ducation is a complex enterprise.On one hand, it is shaped by contemporary social change. On the other hand, it can leave a deep and lasting impression on the society. Across historical epochs, educational activities, instructional methods and systems have undergone profound transformations. A close look at the history of schooling reveals the unmistakable imprint of economic, social and political forces.

One of the latest trends reshaping education is neo-liberalism. Fundamentally a market-driven economic ideology, neo-liberalism promotes open markets, limited government intervention, unlimited profits, and often, greater exploitation of workers. Since profit becomes the main focus, attention shifts from the process to the product. As a result, the values and ethics of service providers are often neglected.

Neo-liberalism has exerted its most direct influence on the education systems of technologically advanced nations. The culture that arises from the fusion of technology and neo-liberalism is intimately tied to education. New technical media have spawned a particular “brand” of schooling that celebrates technicalrationality. The induction of business magnates and industrialists in the boards of educational institutions may seem promising at first glance. However, as Hill (2009) notes, these actors come armed with both educational blueprints and clear commercial objectives.

In Pakistan, the imprint of neoliberalism has grown steadily clearer over the past four decades. It has been marked above all by the rapid expansion of private schools. At the time of independence, there were only a few private institutions, typically supported by philanthropic groups or individuals whose aim was to broaden access to learning, not to make money. In recent years, however, private schools have been increasingly founded for explicitly commercial ends. While a handful offer high-quality but prohibitively expensive programmes, the majority focuses only profits. Education has become a vast industry whose principal “output” is the stream of graduates it produces. In this model, values and ethics carry little weight. Some private school chains boast not of academic distinction but simply of their ever-expanding network of branches, clearly an industrial logic in which the number of production plants, high output, low cost and maximum gain measure quality.

To maintain consistency across their various branches, the head offices create detailed lesson plans and send them to every campus. Head office inspectors then ensure and verify strict adherence. The rigid enforcement leaves teachers no room for creativity. As a result, the teachers are unable to use their intellectual abilities and become little more than technicians. Their own reflections and insights play no role in the classroom.

To maintain consistency across various branches, the head offices create detailed lesson plans and send them to every campus. The head office inspectors then ensure and verify strict adherence. The rigid enforcement leaves the teachers no room for creativity.

The educators relegated to such mechanical function can be expected only to transmit knowledge that serves the prevailing technocratic mindset. In that mindset, the purpose of schooling is to secure a “good” [read lucrative]job. Little wonder therefore that computer science and business management dominate enrolments while the social sciences get squeezed out as “unprofitable.” Technology and the mass media reinforce this orientation, cultivating social relations that serve it.

Not long ago, the school, the home and the wider community were the chief sites of social interaction. Today, the media shape and reshape thought, narrative, attitudes and biases. Ideologies form within this process. These ideologies, in turn, slowly manufacture public opinion. That opinion may become common currency, yet it is rarely anybody’s free or original idea. Most people remain unaware of how carefully orchestrated messages implant particular prejudices in their minds. New technology has made this operation easier, faster and more penetrating than ever before.

Schools have failed thus far to perform the social role expected of them. The media have stepped in, nurturing selective information, analyses and cultural forms. Horkheimer and Adorno (1994) termed this phenomenon the culture industry - a system that, through technology, propagates a standardised culture. The same dynamic is now visible in Pakistan. The ordinary person is reduced to a consumer, lulled into believing that personal likes and dislikes are freely chosen; in fact, the opposite is true. ‘Open’ markets perpetuate the fiction that every product serves a human need, while reality runs counter. Adorno observed that the culture industry presents the consumer as “king,” yet in truth, the consumer is an object, not an agent, in the industrial process.

Schooling fashioned on this model fosters intellectual uniformity and demands a mindset aligned with technical rationality. Marcuse (1960) described life in industrially advanced societies as a luxurious, comfortable, acceptable, democratic slavery-it is precisely this mental servitude that education exports to developing nations.

The biggest challenge faced by educational institutions is defending personal freedom. Overcoming this challenge will need major changes in goals, classroom interactions and assessment methods. We must learn to differentiate a school from a factory. Currently, most private schools in Pakistan function like markets. Thoughtful government intervention, such as balancing teachers’ workloads with fair pay and preventing exploitation, could benefit the public. Education and industry should connect, but schools should not be run solely for profit. Social sciences may seem to offer no immediate financial gain, but they are crucial for developing human thought. Our entire system needs a redesign because the current model follows what Freire (1972) called the “banking” concept of education. If we truly want to educate for personal freedom, we need to replace the technician mindset fostered by modern media with a focus on critical thinking.

The writer is an educationist and applied linguist. He is the author of several books on education, language and gender, including Education Policies in Pakistan: Politics, Projections, and Practices. E-mail: shahidksiddiqui@gmail.com