We are still slavishly carrying on the system of clerical education bequeathed to us by the British. The British devised the present educational system in order to perpetuate our slavery. They gave English an undue place in our education. Every subject was taught in English. This caused our students to waste much of their time in mastering the medium and thus it lowered our standards.
Unfortunately, this system has been allowed to continue. The continuance of English as a compulsory subject causes a large number of failures every year. Thus the predominance of English is causing a great waste of precious human material.
Another sign of the backwardness of this system is its expensiveness. Education must be brought within the reach of the poorest, but our education is growing more and more costly every day. The common man cannot send his daughter or son to a college and often even to a school.
In fact, our system of education does not encourage original thinking. It does not allow any clash of opinion. Our professors are supposed to have no opinion of their own. Their only job is to summarise what others have said. Our universities are not the centers of discussions and debates as they should be. In order to improve our education system we must recast our system so that it no longer produces mere clerks, but a large number of doctors, engineers and technicians. Herein lies the way to future progress.
NAMRA AFTAB,
Karachi, May 19.