PROJECT: DECOLONIZING EDUCATION
Maryam Sakeenah
Over the years that I have studied and then taught the GCE/IGCSE
syllabi in Pakistan, I have come to realize how some of the contents of the
syllabi as well as the ideas, values, attitudes and approaches embedded in
them- even the tools for interpretation evaluation- are an extension of the ‘Macaulay’
project which aimed to ‘create a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour,
but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”
Much
of the content I teach is rooted in the neocolonialist / neoimperialist idea of
the centrality and ascendancy of the Western civilization. It is quite
glaringly obvious in the 'World History' syllabus I teach. Quite ironically, ‘World’
History is overwhelmingly the history of Europe and the US, with a passing
mention of the ‘non West’ through a heavily tainted Eurocentric (or should I
say Orientalist?) lens. While studying the impact of the First World War, the
havoc it played in the Middle East, piecing out and redistributing Ottoman
territory arbitrarily is glossed over, among so much else.
The Sociology syllabi trace the origin of the study of Society
to the European Enlightenment, failing to even acknowledge what sociology owes
to 'Umraniyat' of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah. All social themes are analyzed
through the lens of Western philosophies of Structural Functionalism,
Interpretivism, Marxism and Feminism. Students are expected to cite examples
not from the societies around them, but from British society as that is the
prime subject of the entire study. As a teacher I find it tragic that my
students are to base their understanding of how society works in the structure,
norms and trends belonging to British society primarily, and only secondarily
their own- as a postscript to the course syllabus.
As a student and then a teacher of CIE Pakistan Studies History,
I never knew there was such a thing as the Great Famine of Bengal which
resulted due to exploitative economic policies of the British. I had no idea
about the strategic destruction of the local cotton industry and its
nightmarish impact on the economy and society, for British economic interests.
I had no idea about the systematic degradation of the Madrassah as a casualty
of Macaulay's grand colonial educational project... These ‘blind spots’ on
history I harbor profoundly affect my understanding of my present social
context. My understanding of my present will always be superficial and partial,
always coming from a tainted lens.
It is true that this system provides students with skills to
think critically, formulate opinions and construct arguments- and that at
present this is quite plainly missing from our local educational systems. What
is required therefore is to update our own syllabi and examination strategies
in order to replace this system. Educationists in the country need to
understand the need to decolonize education and initiate such a project.
The prevailing system also very discreetly establishes the
primacy of the English language over and at the cost of the local and national
languages. Students passing through the system therefore, adopt the language of
the colonizer as their first language, and its baggage of values, ideas and
attitudes alongwith it. The narrative that comes wrapped up in the language is
absorbed uncritically as one’s own.
The profound disconnect that all this produces between the
present generation and its roots is tragic and grave. It is a crisis of
identity, a loss of a heritage... The rich legacy of Urdu literature gets
shrouded in oblivion. The entire treasury of literature in local languages will
soon be lost to our children- inaccessible, remote, unfamiliar, alienated.
Generations of students have passed through and will continue to
pass through this system... the consequences are enormous. The need to
decolonize education and to decolonize our intellect is immense. We start by
prioritizing communication and learning in our own language(s), as well as
developing an affinity with locally produced content in local languages. This
is especially important at the primary level as the ‘tabula rasa’ of the child’s
mind uncritically accepts whatever is presented by a superior. Learning a
foreign language as one’s first has been proven through research to be highly
damaging to the child’s communication skills and sense of identity.
If this project to decolonize education is not taken up with
urgency and seriousness, we will be doomed to watch our brightest minds turn
into colonies of uncritically, unreflectingly borrowed ideas.
