Our education system functions less like a garden and more like a factory. Knowledge is treated as a finished product, not a living process. There is no room for dreamers or for questions that connect biology to the price of bread. Siloed subjects prevent students from understanding the interconnected reality of life. When a child’s natural ‘why’ is met with ‘because it’s in the syllabus’, we are no longer teaching but executing curiosity.
By adulthood, students have been conditioned to avoid inquiry, valuing answers over understanding. Economic anxiety compounds the problem. Certificates are prized over insight and specialisation over exploration. In the age of AI, those who follow instructions will be replaced. Human skills like connecting ideas, empathy and asking why remain irreplaceable. To escape the factory, we must shift from an education of possession to an education of practice.
Majid Burfat
Karachi
