Tweaking our understanding of education in Pakistan

Pakistan's uncharted educational landscape

Its nearly election time, and while everyone goes back and forth in an increasingly emotive manner, cheering on their respective side, one issue that does stand out amongst all speakers is the importance of education for whoever comes to power post 11/05.

This is perhaps as good a time as abt to evaluate what education should be and how it should be delivered. This too has seen a lot of debate. But then sometimes in the midst of all the discussion it seems as if each party is cheering on their own interpretation of how they will reinvent the wheel, in mostly symbolic ways, i.e. exam boards, examination methods etc.

Alot of good work has already been done. I won't go into the specifics at this point, but at a more general, macro level, I believe that small tweaks and changes in our understanding of education is important before we move forward. Ignoring the basics, while trying to change the complex is bound to fail.

Recognize the importance of early years education  and play

Like most things in Pakistan, a top down approach to education is seen as a quick fix. The development of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) over the last decade, and how its captured middle and upper class imagination in its quest to improve Higher Ed is remarkable. The HEC perhaps matches defence organizations in its ability to churn out "strategic institution" or "disciplined institution" to whenever its faces any criticism.

While the development of a strong higher education sector is important. It seems that in Pakistan this is happening at the expense of other levels of education. Flip through the news or any newspaper, and while issues related to the HEC make headlines, schools can go without teachers or basic infrastructure for years without any mention.

Now this is probably the result of our middle and upper classes investing their energy at the top end of educational qualifications. The final product of 16 years of education, a degree and then a job.

I find this approach self defeating.

Investment and attention at the top must be matched by recognizing the importance of early years and basic education. Primarily because:

The most formative years of learning is during early childhood (See Alison Gopnik's talk above). Society may feel that what a 20 year old in university learns is more important than what a 4 year old learns in terms of practical and economic importance. However, what we ignore is that what the 4 year old learns or does not learn will have a much bigger impact on learning when older, than massive spending on higher education itself.

In the current model where the HEC offers scholarships to students and hopes to improve outcomes. This is all well and good, however, an investment in early years and basic education would help improve educational outcomes from the bottom up. Students entering university will be better prepared academically. The very best today are good in relation to a very low benchmark. We must invest in policies that lifts everyone, not just a select few at the top.

Early years interventions have the added benefit of resulting in higher social benefits. Investment in higher education helps increase private benefits of the scholar himself.

At this point, hoping for universal nurseries and kindergartens is pointless. But a recognition of its importance would help as a start. Highlighting the importance of play, open spaces, curiosity etc is as good a start as any. Providing information to parents or local communities, interlinking such interventions with the provision of vaccines and basic health would help shift attitudes.

After All, a rising tide lifts all boats.

Children learn themselves and teach each other

Sugata Mitra has done some exciting work on how children learn and how they teach each other across the globe.

Below are some extracts from his talk which speak for themselves:

So then people said, well, how far will it go? Where does it stop? I decided I would destroy my own argument by creating an absurd proposition. I made a hypothesis, a ridiculous hypothesis. Tamil is a south Indian language, and I said, can Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village learn the biotechnology of DNA replication in English from a streetside computer? And I said, I'll measure them. They'll get a zero. I'll spend a couple of months, I'll leave it for a couple of months, I'll go back, they'll get another zero. I'll go back to the lab and say, we need teachers. I found a village. It was called Kallikuppam in southern India. I put in Hole in the Wall computers there, downloaded all kinds of stuff from the Internet about DNA replication, most of which I didn't understand. 

The children came rushing, said, "What's all this?" 

So I said, "It's very topical, very important. But it's all in English." 

So they said, "How can we understand such big English words and diagrams and chemistry?" 

So by now, I had developed a new pedagogical method, so I applied that. I said, "I haven't the foggiest idea."And anyway, I am going away."  

So I left them for a couple of months. They'd got a zero. I gave them a test. I came back after two months and the children trooped in and said, "We've understood nothing." 

So I said, "Well, what did I expect?" So I said, "Okay, but how long did it take you before you decided that you can't understand anything?" 

So they said, "We haven't given up. We look at it every single day." 

So I said, "What? You don't understand these screens and you keep staring at it for two months? What for?" 

So a little girl who you see just now, she raised her hand, and she says to me in broken Tamil and English, she said, "Well, apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule causes disease, we haven't understood anything else."

Children are curious. And this curiosity allows them to overcome linguistic, technological and economic barriers (to an extent). We must recognize this because the ability to overcome these barriers diminishes as children become older. 

A second lesson to learn here is the importance of encouragement. The "granny effect" as Mitra states refers to the importance of positive reinforcement and gentle nudges that spurs learning. For me, an inexpensive and perhaps the simplest education intervention in Pakistan, would be an information campaign to encourage parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts to show interest in children's learning and offer encouragement.

Something that I am considering to try is to get a few computers, connected them to the internet, try and get urdu dubbed lectures of Khan Academy videos and open it up to whoever wants to have a go. I personally think that such an approach of offering access, and then encouraging self learning, is an effective way to narrow the gap between poor students who may not be able to afford extra classes or tutoring and their more affluent peers. 

Play is good, boredom is bad

Its a shame that play doesn't get as much importance as it should. In a 5 or 6 hour school day, a 20 minutes "break" in a day is supposed to be enough time for a child to have a snack and play. Break Time or play is never enough, but for many teachers and parents its considered a waste of time. 

Toys also figure as an obvious distraction. "Put your toys away and come here and study". Now only if we appreciated play as much as the forced "study" a lot of creativity and curiosity that will later reinforce educational ability, would not be wasted. 

Arvind Gupta shows a few examples of very simple, some familiar toys that highlight the importance of both play and toys in facilitating learning. Again, a very simple intervention that can inspire.

But wheres the policy stuff?

I will go into specifics in another post. But here I wanted to highlight some areas towards which I believe attitudes must change. The recognition or certain forms of education and certain age groups as key stakeholders in educational processes will help approve enrollment and attainment for all students.

So in short, if you ever have to lobby for educational reform, remember to:

1) highlight the importance of early years and basic education

2) play is education

3) children can learn on their own, education policy should not dull their curiosity or creativity

4) children teach each other, social interaction is important

5) encouragement, especially for young children is extremely important. Encourage, support and let kids thrive