Recently, on the second day of the Karachi Literature Festival, participants in a session on higher education in the country agreed that universities needed to be made autonomous and allowed academic freedom in order to produce excellent citizens.
The speakers also agreed that the country’s higher education system and policies need to be overhauled.
Fauzia Shamim moderated the session, which was entitled as ‘Higher Education: Creating Good Citizens, Not Just Good Students.’ She requested Prof Dr Tariq Banuri, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, to explain how our education system can create good citizens and not just good students.
However, the chairman of HEC responded by stating that we had spoilt our students and that our education did not focus on producing good students or good citizens. He added that we were paying the price for past mistakes.
He further added that when thinking about this topic, one should consider various aspects. According to him, the first aspect was that knowledge was something that a community as a whole generated.
Dr. Banuri also highlighter that knowledge creation is not just a sole exercise, and that people in all corners of the world learn from one another. Human cultures developed common knowledge that aided in the development of shared narratives.
Additionally, he said that there were several kinds of knowledge. According to him, epistemic knowledge was learned in the classroom, whereas technical knowledge was attained through practice, experience, involvement, and contact.
