Don't tinker with education

The more we delve into the government decision to switch from a multi-stream syllabi to a so-called unified system at the secondary level, the more dumbfounding it gets. Education in an incrementally growing knowledge-based society, right across the globe, is not the thing to be played around with; much less at the secondary level providing the building blocks for an edifice of a meaningful national future for our younger generations.

It's no ordinary switchover from a 40-year old multi-track secondary tier education which has worked reasonably well all this time, but a paradigm shift rushed to be effected beginning from January, 2006, by one fell-stroke. No time for preparation, no time for adjustment, just a Tughlaqui edict pushed down the gullet to be digested. Thousands of teachers, students and parents are being thrown into the mire of uncertainty, little knowing what the future holds for them.

There was no discussion in the Cabinet, none whatsoever in Parliament, to say nothing of ignoring the whole lot of stakeholders and education experts who could easily be tapped for advice.

Why this secrecy surrounding such a major decision in the nation's educational life? The so-called unified system English medium and madrassah streams excluded! -- offers 18 subjects involving 1200 marks with religious studies being a compulsory component of the curriculum. The loosely-knit syllabus is bound to lower the standard of education since time, energy and attention will be spread thin over so many subjects. But most conspicuously, science education is destined to be the worst victim of the new system, at what cost in the modern world -- who cares to bother?

We are echoing the sentiments of the nation as we urge the government to immediately postpone the decision for adoption of the uni-track system and hold a public debate to forge national consensus on the subject one way or the other.