“For the past 20 years, we, as higher education bodies, have done nothing to prepare our communities to deal with disasters.”
– Dr Muhammad Memon, AKU-IED Professor calling for an intellectual contribution of ideas
KARACHI: The 2005 earthquake that hit the northern areas of Pakistan, the 2010 floods of Sindh and the perpetual state of conflict have pushed Pakistan into a persistent educational crisis.
More strenuous efforts and policy frameworks at the provincial level must be formed as the 18th Amendment has now granted curriculum rights to the provinces.
This was the topic of the policy dialogue, titled ‘Transforming Pedagogies: Emerging Contexts and Texts of Teaching Learning’, by the Aga Khan University — Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) in collaboration with the Department for International Development, UK. The dialogue was conducted at the AKU-IED campus in Karimabad.
Moderator and AKU-IED associate professor Dilshad Ashraf initiated the dialogue stating that education is an important means for normalising life in disaster-struck areas.
Talking about the grave of a teacher who died holding two of her students close to her in an attempt to save them in the earthquake that struck parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Indus Resource Centre executive director Sadiqa Salahuddin said that we need to include the narratives of unsung heroes in our curricula.
As the floor was open for questions, Riffat Naseer from Beaconhouse School commented on the kind of life skills being taught at schools. “Girls don’t even know how to run,” she said. “Boys don’t know how to swim or how to jump over walls. We need to come up with activities for such training.”
Read the complete article at The Express Tribune | Policy dialogue: Speakers stress need for education in disaster-struck, conflict areas
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2015.
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