Education and critical thinking.

Have you ever reflected on why our educational system failed to unlock our inherent cognitive potentials? Why it is not apt at producing scientists and scholars par excellence? Why majority of our students lag far behind in innovation, creativity and scientific discourse? What prevents democracy to take roots in the country? Why populism, demagoguery and tribalism keep on defining the country's political landscape? What is wedging national integration? What has been fuelling intolerance and extremist tendencies? Why has sentimentalism, superstitions and elite capture been increasingly encroaching the very soul of our social fabric?

Of all overlapping and interrelated factors, inherent flaws in the country's education system share the greatest responsibility of this national mess. An uncritical education system built on colonial remnants and veneered with religiosity could not equip the public with ideas and skills necessary in the modern world. Since critical thinking and dissent are hardly encouraged in Pakistan's academic and public discourse, society keeps on wrestling with socio-economic backwardness, intellectual stagnation and chronic elite capture.

Before analysing the country's intellectual dilemma, it is pertinent to describe critical thinking in a holistic manner. Critical thinking is an active cognitive engagement in contextualising, analysing, synthesising and applying information collected through reflection, observation, communication and experience. Critical reasoning enables one to come up with substantiated, logical and well-thought out syntheses. It encourages research culture, which helps in generating innovative ideas and creative dispositions. It also bolsters cognitive capabilities and promotes analytical as well as problem-solving skills. Critical thinking is the key to informed decision-making. Unlike sentimentalism that encourages blind political allegiance, critical thinking demands questioning the veracity, logic and intent of narratives and ideas. It is an effective tool to vet facts from falsified notions.

Pakistan's...