the syllabus design and the prevalent teaching practices in science and math subjects.

Considering this lackadaisical attitude of our education planners towards education, I disagree with the news reports that say that there has been any ‘learning losses’ for students at any level as most of our students have no skills to compete in the national or international economy. The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is requested to upgrade the education system according to the international standards.

Mehnaz Zainab

Islamabad