organic conversations at the Pakistan Learning Festival (PLF) for informing new pedagogies

Only at the Pakistan Learning Festival (PLF) can one explore in just one session, social emotional learning, life skills and cognitive academic development, reimagining education holistically. When Pakistan’s best brains and artists come together, anything is possible to uplift the conversation as was done recently at the first ever PLF held in Abbottabad’s history!  The host Mr. Tariq Salam, District Commissioner Abbottabad was adamant to bring the festival to the district, and he did this successfully on March 12-13, 2022. The festival curated a two-day program, engaged the best learning platforms in Pakistan (Science Fuse, ITA, OUP, Department of Archaeology and Museums KP, Robotronics, Sunno Kahani Meri Zubani /SKMZ, Takmil, Forest & Environment Dept.KP) for students from schools, host university, teachers and families.

The PLF is about ‘open societies’, a platform to think without discrimination, eclectically, creatively and collaboratively; holding conversations and communicating accumulated wisdoms and evidence-based knowledge. It engages in a spontaneous mixing of genres viz. music, rhythm, storytelling and critical thinking as a culture of knowledge. That is exactly what happened at the session on “the Role of Performing Arts and 5 Cs in our Curriculum”

With amazing minds and practitioners, such as Dr. Anjum Altaf, Sarwat Mohiuddin, Zubair Torwali, Nasreen Iqbal, two musicians on Rabaab and Tabla, two storytellers from Sunno Kahani Meri Zubani (SKMZ) and Baela Jamil as the moderator there was bound to be some organic hulchul, a stirring of sorts!  Baela, using her license as a moderator and organizer, shifted the session from an indoor space, a classroom at COMSATS to the open green space under the ‘pandaal’, the open canopy on a beautiful spring day.  With space, performers, panelists and students aligned as co-creators of a stimulating conversation, something truly magical took place! 

The appetizer was eight minutes of performance on the Rubab and Tabla by local musicians that made many including the panel spring to their feet in a natural trance, followed by storytelling on drums by SKMZ storytellers who recited the rhythmic Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabbasum’s nazm “Tot Batot Kay Chaar Thay Bhai”. This became the perfect frame of what was to follow as an inspired conversation, drawing upon everyday spirituality, poetry of dissent and folklore, curriculum claims and its dissection, the compelling logic of mother tongue as a building block for authentic lifelong learning.

Nasreen Iqbal an experienced educator at the Rawalpindi Grammar School shared her experiences on ‘curriculum making’ and its enrichment with project based cross disciplinary learning. This is done intensively in her school system drawing upon science, literature, mathematics, language and the rich textured spirituality of Islam. Each word of ‘Sura-e-Rahman’ for example is about diversity in science and nature, knowledge and tolerance as an impeccable rhythmic composition in the Holy Quran; did we ever think about learning and making meaning in our classrooms through such a rendition? How important it is for educators to curate and think about everyday routines, texts and contexts as possibilities for inspirational curation of curriculum?  

Dr. Anjum Altaf the former dean of the social science department at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMs), who has been writing prolifically from Ghalib (19^th century poet) to the Single National Curriculum (SNC), spoke about what is declared as the SNC claims and what actually gets translated in textbooks. In the line by line, page by page analysis of textbooks (grades 1-5), he read out examples from textbooks that graphically highlighted these discrepancies; activities at the end of a chapter suggest that these cover ‘critical thinking’, but the actual question given is ‘a descriptive recall of passive knowledge’. Textbooks produced recently are replete with business as usual approaches rather than what has been the announced intent of the SNC, confusing both students and teachers alike. “We don’t need a miracle to transition to 5C’s in our education, just include Ghalib, Rehman Baba, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Kabir, Bulleh Shah and similar poets in relevant contexts, level and languages in the curriculum. The critical questions remain: Why is this treasure house of wisdom ignored? And why is this neglect not challenged?’

Dr. Anjum Altaf also spoke about the critical role of mother tongue to make early meaning for the young and active engagement of parents/guardians in their children’s learning. This could be done through everyday activities through meaningful routines of cooking, planting, storytelling etc. 

Sarwat Mohiuddin using examples of ‘bolian and tappas’, the Punjabi folk music tradition that everyone could relate to as commonplace harmonies to the serious layers of Sufi poetry from Baba Farid Shakarganj, Waris Shah’s Heer, and Shah Inayaat highlighted lively facets of rich everyday heritage knowledge that must be kept relevant and alive in contemporary times. Sarwat shared that the dates of 18^th century Sufi contributions are not important but that these stories travelled over centuries to highlight the shackles of tradition, the unique characteristics of a young woman in love (Heer) symbolized the need for new genres of relationships of human and gender equality, on her terms! Heer, the protagonist openly disowns the ‘kaidoos’ or the conspirators in families/society who represented suffocating boundaries in gendered stereotypes and she was willing to pay the price of liberation. Now, how much more contemporary can one get at the PLF in the 21^st century! The thought of Heer travelling across many centuries prior to the popular 18^th century spaces of Pakistan was refreshing; was she the ‘forever rebel’ in search of eternal empowering truth? Was she in harmony and dissonance both, seeking love of another kind, now with Allah now through Humankind? Thank you Sarwat Mohiuddin for a powerful proposition ‘so, why not Heer in our curriculum- what happened? Why purge Baba Farid Shakarganj or Damodar or Waris Shah? Let’s claim 9000 years of heritage of Pakistan for our children and generations!  

Zubair Torwali of IBT in Swat, invoked the audience attention to the natural human spontaneity, that is both innocent and refreshing when the rubaab and drums come calling, leading the audience to rise on their feet in a trancelike state, performing the centuries old folk dance, the Attan! How can this powerful stimulation be taken away from learning in schools and universities? How can we not be inspired to make room for music, rhythmic forms of storytelling and movement to enrich our curricula and daily pedagogies?  This not only promotes the 5 Cs (Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration and Compassion) but makes learning into a happy and healing enterprise, especially in stressful times?  And when you add the mother tongue dimension, learning becomes organic, deep and cognitive, providing emotional wiring for our brains for life!  Imposing a meaningless English poem or common phrases in local contexts at a young age leads to distortions, cross pollinating English with mother tongue. However, foundational learning in mother tongue leads to knowledge formation and if you use everyday songs, poetry and lullabies the language as harmonic images stay even longer; it becomes emotional communication across senses.  Thus, with little official space in our curricula and schools, “Instead of 5Cs we have 5Ps in our national curriculum that by default promotes:

Parroting, Patriotism, Propaganda, Passivity and ‘Pakistaniat’ of a negative kind, conjuring notions of jingoism, exclusivity. and production of conspiracy theories!

The space for countering and transforming 5Ps through 5 Cs was laid bare at the PLF Abbottabad juxtaposing practically some of the richest genres, disciplines of pedagogy and co-creation opportunities.  So, let’s do 5Cs and recraft 5Ps as positive facets of learning, where performing arts and texts can contribute so richly; Pakistan has a bright future if these conversations can be converted to a reality in classrooms and at home too. I can assure you we shall have happier students, teachers and families!   

Baela Raza Jamil

CEO -ITA and Founder Children’s Literature Festival and the Pakistan Learning Festival (PLF)

March 19, 2022

Short video clips:

Annex I: Introductions

Nasreen Iqbal:

Nasreen Iqbal has worked as an educator for over 3 decades. She is the executive director of Grammar School Rawalpindi. Besides being a national and international teacher trainer since 1996. She worked as an individual consultant at UNESCO, Oxford University Press, Idara e Taleem o Aagahi and The Federal ministry of Education.

Dr. Anjum Altaf:

Dr Anjum Altaf is a former professor of economics and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS. He was also vice-president and provost at Habib University in Karachi. Earlier, Dr Altaf was a visiting faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and employed at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he worked on urban development in East Asia. Dr Altaf founded and manages The South Asian Idea Weblog, a learning resource for college students in South Asia.

Sarwat Mohiuddin:

Sarwat Mohiuddin is a poet, painter, translator and Punjabi and Urdu prose writer, an author of children’s literature. She has to her credit a number of books and papers on the life and works of great Sufi poets on Punjabi. Portrayal of women in classical literature, as well as in Punjabi culture and folk traditions. She has written for conferences and seminars at home and abroad. She has been honored with awards both nationally and internationally.

Zubair Torwali:

Zubair Torwali is a community activist, researcher, author and educator based in Bahrain, Swat. Zubair has published work in urdu, English and dardic torwali language. He has authored and supervised a number of books in Torwali. His English book “Muffled Voices” provides insights into Pakistan’s Social, cultural and Political issues.

Baela Raza Jamil:

She is the CEO of Idara-Taleem-o-Agahi and is the founder of the Children’s and Teacher’s Literature Festival now rebranded as the Pakistan Learning Festival(PLF). Baela has worked with provincial and federal governments as a technical advisor in sector reforms, public private partnerships, innovations and financing. She leads the citizen led assessment and accountability initiative, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan which was the trigger for the CLF in 2011 due to the low learning outcomes of children.

Musician Performers

Fazal Diyan on Rubaab

Fayyaz Ahmed on Tabla

Storytellers: Suno Khani Meri Zubani (SKMZ) Storytellers:

Abdul Rehman:

Abdul Rehman, who professionally works as QA in multinational and as a RJ with Radio Pakistan, is a valued member and performer of SKMZ. Hara bandar, Suraiya and Tot batot are some of the many characters he has embodied and brought to life. He has played a part in promoting Music, Culture and literature and performed  with various other organisations  like Kuch Jaan Lo, Nukta Cheeni etc.

Ahmad Muneeb:

Ahmad Muneeb is working as a news anchor with a private TV channel. He is serving Radio Pakistan and Khushab Radio as an RJ for different musical programs. He is a column writer in different newspapers. He is an active story teller of Suno Khani Meri Zubani.

Annex 2:

Open Societies:

Karl Popper defined the open society as one “in which individual is confronted with personal decisions” as opposed to a “magical or tribal or collectivist society.”^[15]

He considered that only democracy provides an institutional mechanism for reform and leadership change without the need for bloodshed, revolution or coup d’état.^[16]

Popper conceived of the difference between open and closed societies as a difference in their respective cultures of knowledge. Open societies were distinguished by their democratic culture of criticism, which made commonly held beliefs available for critique and revision, and in so doing, embraced innovation. Closed societies, by contrast, lacked this “critical attitude.” They were instead sustained by the “dogmatic” power of myths, which preserved existing power structures and stifled social change.