The school year started today for millions of kids in this part of the world. And as we begin the academic year, and our children walk grudgingly to their institutions of learning, never has our curriculum been a focus of so many from other parts of the world, and especially among those from the United States of America.
It is a good thing, this attention to our syllabus. For in many ways it does spur attention and a demand to a reshaping of the topics being taught and the tools and manner they are being dispensed with. There is a need to overhaul this curriculum as I see it, for it burdens our children with an overload of subjects in any given year, delegating the process of understanding to a minor role as memorization becomes the prominent key to success.
The results of this current curriculum is often too obvious in the blank faces of our graduates, who through no fault of their own are ill-equipped to manage the realities of everyday living. While jobs remain unfilled, unemployment among youth rises, giving credence to the lack of tools these kids have attained through the existing structures. If indeed there is a need for re-assessment, it should be now. The world is moving at a faster pace today, and we cannot be content to wallow with our heads buried in sand for too long.
The bureaucrats in charge of overseeing our education system have perhaps neglected their role in reviewing and updating the requirements of a growing nation. It seems to me their satisfaction in hanging on to the status quo was highlighted in the statistics annually released by their departments extolling the rising number of graduates every year rather than in the quality of the product. It is a game of numbers: quantity over quality! And unfortunately our children have had to pay the price.
In yesterday’s paper, several columns highlighted the controversy over the introduction of English as a second language in primary grades. Why does something so basic have to be so controversial? The learning of any foreign language is a plus, be it English, French, or Sanskrit! Learning different languages smoothens the path in bridging cultural divides and promoting better understanding. But do our educators know that?
Not only that, the demands of the marketplace more likely than not demand English language proficiency. How despairingly rattled does a youth’s aspiration get to be when he or she finds out that what they’ve learned (or memorized) for the past twelve years is just not enough to cut the mustard and sustain them in the real world? And do the statistics then make any difference to them? Or offer them any degree of solace or comfort? Parrots belong in Africa, the Amazon or in zoos. Shall we lock up our children’s minds in cages as well?
And so I say this to our educators. Re-examine your textbooks and other teaching material. Develop the teaching profession through the proper selection of applicants, educate and license them, and not simply have these professions filled by people looking for a stable monthly salary. Replace all outdated and obsolete material with current topics and technology. Make the learning of a foreign language mandatory, and implement physical education classes for our daughters. Reduce the burden of fifteen or sixteen subjects on our children, and promote learning as an exhilarating experience, rather than a dreaded one.
If indeed we had produced a few Nobel Laureates with our existing curriculum, then perhaps I would have shut up and not bothered with this column at all. But in today’s world, far from it, sadly that is not the case.
— Tariq A. Al-Maeena , ([email protected])
