Published in Education Informer's April, 2012 Edition
I have never been a regular student after my matriculation. I was
never serious in taking classes when I got admission in my intermediate
in commerce and did my bachelors as a private student from Punjab
University. This four or five year’s distance from taking regular
classes left a desire and temptation in my heart. A temptation to get a
regular education and to enjoy the fun that comes along with a college
or university for that matter.
My below average performance in bachelors forced me to look for
universities that could accept a student like me. My search brought me
to the door of my current educators; Preston University. Frankly
speaking, when I applied for the admission and came to know that I’d
have to go through a formal test, which will ascertain my admissibility,
I felt a bit unsecured. I was scared whether I’ll get the admission or
not. On top of that, I also got intimidated by the name of the
university, Preston and Princeton almost sound alike.
All my curiosity about the university studies vanished when I became
acquainted with the set up and learned how things work. Though, I
enjoyed the cafeteria, company of friends and bunking the classes but my
real cause of despair was the time I spent in front of the teachers,
except for one. I am studying under the teachers who are mostly
part-time i.e. teaching just for the sake of part-time money making job.
Amount of permanent faculty members is very bleak. Teachers, who get
personal with their disciples. I was once suspended from this university
because I questioned the teacher and that led to my suspension without
even hearing me out. Teachers, who are known to give marks to students
of opposite gender.
Majority of the students come to university to attain good GPA and
get ‘A’s as much as they can. The race to get ‘A’s somehow divert their
real cause, which is to attain knowledge rather than marks. The quest
for knowledge is overshadowed by the GPA. Only this reason is enough to
brush aside the credibility of a university or a student as it leads to
nepotism from the teachers, no improvisation and initiation from the
students as they are content with good marks and therefore no research
initiatives. In short, at the end of the day, we produce good crammers,
no Arfa Karims.
I also experienced teachers who used to mark the students on the
basis of their face value. A student’s reputation went before him. It
doesn’t matter what he writes inside the assignment, all it needs for
the teacher is to read the name of the student on the title page and
ascertain his marks. No one ever gets to know what new dimension is
presented by his mate in his assignment. One instance was a very recent
one, when a very talented and senior classmate of mine presented very
valuable information (a new economic indicator developed by Bhutan) in
his assignment to the teacher but we never came to know about it.
Eventually, he disclosed it in a discussion in the class; else we would
never have been able to get benefit from that. Majority of students in
this university are relying on a pre-cooked meal. Though, we have to
cook our own in our final project but overall, we are producing
followers, no leaders. We are prescribed textbooks and that eradicates
any chance for a student to google and dig out literature from different
books and sources. Nonetheless, the university is placed in the top
ranking of Higher Education Commission.
We, the youth of Pakistan, are the assets of Pakistan. Pakistani
government has, over the years, implied the policy of privatization and
that also included education. I don’t want to budge over the concept of
privatization but the fact is that that nurturing of young talent is the
responsibility of government rather than fat-capitalists. I know we
have many great private-sector institutions and they are producing good
talent but they are also a source of discrimination in the society. When
we talk about a uniform standard of education, then that means bringing
everyone on the same level. A student of University of Punjab and LUMS
should be treated the same way and they both should be on the same
level.
People argue that HEC has the mandate to supervise the education
sector and look into all the malpractices, but like everything else,
education is also over-looked. Every night when I turn on the TV, I hear
people saying that our future is very bright but judging by the current
state of affairs, I am afraid that the expectations people are having
from us are far-fetched and optimistic. It is time, we take education in
the fold of public sector rather than letting the precious talent rot
in the hands of blood sucking capitalists, who take the divine duty of
education as money-making opportunity.
0 comments:
Post a Comment