Privileging the Madrasa Education in Pakistan: Nuclear Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy Sacked from a Lahore University
By
Khaled Ahmed
August 8,
2020
In July,
Pakistan saw another so-called reform in education. The government of Imran
Khan decided to conclude its “unification” of the three “systems” of education
(Urdu medium schools, English medium schools and the madrassa) predictably
imposing more of the madrassa on the other two streams. It announced an Islamic
course at the Master’s level, and allowed raids on printing presses in Punjab
province to confiscate “hostile” publications. Since education is a provincial
subject, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are bound to bear the brunt of this
“reform” as they are ruled by Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Hoodbhoy’s thesis is that the reform will make the madrassa dominate the
other two streams and that an already “religiously oriented” educational system
will be further Islamised. (Express Photo)
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Teachers
labelled “liberal” and “secular” are the first to be rendered jobless under the
looming reform. Nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy and another “science” teacher
have been sacked from a Lahore university as a foretaste of what is to come.
Hoodbhoy’s thesis is that the reform will make the madrassa dominate the other
two streams and that an already “religiously oriented” educational system will
be further Islamised. Pakistan’s universities are not recognised outside
Pakistan because of the heavy ideological content in their syllabi and the
daunting presence of religious-fundamentalist elements in them.
The problem with education in a Muslim state is its reluctance to impart “analytical and critical” thinking. When a Pakistani educationist sits down to frame textbook content, he is scared of the “critical” trait of the human mind. His objective is to prevent the student from applying a “critical” yardstick while analysing “ideology”. The recent law allows the Punjab administration to form vigilante groups that could assault publishing houses to cull “objectionable content” and destroy it and subject the publisher-writer to punishment.
Pakistan is
not alone among the Muslim states to have an educational system hostile to
“free knowledge”. The Arab world is equally crippled while Iran and Turkey have
succumbed to Islamism and its anti-knowledge worldview. The other negative
factor in the Muslim world is the frequent incidence of war that upsets the
intellectual conditions required for education, replacing it with “propaganda”.
There is also the rise of Islamism that damages the edifice of rational
learning. Boko Haram, an Islamic revival terrorist organisation active in
several states in Africa, attacks “rational” (read English-medium) institutions
and translates its own name as “English-medium education not allowed”. The
other factor negating education is the incidence of violence in the shape of
war and civil war. In the case of Pakistan, there is little money left after
“fighting” or “preparing” for wars and there is simply no money left in the
kitty for education after meeting the expenditure on the armed forces. In the
Arab world too, there is frequent war during which no one thinks of education.
Teachers
too are a problem. Most of the primary school teachers in Pakistan are madrassa
graduates who have acquired knowledge that equips them for no secular
profession. Children in most state-funded schools get poor training in math and
history as fact-based narrative. The state sector education mostly relies on
brainwash as teaching methodology. Looking for good teachers is a problem of the
Islamic world where war and high birth rate outstrips the capacity of the state
to produce good teachers capable of imparting “modern knowledge”.
In an
article in Arab News, Zaid M Belbagi wrote: “Compounded by record levels of
teachers reaching retirement age alongside unprecedented numbers of children
entering the education system, UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics indicated that
1.6 million new teaching posts will need to be created in the Arab world if
universal education is to be achieved. This figure is likely to increase.”
Huma Yusuf
in Dawn (May 7, 2018) states: “The threats to critical thinking and debate come
from many sources: So-called state functionaries, student wings of religious
political parties, firebrand students wielding blasphemy charges, politicised
academics, complicit university administrators, and even right-wing media
commentators who name and shame educational institutions, forcing them to go on
the defensive and resort to self-censorship to protect students from mobs.”
It is curious
that English and its “logical-sequential” discourse should disturb Imran Khan,
who frequently lambasts modern “liberal” Pakistanis. His clubbing together of
the three systems of education in Pakistan and squeezing “one system” out of
them is typical of the Muslim educationist who is scared of English as a
purveyor of rational thought.
Related Articles:
Khaled
Ahmed is consulting editor, Newsweek Pakistan.
Original
Headline: Pakistan’s education ‘reforms’ are privileging the madrassa system
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/privileging-madrasa-education-pakistan-nuclear/d/122577