At the end of the Peloponnesian War Athens won over Sparta. At the end of the Cold War Capitalism triumphed over Communism. In both cases, David Landes asserted that it was not naval might, soil richness, or economic affluence but the dynamic, versatile and competitive educational system that fostered the national ambitions and quality over the numbers. Many pedagogues and scholars believe in the 21st Century economic confidence and military prowess is an essential characteristic for the rise of great power but it is education and the classroom that decides the prospects of any nation.
History is replicated by the norms of change from one stage to another that was possible in the advancement of modes of learning in every phase. It is education and the classroom that decide the future of states. Pakistan could learn from regional neighbours in Asia how they rose from ashes to magnificent powers through education
In history, the rise, fall, decay, and decline is determined by the education and literacy of states. Education seeds the conflict of ideas that are a sine qua non for the sustainable growth and vibrant environment in any social setup. Certainly the future socio-economic and socio-political development of Pakistan lies in education, that creates an informed citizenry, sustainable growth, a culture of inclusivity, green consciousness, and gender normality in the society. Education through moderate class infrastructure and an enlightened mechanism of education could foster the seed of competency to deal with wicked problems of malfunctioning virtues in Pakistan.
Neil Postman computed that education is the integrated matrix to broaden all sectors of society if it is not marred by the economic industry of maximization of profits. Classrooms in Pakistan could bring economic affluence. Progressive education equips individuals with competitive inheritance. The deficit of the economy can be fulfilled by producing professionals and skilled graduates that can contribute to the economy of the country effectively. For example, Pakistan exports labour to Middle East countries for odd jobs while in comparison the major chunk of European or American professionals belong to India.
It is because of the difference in education. In Pakistan economic remittance is based on labour capital while in India capital of the economy is based on the remittance of professionals. That puts great strain to advance Pakistan at an equal level to regional forces. Yuval Noah Hariri regarded irrelevance as the major threat to humanity in the coming century. The incompetent classroom produces irrelevant examples of individuals for a world that ultimately declines the relevancy of such individuals in the international arena.
The classroom can determine the social outcomes of the nations. The cultural confidence of any nation builds on the premises of education that provides cultural security in the regional and international realm. China was built from ashes and it was education that addressed the Chinese previous socio-economic grievances and embarked them on the journey of glory and grandeur. Furthermore, this imparted the spirit of competition and confidence to expand their relevance in the region. It was the classroom back in the Deng Xiaoping Era that formulated the progressive consciousness. Pakistan can lead as a vibrant nation if it addresses the educational policy with the effective apparatus and national ambition to drive out of the abyss.
Environmental degradation is more lethal than security vulnerability in the 21st century. In Pakistan, green consciousness is still lagging just like the primary enrolment of students in schools. Due to lack of consciousness, the sudden vibrational changes, and ill-informed agriculturalists are facing severe soil infertility that all are attributed to climatic change.
The classroom and education can build the consciousness of people to deal with this issue through mass education at schools. The prospects of environmental security are dependent on the citizenry being informed through education.
Coming to other indicators of sustainable development that fiddle the paramount importance in the makeup of any state and their relevance to the classroom, it is education that determines the behaviour of people regarding the deficit of identities in marginalized groups. Gender ghettoization, cultural marginalization of minorities, lack of pluralism, and establishment of a non-material culture of transformative values and norms can be addressed through education. Contemporary education can install leniency and adaptation to progressive values of enlightenment if the educational system can function with the mastermind paradigm.
The world is facing totalitarian tendencies because of the unfulfilled expectations of many social groups. The rising appeal to emotions and empowerment of demagoguery in the states is due to the rising neoliberal paradigm of education. The neoliberal educational system turned the institution of education into the institution of maximization of profits and flow of capital. The educational system was meant to cultivate vision rather than ideology, inform citizens rather than inject citizens with only patriotic instincts and diverse rather than monoculture individuals.
Here the struggle for democratic norms for which we lost millions of lives in the 20th Century was overshadowed by malfunctioning practices of education. The good education and classroom fostered a culture of dissent, rational agency, and transformation that is not complacent in the modern education system
The progressive education in Pakistan can address the deficit of democracy by improving the voting turnout, breeding good politicians, and inclusive state institutions that are possible through inclusive education without the lust for maximization of profits but the vision to advance the nation like Singapore.
Democratic peace theory endorsed that education reduces the chances of war because it is the education that constructs the consciousness of people to control the decisions by their will. The wars in history were executed by the ulterior interests of leaders to claim glory for themselves. The general will of the people and the social contract of the subject of the state is never concerned during the war because it is the whims and wishes of impulsive leaders that advance war.
So education expands the consciousness through effective educational institutions that create democratic decision power and people always tend to prioritize peace over war with regional rivalries. Good education prevents war, peace prevails and growth becomes possible. After the years of war during the 20th century, it was the citizens of Europe and the West that decided to end the vicious war and signed up for peace. This all was possible by the General Will of people constructed by education.
History is replicated by the norms of change from one stage to another that was possible in the advancement of modes of learning in every phase. It is education and the classroom that decide the future of states. Pakistan could learn from regional neighbours in Asia how they rose from ashes to magnificent powers through education.
