Pakistani Education Cannot be Reformed

Public school education in Pakistan is deteriorating by the day. Is government a part of the solution or a part of the problem? If the former, reform should not be so difficult. If the latter, there are no technocratic solutions. This talk will argue that school, in the characterization of Noam Chomsky, is the factory that manufactures the consent that sustains the status quo. But, we still need to explain the variations that exist across the world. That would be an important element of the discussion.

The session will be moderated by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Anjum Altaf earned his PhD from Stanford University and was Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS. He is the co-author of Thinking with Ghalib: Poetry for a New Generation (2021) and the author of Transgressions: Poems Inspired by Faiz Ahmed Faiz (2020), What We Get Wrong About Education in Pakistan (2022) and Social and Political Concerns in Pakistan and India: Critical Conversations for College Students (2023).