Reforming curriculum to counter extremism…Dr Shuja Ahmed Mahesar

The Constitution of 1973 is very comprehensive, but ironically there are gaps in implementing the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice enshrined in the document resulting in economic instability, poor governance, political polarisation, democratic crisis and religious hatred. Intolerance and extremism in society are growing at a lightning speed mainly because of declining standards of education. System of education lacks inclusivity, equality and quality of being unifying force, and thus it is unable to prevent inherent fragmentation of society causing conflict and violence because of competition and clash of interests, values and ideas among various classes, ethnic communities and religious groups.

Social science curriculum in the past has remained a source of bias, gender discrimination, extremism and narrow-mindedness. It has remained supporter of dictatorship and detractor of democracy. Further, the lack of applying scientific principles has generated scepticism and dissatisfaction among the educationists who fulminated against education policy and openly criticised the textbooks in media which they believed did not sufficiently provide knowledge, based on verifiable facts. The lack of evidence-based information in addition to errors and omissions further affected the textual and contextual landscape of learning.

In the past, Pakistani textbooks glorified extremism and invoked religion in wars against enemies. This created rationale for religious-based hate and violence. In schools, children came across with narratives of hate, victimhood, paranoia, misperception and conspiracy rejuvenated by some politicians, religio-political groups, the biased media, the neighborhood clerics and militant groups to exploit the gullible nature of masses. Extremist narratives further began to take root in society when some mainstream leaders of religious parties went so far as to share militants sense of grievance over the countrys political affairs.

Even in present times, the lack of implementation of law allows militants to remain largely unprosecuted, except through military courts. Pakistans policing infrastructure remains poor, as does its legal system. Unless extremists are held accountable in a transparent manner for their actions, they will keep running their show at campuses to commiserate and recruit likeminded people to achieve their avowed aims. Inability of government to produce sensitiveness to the sentiments of youth population creates opportunity for militant groups to control their minds by filling the space left void by the government institutions. The lack of educational attainment and low levels of education in Pakistan, coupled with the scarcity of career opportunities and sheer number of problems in the curriculum, create disaffection among youth with system.

The textbooks normally do not reflect much the rudiments of curriculum and do not serve as windows to fresh learning. The lack of coordination between curriculum and textbook-making authorities due to their competition for remaining in limelight, power temptation and unprofessional behaviour causes impracticality and administrative red tap affecting quality of learning material. Textbooks developed by low-paid professionals who have little or no expertise in the field causes the absence of progression and non-alignment of the books with curriculum. Further, with little exposure to latest developments in science, technology and education, they produce worthless textbooks, which are obviously not free from plagiarism, redundancy and repetitions. Moreover, the lessons are not adequately supported by inbuilt material facts and logic when it comes to teaching children about advantages of tolerance and disadvantages of hatred and extremism.

Education sector across the country has been gravely affected by the wave of terrorism and violent extremism. Recently, National Curriculum Council (NCC) has been engaged in the mammoth task of developing uniform standards of education in the country with the input of the relevant stakeholders on newly developed framework. Nevertheless, for the accomplishment of goal, the council needs to ensure that curriculum reform must keep pace with international standards. Further, upgradation of educational infrastructure and development of state-of-the-art schools offering shared sense of belonging to all children is vital for improving learning experience of students to have lasting impact on their personal development.

National curriculum needs to incorporate social values and demystify democratic norms and citizenship to counter growing hatred and violent behavior in Pakistan. The role of curriculum as a social policy and planning needs to be emphasised when it comes to developing youth by giving them skills and best childhood education to immunise them against the contagious menace of hatred leading to extremism. New curriculum based on a broader social sciences policy and vision should touch political norms, democratic values and social realities. It must develop objectivity and criticality as the core approaches of learners to discover facts and increase their understanding of post-colonial and de-colonial narratives in resonance with world view by incorporating peace education, critical pedagogy, and knowing about the global perspective.

Nevertheless, there is a dearth of training or capacity building programmes for handling controversial and sensitive issues in the classroom. Thus, teachers need to undergo formal training to tackle issues such as: how to take up violent extremism through moral reasoning, and how to de-escalate the hostile situation to counsel students who have extremist tendencies and beliefs. If the culture of dialogue, moderate discussion and constructive feedback in classroom is encouraged, the teaching methods will be gradually transformed over time for further developing cognitive skills of students in the way that they should not end up feeling judged not motivated to improve learning through teacher-led creativity, which is missing ingredient of our entire system of education.

For imparting quality education, we need holistic review of curriculum to equip young students with the life skills they need to thrive after completing their schooling. Purging curriculums of hate material, biases, stereotyping, political polarization and discrimination will free some space for weaving new skills in already bulging textbooks. Further, the NCC needs to embed tolerance, morality and ethics and incorporate diversity, social inclusion and emotional intelligence throughout schools to mitigate the extremist mindset and support wider counter-violent extremism/terrorism strategy framework.

Courtesy The Express Tribune