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Pakistan’s educational system is full of flaws that have been discussed countless times before. Interestingly, not many people have criticized the teaching practices implemented in Pakistani universities: the institutions responsible for turning college students into professionals. Just like our schools, our universities have added to the prevalent incompetence, lack of skills, lack of motivation and the “bas aik baar graduate kar jao, foran job mil jaegi” attitude the most. Let’s discuss the malpractices of our universities and how they are being ignored on a daily basis.
First of all, our teachers have an almost negligible interest in teaching, because most of them are in it for the paychecks, not to educate – that’s why students are so overwhelmed when they do eventually find a good teacher. It is famously known in our education system that a person who finds no other job, become a teacher. Hence, passionate teachers are a rare breed in Pakistani universities. What most of them do is deliver a lecture, and leave the class without having any idea of the students’ level of understanding or feedback.
Even more frustrating is the fact that most of the university instructors have doctorate degrees, yet they have no idea how to pass on their knowledge. A majority of the time, teachers rely on slides that they have downloaded from the internet. They come. They read. Yet, they do not conquer, and, in that fashion, they leave. If not slides, then they’ll have these laminated notes which are merely reproduced on the board. Whether the class understands the concept or not is the least of their concerns.
Unfortunately, teachers are not the sole culprits of the crime – our universities are equally guilty. Since most of the professors usually have an MS or Ph.D. degree, they are given the job without testing their teaching ability. The healthy correlation between being a good researcher and being a good teacher is shockingly non-existent. What universities fail to realize is that students do not care if the teacher has a doctorate degree from MIT or Harvard if they cannot convey the concepts properly.
Yes, a more accomplished faculty gets more recognition for the university from the infamous HEC, but what good is it when the students, for whom the teachers are hired, are dissatisfied? A majority of these accomplished teachers speak in flat tones that are more effective than Coldplay’s songs at making you fall asleep. They don’t use the right devices to gain the students’ attention and interest, but merely cover the topic and go back to their research labs – where the glorious tea awaits them. Meanwhile, students are scratching their heads and some are still asleep. The only ones being benefitted in this process are the teachers and the university’s management, not the actual intended audience: the poor students.
Teachers quote their career’s time span as if the students are supposed to be impressed by it but in reality, it has no value. If you play an instrument for a decade, you probably would master it, right? No. You’ll only master it using the right techniques and it can’t be truer for teaching – where you need to develop an efficient and crystal-clear medium to communicate with students. Hence, spending decades in the field doesn’t necessarily make you a Guru. When the teacher himself is least interested in his students, how can he expect his students to just blindly love the things he’s teaching?
For that to happen, he has to be amazing at what he’s educating and such species are as rare as Pakistani saber-toothed tigers. Yet this is where things get really interesting. Most of our university teachers live in this utopia where the students are following every word they are saying. If you gather the courage to let the instructor know about their bad methodology then they will probably take it as an offense. In the end, you get a straight D or F grade on the transcript.
The concept of giving anonymous feedback, let alone feedback is still an unknown concept in Pakistan. I’d like to quote a conversation with a professor I admire:
“Sir, we have so many apathetic teachers, why is that so?”
“I don’t think they are uninterested as such, it’s just that they don’t know how to improve their style because students never tell them.”
“But sir…”
He interrupted me and said: “Yes, I know how hard it is for the students to be expressive with their teachers, I have been in the same shoes too in past. Unless there’s a well-monitored system with an administration that gives feedback the top priority, bad teachers would stay bad.”
I understood his point. It’s like a chef who cooks sub standard food on daily basis. He will keep on doing so until he is told that his cooking is abominable. Obviously, he thinks he’s doing it right since he never receives a single complaint.
One last problem that I’d like to address may not seem significant but it actually is crucial and is directed towards the Teaching Assistants (TA) at universities.
“Hey, I don’t have anything to do these days, any suggestions for me?”
“Yeah sure, just go ahead and apply for TAship, easy.”
“Great idea!”
I think I can safely say that not many of us have come across more than a couple of genuine TAs, the ones who are actually passionate about the subject and care about the students, unlike their senior professors. TA-ship is like the easiest job for the laziest of people who just want some extra cash. They check the quizzes and assignments as they follow a marking scheme that nobody can question. Most of the TAs aren’t even knowledgeable in the subject they have signed up for.
An important thing to keep in mind is that these TAs usually are the ones aiming to jump into academia later on in their life, as is the ongoing trend nowadays. If they have no enthusiasm towards teaching at this point, how can you expect them to turn into this extraordinary teacher later on? They will most probably be another addition to this rich pool of boring teachers with a lot of official certifications except, “Excellence in being understood by students”.
I remember a TA saying, “I don’t know this subject at all but I was personally asked by the instructor to do TA-ship so I had to accept it.” In other words, he meant: “I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse.” The fact that an assistant professor asked him to be the TA is even more saddening than him accepting it.
I’d like to end this with a little optimistic note. Yes, the list of problems is never ending but we are equally responsible for being taught this way. Funnily, they are not the teachers we need but the ones we deserve. We treat teaching as a field with no respect, no integrity, no six figure salaries and what not. Teaching is considered a joke almost everywhere and if you say you’re passionate about teaching, you’ll probably receive a condescending remark, or the eternal: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”
If you are so bothered by being taught by people who only joined academia for money or who had nothing else to do then it’s about time you do something about it. The system can gradually change if younger and more energetic minds get involved in education and teaching. They will have more awareness, they will have a wider skill set and most of all, they will be well aware of the loopholes in the teaching practices so would never repeat them.
Educating is a huge responsibility but it’s equally beautiful. It’s not just about transferring knowledge and grading your students on its basis, as it’s famously perceived. It’s more about inspiring your students, believing in them, helping them discover their hidden talents, aiding them in their personal development and most importantly, making them better human beings. If you can inspire and impact a single student, it’s triumph; something that slides reading and decades of disconnected teaching can’t compare to.
I’ll conclude this piece with Michael Jackson’s immortal words of “Man In The Mirror”:
“If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make the change”
