Naseebullah Khan
The very basic fundamental of schooling upon which the pillars of a student’s progress and a mentor,s capability depend is learning. It is owing to its pertinent importance that educationists have always focused much and have produced many productive learning theories. Regrettably, Balochistan’s educational system lacks a vibrant and coherent learning process. Educationists have always focused on the creative learning of a student which is, unfortunately, lacking in Balochistan. There is a huge dearth of intelligence enhancing of the students through a cognitive learning process. It is in cognitive constructivism in which learners set their own goals and motivate themselves to learn. Until and unless the method of 5 why 1 how is adopted in a learning activity, the mental growth of students remains a dream.
Which we have been witnessing in Balochistan’s secondary education system. The provincial educational system of learning is still based upon a bookish reading style followed by immense cramming. The students are required to cram specific topics only for the examination point of view which has been a vehicle of students’ failure and an impediment to becoming innovative minds. There is a dire need to shift from Rote learning to critical analytical ability. Notwithstanding to that learning methods in the secondary school system are old. The students are still told to read aloud a lesson. Currently, the world schooling systems that have been adopting new learning modules, pictures, and visualization such as 5he audio and video learning, Balochistan is short of it. On the other side, there is still no concept of study tours so that the students personally experience a topic which is a proven and productive learning method.
The social constructivism theory proves that Knowledge is constructed within social contexts through interactions with a knowledge community. The concept of a Pile of books on the shoulders of the students still prevails. A student of ninth and tenth has to wrestle with 11 subjects having more than twelve chapters each. While, on the other side, at the nursery level which is the first step for a student having the age of 5, he or she has to battle with many books. Comparatively the students of the nursery are not taught bookish courses in the world whereas they are no being involved in extra curriculum activities to enhance their mental growth through creative learning. Piteously, this is missing in Balochistan. How is it possible for a nursary child to read so many subjects at a time? According to Balochistan education sector plan 2020_25, in a survey of the annual status of education report 2018, only 20 percent of girls and 31 percent boys of in grade three could read an Urdu sentence, and only 15 percent of girls and 26 percent of boys could read only English words. Balochistan education sector plan 2020_25, observes that teaching in the classroom is ineffective. Factors of motivation and competence both play a role. Evidence shows that most teachers have neither the content knowledge nor the pedagogy to help the child develop critical-analytical ability. Issues in the learning design notwithstanding there can be no complacency in the current state of affairs of the teachers. While pre-service teachers’ education is low.
School language policy specifically at the primary level is not according to international standards. Research proves that a child learns fast in its mother language as compared to other languages. In Balochistan, a child has to wrestle with three languages at a time during nursery and primary levels. On one side he is engaged in learning his native language while at the same time he is faced with Urdu and English in school. In such a scenario how mental growth and learning outcomes are possible? How could we expect intelligence and creative learning? The learning crisis in secondary school education in Balochistan is serious.
The putrid learning methods, a pile of books, dearth of creative learning, paucity of applying learning theories, scarcity of teachers’ training, language barriers, rote culture, etc. have brought the learning process to the verge of decline. There is a need for a complete revamping of learning methods for which it is a must to adopt new learning methods and the burden of the responsibility lays upon the provincial government to prepare a comprehensive roadmap with the help of renowned educationists rather than unqualified and inexperienced individuals who have an average qualification of graduation.