Abstracts
Panel: Alternative textbooks for social and political harmony
The importance of alternative textbooks for social and political harmony
Shah Jahan Baloch*
Educational issues and challenges are one of the core concerns of development discourse in Pakistan. During the last three decades national education plans and reforms, with heavy foreign financial and technical assistance, are claiming to improve the quality of education through various interventions.
But the actual results, particularly in the public sector are in fact not particularly encouraging. Over the period of time, the participation and retention rate even at a primary level is decreasing which is evident in the education reports generated by the state and civil society institutions.
In the rural areas of Pakistan, there are limited choices and the opportunities of education for children and parents is limited which is causing a high dropout rate at an early stage of education: in some provinces it is reported that there is a more than 50 percent dropout rate during the primary education period.
In order to improve the quality of education efforts by state and non-state actors are more concentrated on teacher training and education, improving physical infrastructure and access though fewer reforms in curriculum. If we review them in their historical context these were mainly guided by undemocratic regimes of the past in order to reinforce their own agendas thereby creating a basis of public legitimacy for their policies rather than to improve the quality of education and develop a prosperous future for future generations through educational development.
It is a fact that to improve the quality of education and translate it into policy, determining learning objectives and guidelines for developing learning material, the curriculum plays a significant and central role.
Therefore, the entire process of curriculum development and the production of textbooks should be a democratic process. This ensures the true representation and reflection of education and the learning processes of the country.
Unfortunately Pakistan is state oriented and federally centralized and such a regulated exercise within the narrow ideological boundaries and conceptions of a nation state becomes difficult to achieve.
In Pakistan mainly at the primary and secondary level, text-books are one of the main sources of imparting knowledge. These text books are rarely unbiased and often reflect and promote the confined, narrow state oriented ideologies and textual versions about different geographical regions, civilizations, religions, cultures, international relations, global affairs and various ethnic groups at a regional and global level. The students are therefore confined to a narrow and deflected world-view and they therefore need an alternative to offer them a holistic and balanced view.
The main focus of this paper is to highlight the importance and role of alternate textbooks. In the current context and crisis there is a need for promoting democratic values, creating a more pluralistic world view and giving a true and positive perspective of cultural resources such as literature and art for enhancing the aesthetic values of the students and to promote harmony, a peaceful coexistence and mutual respect between individuals and societies.
To contribute in this process an alternate curriculum can play a highly effective role. It is for this purposes that a discussion on this topic is useful and productive.
 *Shah Jahan Baloch is presently Director of Institute for Development Studies and Practices- IDSP-Pakistan based at Quetta Balochistan. He has been a faculty member at the Institute and former Coordinator of Commonwealth Education Fund Pakistan.
Diversity for harmony: a case for alternative textbooks
Shahid Siddiqui*
Teaching materials play a significant role in the teaching learning process as objectives of a given curriculum are translated through the textbooks which are used in classrooms. Writing a textbook is a highly technical job which requires team work and detailed planning. This process entails different steps to ensure quality. In Pakistan, however, textbooks, used in mainstream public schools do not follow a systematic writing process and thus pose a number of problems including problems with content, language, organization and presentation. The content may not be sensitive in terms of gender, ethnicity, social class, and religion. The language may be complex in terms of vocabulary, syntax, and semantics and it may also be biased against certain social groups. The organization could be in violation of pedagogical principles of moving from simple to difficult or concrete to abstract. The treatment could be insensitive to the socio-political make up of marginalized groups of society. These potential problems could be aggravated in the conservative paradigm of education where the emphasis is on transmission rather than transformation. Siddiqui (2007:103) suggests that, ‘Teachers find themselves as passive followers of these books. Neither teachers nor students, in this paradigm, dare to step out of the holy circle of textbooks. In this Paradigm the chances of development of independent thinking are minimal.’
The central question that needs to be raised is why this kind of textbook should be used if the objectives of the curriculum could be realized better by using an alternative textbook. The idea of using alternative books is to break the fixity of such a book written by a certain writer and to offer a variety of choices to the teachers and students. This diversity in the provision of teaching materials on the one hand can create a positive competition among the book writers and publishers, which is currently nonexistent, and on the other hand can provide a freedom of choice to schools to select a book that they think is more relevant to their environment and is more sensitive to the socio cultural identities and beliefs of their students. The freedom in the choice and use of alternative textbooks would certainly help our educational system to achieve its major goals of development, emancipation and justice and to reaffirm our commitment to the agenda of social and political harmony as well as mutual respect and tolerance.
 *Dr. Shahid Siddiqui is a Professor and Director for the Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences Lahore School of Economics, Lahore.
Role of alternative textbooks in promoting political and social harmony
Sarfraz Khan*
A colossal rise in political and social discord based on ethnic, sectarian and nationalistic tensions have been witnessed in and around Pakistan, both in South and Central Asian regions. Much of it seems to be a direct result, besides other reasons, of what we impart as national curriculum (syllabus) to our pupils. This paper tries to understand the role textbooks play in promoting peace, political and social harmony. Often Pakistani and Afghani text-books eulogize war, hatred and discord leading to instability. Alternative textbooks play a vital role in inculcating values that promote political and social harmony.
*Prof. Dr. Sarfraz Khan is Director, Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
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