Disclaimer: The Eqbal Ahmad Centre for Public Education (EACPE) encourages critical and independent thinking and believes in a free expression of one’s opinion. However, the views expressed in contributed articles are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the EACPE.
“The joy is in creating, not maintaining.” (Vince Lombardi)
Unfortunately, our current education system is based on rote-learning. Creativity is not seeded in children’s behavior, neither in their early school life nor throughout their education career. For instance: a kid of grade-IV is compelled to memorize obscure words like ‘osteoporosis’, ‘lukewarm’, ‘decomposes’, ‘constriction’, ‘reproduction’, ‘pollen grain’, ‘ammonia’, ‘kingdom’, ‘measurement’, ‘rectangular’, ‘transformer’, ‘Ammonium Chloride’, ‘Sulphuric Acid’ etc. Here is where killing of creativity starts, whose consequences are shown in the rest of life.
Where are we standing as a nation, and what our priorities are?
Despite having significant number of PhD degree holders in sciences, the text books in Pakistan are written in “Anti-Science” way. Ironic and comprehensive text with vague diagrams, memory-based exercises are patterned, which often reveal that it is a guide for teacher, and not for the students.
Not only the curriculum, even the highly paid teachers are not able to develop a creative and innovative environment in classrooms, labs and even in research centers. Many teachers follow old ages notes to students. Except few, many are ‘Creativity Killers.’ Take a look at their routine dialogues which they keep saying to students:
“Follow the rules.”
“Don’t be different.”
“Stay within lines.”
“There is only one way to do this.”
“Don’t be foolish.”
“Be practical.”
“Be serious.”
“Think of your image.”
“That’s not logical.”
“It’s not practical.”
“It’s never done.”
“It can’t be done.”
“It didn’t work well.”
“We tried that before.”
“We can’t afford to make a mistake.”
“It will be too hard to manage.”
“We don’t have the time and money.”
“Failure is final.”
“Yes, but…………!”
Where are we standing as a nation, and what our priorities are?
A person ‘A’ weeps on repeated spells of hourly load shedding of electricity. A person ‘B’ is fearful of exorbitance. A person ‘C’ makes a complain to food inspecting authority for impurities in food, and so on. But I have never ever heard a parent worrying about the improper education available to their kids. Instead, they rely on this rotten educational system. It seems we are on the peak of unawareness in this regard.
It is needed that critical reasoning is encouraged and an intellectual environment of free thought for healthy exchange of ideas is developed. And teachers, parents and governments must assure that more and more gold may be mined from creative minds than the earth.
The writer, Irfan Khan, is a Researcher of Natural Sciences at Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He can be reached at ik8828903@gmail.com
true and reality-based writing me PhD scholar need what is going in the education system for anti creativity practices