An ideological education

[Solomon2]

An ideological education
By Sahar Bandial
Published: November 4, 2014

The writer is a law graduate from the University of Cambridge and a practising lawyer based in Lahore

The recent controversy regarding curriculum reform in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is not a mere instance of political compromise and appeasement, but rather a struggle to yield ideological power and control through the instrument of instruction.

The eventual victor appears to be the Jamaat-e-Islami, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) acceding ground. Yet, it remains unclear against whom our criticism ought to be directed. The Jamaat’s demand for a return to the 2002 school curriculum developed under the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal regime and its doctrinaire emphasis on the espousal of a certain ideology is unsurprising. In the words of the K-P Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, the Jamaat’s call extends only to the re-inclusion of the subject matter allegedly expunged from school curricula under the previous ANP provincial government: principles of jihad, theories of creationism articulated in Quranic verses and an emphasis on the Two-Nation Theory.

The PTI may have put up some resistance against the Jamaat’s educational agenda, or at least the protests registered by the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba and the JUI-F certainly suggest so.

As a result, young children in K-P, to state one instance, will no longer be exposed in their textbooks to the culturally aberrant image of ‘girls in skirts’, to be replaced now by the more acceptable depiction of a girl child donning the head cover. The Jamaat’s concern, it is argued, is the development of a school curriculum reflective of the culture and ideology of Pakistan.

While the actual nature and the exigencies of such compromise remain uncertain and debatable, this debacle has clearly highlighted the ideological exploitation by political forces of the state’s authority over the process of education. An ideologically driven state educational agenda is problematic. Its end is defined and is thereby assessed in terms of the degree of conformity and adherence to a particular ideology, politics or belief system that it is able to engender in the young minds it educates. History is tweaked, images altered, literature selected, all to reinforce and perpetuate a particular mindset.

That school education is a powerful tool capable of fashioning student’s beliefs and attitudes is widely acknowledged. A recent study conducted by the US National Bureau of Economic Research has concluded a direct causal effect of the school curricula introduced by the Communist Party of China from 2004 to 2010 on children’s political, social and religious views.

We are all too familiar with the tailored lessons in political and religious history fed to us through school. The selective and often obscure account of the 1971 war and the subsequent secession of Bangladesh and the complete erasure of the Jamaat’s opposition to Partition of the subcontinent are just some instances of the skewed instruction, which has modelled us into the conforming nationalists our education system sought to produce.

A pre-occupation with feminine virtue is again not unique to the Jamaat’s educational agenda. Studies of school texts published over the years in Pakistan demonstrate the elevation of obedience, domesticity and docility in women, thereby laying down acceptable boundaries of gender roles in society. Yet surely, the purpose of education goes beyond such mental fashioning? What of intellectual growth, curiosity and critical thinking? An ideologically driven curriculum may still be informed by such objectives, but positions them only second to its higher prioritisation of conformity.

What do we lose out from such instruction? Indoctrinated through a selective account of our values and our past, we are made intolerant of diversity and difference, robbed of the capacity to reason, to critique existing power structures and conceive our surroundings in a creative fashion. The deployment of ideological education as an instrument of nation-building may not be unknown even in states which term themselves secular. But where the processes of education are ideologically determined, the objective of human development is put on the back burner, at great loss to the developing minds of a state.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2014.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

what room do you have for an argument with these people who decide to put Jihad in the subject of Chemistry.

 

[Solomon2]

what room do you have for an argument with these people who decide to put Jihad in the subject of Chemistry.

Story here: link.

Is there some reason Pakistanis can't take their children aside after school and correct the teaching in the textbooks? - or tell students to ignore it outside their current classroom?

 

[Irfan Baloch]

Story here: link.

Is there some reason Pakistanis can't take their children aside after school and correct the teaching in the textbooks? - or tell students to ignore it outside their current classroom?

reasons

the children will be left confused
such action will need extra time, money & commitment of parents
teachers will invite the wrath of the vigilante mob if they omit those contradictory bits


to make matters worse

some teachers will be complicit, Jamat Islami drives a lot of power though the personnel in the educational institutions that are its members. this party rejects any hint of a change to the curriculum which it devised during its time in power in the 80s of Gen Zia.

 

[VCheng]

Story here: link.

Is there some reason Pakistanis can't take their children aside after school and correct the teaching in the textbooks? - or tell students to ignore it outside their current classroom?

Yes. Pakistanis are agreeing what is being taught in ever increasing numbers.

 

[Not Sure]

Story here: link.

Is there some reason Pakistanis can't take their children aside after school and correct the teaching in the textbooks? - or tell students to ignore it outside their current classroom?

Yes, main reason is that the parents believe in the education that their kids are getting.

Secondary reason is the power held by the religious teachers at the Madrassas - many times even when a young student is sexually abused by such teachers, the parents try to hush it up and send the kid back to the Madrassa.

 

[Solomon2]

Yes, main reason is that the parents believe in the education that their kids are getting.

And so baseless hatreds are generated, passed down, and amplified from generation to generation.

Secondary reason is the power held by the religious teachers at the Madrassas - many times even when a young student is sexually abused by such teachers, the parents try to hush it up and send the kid back to the Madrassa.

We have had serious problems with this sort of thing in America. Twenty years ago a man stood outside the Vice-President's mansion in Washington on a major thoroughfare with a sign (I saw him) proclaiming, "I was raped by a Catholic priest". Every reporter in town ignored him. Eventually he disappeared. A year or two later the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal broke into the open - a court finally was able to obtain evidence damning not just the priest but his superiors - and reporters were hitting themselves for ignoring the guy. The Church took notice and has made some minor (in some cases, very minor) reforms but for the most part, I understand, the solution is for the laity to be more responsible at checking the ordained and to speak up more when such things happen.
In Jewish communities here we have had instances of rabbis engaging in voyeurism or engaging in inappropriate affairs. The voyeurs get prosecuted. The other sort get sacked. But people have to be willing to speak up.

 

[VCheng]

And so baseless hatreds are generated, passed down, and amplified from generation to generation.

Of course. Look at all the evidence and the steady descent into chaos of the whole country.

 

[Not Sure]

And so baseless hatreds are generated, passed down, and amplified from generation to generation.

Yes, it is a downward spiral. People often blame Zia, but the seeds were sown even before independence. Zia simply watered the soil.

We have had serious problems with this sort of thing in America. Twenty years ago a man stood outside the Vice-President's mansion in Washington on a major thoroughfare with a sign (I saw him) proclaiming, "I was raped by a Catholic priest". Every reporter in town ignored him. Eventually he disappeared. A year or two later the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal broke into the open - a court finally was able to obtain evidence damning not just the priest but his superiors - and reporters were hitting themselves for ignoring the guy. The Church took notice and has made some minor (in some cases, very minor) reforms but for the most part, I understand, the solution is for the laity to be more responsible at checking the ordained and to speak up more when such things happen.
In Jewish communities here we have had instances of rabbis engaging in voyeurism or engaging in inappropriate affairs. The voyeurs get prosecuted. The other sort get sacked. But people have to be willing to speak up.

That last sentence is what I meant. See, such priests who exploit others are there in every major religion. But where would you see parents sending their kids back to the rapists, and in some instances, hold the rapist in high regard just because he is a priest?

The man you mentioned, the one who held the sign, was he hounded by the public after that? No, rather you are quoting him here in a positive light. Similarly, even in a country like India, which is struggling hard to come out of similar regressive social/religious taboos, women stood naked to protest against the rapes committed by the Indian Army recruits, and were given due media exposure. Such expressions are signs of a progressive society because it shows that morality does exert some power in the society.

But in Pakistan, it is completely different. Morality has given way to power; organization is getting replaced by chaos; and because the good guys are quiet, the bad ones are having a free run.

 

[Solomon2]

That last sentence is what I meant. See, such priests who exploit others are there in every major religion. But where would you see parents sending their kids back to the rapists, and in some instances, hold the rapist in high regard just because he is a priest?

Oh, my.

"The man you mentioned, the one who held the sign, was he hounded by the public after that?"

No, but the papal nuncio has: link

But in Pakistan, it is completely different. Morality has given way to power; organization is getting replaced by chaos; and because the good guys are quiet, the bad ones are having a free run.

"Good guys" need to wield street power at least, lest they get overrun - or killed - by the bad ones. Organization is needed for that. Why isn't anyone willing to organize?