Lately, Pakistan seems to have started taking baby steps towards shining on the scientific horizon. We have a Nobel Prize in Physics to our credit, 5-year-olds with IT certifications, and an ever-increasing number of doctorates being produced.
On the other hand, the majority of our children remain deprived of even primary education and a blessing called the Internet, (or even electricity). We have been seeing records and amazing things happening in Pakistan’s educational arena: most as, youngest-to-achieve-this, youngest-with-this-certificate, talks, seminars, conferences, electric rickshaws, and electricity generating systems being built in universities, and so on.
Although Pakistan is producing far more PhDs than ever before, the number of students (especially women) being enrolled in universities and other institutes of education is climbing up every year, it remains evident that our society still collectively lacks the ability and courage to think critically, even though our students very well remember the definition of scientific method.
Why do these highly educated people who are able to counter their teachers and counterparts with a barrage of critical questions during classrooms and technical seminars, easily buy into any propaganda spewed in the name of nationalism, patriotism, favourite political party, etc.?
To me, the answer lies in the way we teach science to our children.
Our schools, colleges, and universities focus the least on developing scientific attitudes, instead emphasising command over the technicalities of science – being adept at knowing how machines and equations work; how things are rather than why things are the way they are and why they cannot be another way.
Thus, 'knowledge' is taught and spread around without a deeper understanding of its logical underpinnings.
Science is considered too boring a subject by many. The potential and power of science transforming the world is not yet fully known to the so-called scientists and science students of our country. Our reasoning remains at the stage where we still have people aplenty saying, ‘Yaar, Darwin ki theory toh bus theory hai na, proved thori hai’. (Darwin’s theory is just a theory, not proven fact).
Logic as a tool is not only useful in science, but can be used to objectively analyse almost everything (and more importantly in our case, everything that is aired on the media). The ability to differentiate between baseless arguments and assumptions, and arguments supported by facts, should not be that difficult to acquire at all.
Our students should not be studying physics while believing that there is no scientific proof of a moon landing.
Our biology students should not be mocking Darwin, rather they should develop an insight into the theory of evolution, and the proofs it has in its support.
Reasoning, objectivity, being free of bigotry, and accepting your mistakes whenever facts are presented to you are the key towards developing a scientific attitude.Technology is a gift of science, but if there is no development of scientific attitude, then it may light up your lives in the literal sense, but not enlighten it.
