Does School, colleges and universities really stop you from thinking big? Are they preparing you for an office job when you can aim higher and think way bigger? Let’s first hear 17 year old APICTA and Pasha Award winner Zayd Inam who according to some, is Pakistan’s Steve Jobs in the making.
So this young man believes that schools play a good part in killing innovation, as they are always about exams, grades and assignments. Knowledge is essential but without practical implications, an individual will lend up with an average job in some office. Now, something that took me 16 years of formal education and 2 years of working experience to understand came naturally to Zayd. It got me thinking about the number of courses that I took at school, colleges or at university level that never ever helped me in anyway, I am sure you share a similar experience. Now if you take those credit hours and subtract them with your educational period, the number that comes out will surprise you or make you angry in my case.
When I put up the same question on twitter, I got many interesting answers. Munir Usman (MVP and Entrepreneur) who by degree is a telecom graduate but pursued his career in the software industry. On my question, whether schools are responsible for killing innovation among students, replied:
“Ideally they are not meant to kill innovation, but looking down at the quality of local education. They are not only killing innovation but are responsible for destroying a good amount of time of the students. Instead of giving proper education to help innovation, they waste time and money in useless courses and activities, as a result students end up doing Ratta (memorizing course lectures) for exams.
When I asked Sabahat Zakariya the same question, she gave quite an interesting reply:
Schools only have meaning when an extremely rare teacher not yet jaded by the system and the administration comes and inspires you. All schools care about are grades for they are quantifiable, abstractions have no meaning in a school ’system’.
On my question to Sabhat and Shahrzad (teacher from Iran) on how we can improve this situation in schools, their reply was:
Stop nurturing mediocrity in faculty. Stop ostracizing teachers with opinions, passion and a voice – Sabahat
Students should be motivated to discover, arousing sense of yearning to learn instead of giving them some formulas to pass the exams- Shahrzad
During my initial experience at work, I met a business man who used to teach entrepreneurship at Pakistan’s top business school; IBA. According to him once an individual passes early 20’s the chances of becoming an entrepreneur almost diminishes and sadly these top business schools are not making leaders but labors. This was a very strong statement coming from a teacher who was very much involved in the business market. On my question to Munir on whether Universities should encourage or teach entrepreneurship at graduation level, his reply was:
Yes the course should be mandatory in every degree but the million dollar question is, who will teach this subject? Most teachers won’t qualify to teach this subject
Muhammed Nawaz (IT Consultant) coined following views on the same question:
Yes Of course they should. One thing important to understand is whether they consider self confidence a virtue or taboo Self confidence raises the chances of people actually taking decisions in their own hands and doing what’s right for them. At the same time, ensuring that with all this virtue comes the aspect of responsibility So when they take a decision, they know what the impact of their decision would be. Accordingly take a step forward.
So if Schools are not doing their jobs right why the parents are desperate to enroll their children in the most expensive of schools. But can you blame them for doing so? Their aim for getting their children admitted in popular schools is to get an admission in a good college or a renowned university, so their children end up with a secure future and a job that pays off well at the end of every month. Not every family can afford an entrepreneur in their house; somebody has to pay mortgage on regular basis. So it’s more about economics then learning or getting education.
Conclusion:
Dropping off from college or Universities is not a preferred option, not every kid is as bright as Zayd or Steve Jobs for that matter. A lot of us might start off slow but end up being a successful individual and professional. Having said that there should be a regular check on the curriculum of college and universities, considering the dropping standards of local educational boards like HEC. The need of having a quality educational body has become inevitable. This independent body will work like a bridge between educational institutes and business market.
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Remember back in the day when we had the courage to dream to be anything; astronaut, pilot, doctor etc you name it. But majority of us grew up to do something else, in most cases completely opposite of what we wanted to do. Like for instance I always wanted to be a fighter pilot but too much TV tempered my eye sight and I failed long before I could apply for the job. But as human nature demands the temptation to watch dreams didn’t end there, in fact it’s quite unhealthy not to watch dreams, or aim for something that appears difficult but one endeavors to get. But have you ever wondered what makes any goal possible or otherwise. Is it hard work? Or the inborn but unique talent every individual holds within itself. Even if there was a perfect recipe to achieve the impossible, what are the chances that we still succeed?
All my questions were addressed in a Strategic Time Management session I took few months back, the focal point of the session revolved around the fact: “If you fail to plan, you are definitely planning to fail”. But we all make plans, don’t we? Weight Loss plans, quit smoking plans, be more productive plans but how many of us are actually able to cross out the check list at the end of every tenure? Now you can blame luck, circumstances or KESC for being the big obstacle in your way but deep down inside we all are aware that it’s not them but oneself. In fact, the pony within ourselves.
Now hold on a second, pony who? No it’s not a baby horse or a bunch of hairs tied to late MJ’s head (referring to a pony tail :P) but it’s a quality, an attribute, a characteristic which we have nurtured throughout our lives. It can be referred as a bug, a major impulse that tells us ‘You can’t do it’.
Let me narrate a metaphor to explain this term. In an anonymous village far far away, a disease erupted, the villagers went to the WISE ONE (the oldest guy in town with the longest beard) with their query. The WISE ONE after some basic investigation found out that there is a dead dog (TONY) in the water well which is causing the trouble and making the water poisonous. The WISE ONE advised the villagers to take out 20 buckets’ of water from the well and their problem will be solved. The villagers to WISE ONE’s surprise returned with the same problem after a week. The WISE ONE this time advised the villagers to double the number of buckets (ie 40 buckets this time) that needed to be thrown out of the well. But no visible improvement was observed after two weeks. This made the WISE ONE very curious and he inquired the villagers whether they took out the dead dog out of the well before throwing out water buckets. Turns out, the WISE ONE’s suspicion was correct, as the dead dog was not removed from the well in the first place.
This brings us to the conclusion that though we are making huge plans but when it comes to execution we are not working wisely to execute our plans. And it will remain that way unless we do anything to remove the pony out of our system? If we stop and analyze, we will be shocked to know that behind our every bad and old habit there is a pony: sleeping like a dead dog, infecting our every effort and ruining everything that we plan to achieve. Just to share a little secret I was suppose to submit this article a month ago but I am completing this after 1 month and two weeks of planning and promising. Every week I used to promise the editor and myself to write this post but the pony within me stopped me from writing. But guess what as I will complete this sentence I will remove at least one pony from my system, what about you?
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Okay tonight I have decided to write a sentimental post. After all I am writing after a very long time and the day I have chosen is the night before my birthday. I am sure not many are interested to know why I have been away from my blog. I blame twitter or micro blogging, as its serving my interest. I twit my views on sports, politics, technology, love/hate, current affairs which if related to Pakistan has something to do with terrorism (how unfortunate).
Anyways today I took some time out to scribble my rusty quill. If I look back at my non celebrity life it has been a mixture of kabhi khushi kabhi gham. But God has always been there for me with a torch light showing that there still some way about of all my troubles. I started my career with a slave wage despite the telecom degree which I worked really hard for. I still remember those three days when I was stuck at work (Benazir assassination days) with very little food and water to survive on. I often slept on the floor of that office during my night shifts. I ain’t any billionaire today nor do I have huge achievements under my belt. But today when I look back at the little achievements I have made (little for others and big for myself) I have a mix bag of feelings, I wonder if it’s really worth waiting, struggling and fighting for? Is it really worth to lose some to gain some?
One has to wait till the end of the show to find that out I guess…
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Ab kyoon us din ka zikar karo
Jab dil tukray ho jaaey ga
Aur saaray gham mitt jaaeingay
Jo kuchh paaya kho jaaega
Jo mil na saka, voh paaeingay
Yeh din to wuho pehla din hai
Jo pehla din thhaa chaahat ka
Hum jiss ki tamanna kartay rahay
Aur har dum jiss say dartay rahay
Yeh din to kitnee baar aaya
Saw baar basay aur ujarr gaey
Saw baar lutay aur phir paaya
Ab kyoon us din ki fikar karo
Jab dil tukray ho jaaega
Aur saaray gham mitt jaaengay
Tum khauf-o-khatar say dar guzro
Jo hona hai, so hona hai
Gar hansna hai to hansna hai
Gar rona hai to rona hai
Tum apni karni kar guzro
Jo hoga daikha jaaega
Jo hoga daikha jaaega
Kuddos to Maleeha for doing complete justice to the song and singing it so beautifully 
Check out the song here
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Launched an event on cover it live this will help unite all info from twitter or blogs. if you are someone at the scene or in the volunteer camps you can tweet and update us about requirements and other such important info. All those using the hash tag #Swat #idps #Pakistan go on automatically. Please embed the console on your blog/site/faccebook and help spread the work.
For more information follow:
The Swat Plea
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