Apparently, we have an education emergency. As emergencies go, this one has taken us 63 years to register. That makes it quite an emergency. But lets not quibble over minor issues and take a look at this emergency instead.
The current bout of hysteria follows a report by the Pakistan Education Task Force. The report is on the internet and it says on the main webpage Sign the Petition to End the Education Emergency: Click here to Support. I was about to click the indicated button when I thought, how would clicking end this emergency? I mean those who use the internet are already educated, even if not knowledgeable. And those for whose benefit this petition is intended dont use the internet at all. But maybe I am missing out on something here.
Next I logged on to twitter and there was much discussion on it about the education emergency. Most of us, including this writer, were engaged in trying to capture the nuances of the crisis by employing 140 characters, which is just what is necessary for an in-depth analysis.
Proceeding stepwise, as I am generally wont to do, I downloaded the 3.95 MB report. It bombarded me with statistics like what we are spending on education (very little); how many schools are without proper buildings (lots); the fact that education is a constitutional right; compared to X, Y, Z countries we are lagging behind etcetera. Given that I am no Matheist, statistics always impress me. But given also that I have seen how putting in more money in a sector which cant even spend lesser allocations doesnt work, I am sceptical of numbers divorced from a discussion of structural problems.
Similarly, while I have nothing against good school buildings with proper playgrounds and laboratories and the rest, something tells me that hardware alone cannot be a substitute for software. I am hard pressed to accept that if we were to recreate models of Eton and Harrow or Oxford and Harvard here, which in theory can be done, that we would also be able to get everything those institutions stand for and offer.
The idea is not to sneer at the report or the fact, staring us in the face for decades, that we have an emergency here. In fact, this is an emergency if we could address it that holds the key to solving many other emergencies. So, yes, we need to not just address but attack it on a war footing.
But, and this is important, we first need to clarify what we understand by education and whether we want a system that takes us beyond learning facts and acquiring information to actually putting all that data to some use. I say this because the education we do have in Pakistan is likely to hasten our fall instead of helping us. The illiterate in this country are a lesser danger than the literate.
I went to the Calvin and Hobbes archives on the internet. Theres one strip particularly relevant to this argument. Calvin is taking a test. The question (first frame): When did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock? The answer (second frame): 1620. Calvins thought (third frame): As you can see, I have memorised this utterly useless fact long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You have taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.
Is knowing the three Rs the same as education? It is a fact that the seminaries produce students who are far more articulate and who understand the significance of rhetoric far better than anyone the debating societies at upscale schools can produce. The seminarians learn the rhetorical tradition and also logic in its narrow, deductive sense. Combine that with articulation and the stock-in-trade and we have an explosive mix.
Education is a tool; it can be used for various purposes. Dickens criticised Benthams Utilitarianism in Hard Times through the character of Thomas Gradgrind and Mr. MChoakumchild. We have had a system that has choked many a child by grinding him. Id much rather have the free spirit of Sissy Jupe than Bitzers running around, pale in complexion and red-hot on facts and self-interest.
Knowledge is what we need then, not mere schooling. And if we really want to address the emergency, lets call it a knowledge emergency rather than an education emergency. Several years ago, while reading Wordsworths The Prelude, I chanced upon the following verses. To me they define knowledge as nothing else does:
… I mean to speak
Of that interminable building reard
By observation of affinities
In objects where no brotherhood exists
To common minds.
Its important to note that Wordsworth uses reared rather than constructed or manufactured, to denote that the acquisition of knowledge is an organic process; a process that demands connecting the dots, finding affinities where none seem to exist for minds that have not been trained to observe. Those are common minds, not illiterate minds. The world is full of educated people who have never had a serious thought in their lives. THAT is the problem.
Finally, if statistics need to be talked about, today we have more educated people than we had 30 years ago, even given the increase in population. But equally, today, more than yesterday, we are also a society on the brink. The emergency is less about those who havent gone to school and more about the schooled illiterates.
The writer is Contributing Editor, The Friday Times.
