Media Role In Education to Pakistan

We have so many TV channels now in Pakistan than ever before. It is time to use this powerful media for the improvement of education in Pakistan. Here are some points to ponder and to use them in Pakistani scenario.

If we truly want to reform education in Pakistan, we must change not only the culture of education, but also the culture of media in Pakistan. Today, the media is the single most powerful agency in cultural change, and arguments that the media simply reflect what is happening in society’s many sectors have long been discounted; the media has its own agenda. If we are to be successful at reforming education and changing the cultural beliefs around education, teachers in particular, and for life-long learning, our message as a community must enable both the reform agenda and the media agenda, and we must enlist the media to champion our cause. As it stands, Education is “soft news”. In this capitalist society, that means linking future economic outcomes to education reform strategies, successfully, and enlisting our most experienced resources to build that bridge.

The outcome of education reform rests, in my opinion, on two things: (1) the ability of the education reform movement to articulate a clearly detailed strategic plan with a concurrent economic development plan and measurable education progress outcomes, and (2) on the ed-reform community’s ability to connect with politicians who can legislate, fund, and implement the ed-reform agenda.

I echo your call for leadership in the education reform community, I agree with you that we need to change the culture of education and our general cultural conceptions. Perhaps the first step towards life-long learning we can take today, to enable the change we seek, is to take positive steps towards articulating the specifics of the reform agenda, and building a detailed action plan for change. We have many great ideas, some tried, some not. We have the content – now we need to give our agenda structure, and a voice. In my mind that means choosing champions and electing spokes-people. This is a crucial step, and there are many good candidates within our own community. All successful revolutions have a clear, charismatic champion, often found among the most experienced of us…whom would you choose? Decide and act… Most of time we talk nicely, decide but don’t act. But for national cause we should decide carefully and then act as per plan. We should out monitor our actions as per filed experience, what is working well, what i s not working and what need some improvement to work well.

Looking forward to your comments/ suggestions in the light of filed experiences in Pakistan. Your comments mean a lot to all.