The Single National Curriculum Disaster

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Haroon Riaz
Source: geo.tv

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons to oppose the government of the currently ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) political party has been its education policy. Seemingly egalitarian and innocuous if not revolutionary, this education policy is anything but. Championed by social conservative nationalists, even PTI urban liberals who come across as socially liberal, this policy has been more about turning secular education in private schools into madrassa education. While even the national ethos in Pakistan is not exactly the most exemplary in the world, the idea of unifying the diverse peoples within Pakistan under the same curriculum could only end in a disaster.

The main executor of the Single National Curriculum vision was Harvard graduate and Lahori liberal Dr. Marium Chagtai. Not only did she supervise this disaster unfold for the children of the country but also shamelessly defended it citing the Islamic provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan when confronted by
secular liberal intellectuals like Pervez Hoodbhoy. This reminds me of all the urban liberal nationalists who thought that a PTI government would be a good idea for the country. Though it really should not be a surprise because this is the “intelligentsia” that makes up the rotten idea of the (Islamic) Republic of Pakistan. They are true to the legacy of their communally-minded demented forefathers.

The Single National Curriculum is unfinished business from the Zia period as per academic A. H. Nayyar, and the hypernationalist theocrats making up the PTI hybrid regime are overzealously keen to complete it. As the process of this horrible transformation of the local private and public sector schools for the common citizen of Pakistan is underway, you can still find nationalist urban liberals defending the Single National Curriculum. They are still defending the celebration of the Hijab on state textbooks. And they will continue to do so as long as their safe spaces are not invaded by the theocratic extremists.

If you are having children or already have who are supposed to grow in a schooling system in Pakistan, be very afraid. The irony is that these urban PTI liberals will send their children to the Cambridge education system, which is completely isolated and safe from these “revolutionary changes.” They would rather satiate their hideous sense of patriotic national cohesion by imposing madrassa education on the lower middle class who want to pursue some semblance of quality education in a hopelessly theocratic society.

The PTI urban liberal experiments on the lower middle class for their stupid nationalist projects must stop.

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The Student Solidarity March: Students Across Pakistan Are Waking Up

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Haroon Riaz

Source: Pakistan Today

The progressives students across Pakistan did it. They were not threatened. They were not deterred. They were not intimated… by the threats of authority, by the threats of the state establishment, by the threats of their conformist parents and teachers, and by the threats of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Never in the living memory of the generations since the 70s, has such a large, broad, and vibrant secular, leftist crowd taking to the streets in Pakistan. It is the kind of student politics that I most certainly missed during my college days and was always looking for. I was looking for a platform to express my secular liberal views but were not finding any like-minded people, let alone allies around me. I am relieved to say today that so many of the young students today cannot say that. The struggle of the leftist activists in Pakistan has made its impact.

Students all across Pakistan, from Karachi and Sindh to Quetta and from Southern Punjab to Lahore and from Islamabad and Peshawar to Gilgit, students came out in great numbers. They made their presence felt and reminded the authorities of what to expect in the future.

The most beautiful part of the march was the participation of Iqbal Lala, the father of martyred secular student Mashaal Khan. Any such march is incomplete without saluting heroes such as Mashaal Khan who have become a symbol of resistance against Islamic fundamentalism and the tyrannical state of Pakistan who collectively murdered them.

 

The progressive students also revived the spirit of Bhagat Singh, an indigenous hero of the War of Independence against the British that the Islamic Republic has completely forgotten.

There still is a long, long way to go for us. This is only the beginning. Still, there were nearly not enough people coming out. Still, the numbers nowhere near matched the injustice and threats faced by the students, women, labor, and minorities in Pakistan. There is still a long way to the restoration of student unions in a country that only appreciates monolithic behavior. There is still a long way to go for improving access to education and better health, or even the right to life and dignity in most parts of Pakistan.

Most importantly, there is a long way to go before the secular left, socialists, and social democrats can become a considerable voting bloc in Pakistan. The ANP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has always been a start but it is somehow disconnected to the left in the rest of the country.

While many liberal friends were put off by the Marxist and revolutionary slogans in the march, they must never forget the bigger secular, democratic cause, In order for the struggle of the secular left to be more effective, broader coalitions need to be built without sacrificing the principles of social democracy. We are up against the dictatorship of the military establishment and the ignorant, obscurantist tyranny of the Islamic Republic, the ignorant rule of the PTI and conservative Punjab, and the violent Islami Jamiat Talba. It is in the best interest of all center liberals, secular liberals to progressive left and socialists to unite to build a secular coalition, just like in the recent Israeli elections where Kachol Lavan appeared as a major coalition.

Zia must be turning in his grave on this day because he did all in his power to destroy the left from reemerging. But on this historic day, it has. Who would have thought that these visuals would be possible in the 80s.

Congratulations, progressive students of Pakistan, you have made history.

You are waking up. You are alive.

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