“No such thing as bad student,

Only bad teacher.

They say student do.”

Everyone in their lives hear these words that you are good/bad student but there is one famous
quote that:

“No such thing as bad student,

Only bad teacher.
They say student do.”
- Mr. Miyagi
In the 21st century where everything gets modernized because this world became global village,
and changed the standards of living life because almost everything became digitalized, and we
saw that with this, education system also get modified as you can see some visual universities
but still there is a big number of illiteracy in Pakistan and not only this, the students which are in
school are also facing problem like untrained teachers specially in ruler areas of Pakistan, over
here people are more into theory work then practical, and as we can see in abroad countries they
focus more on practical based learning. In simple words in Pakistan they teach theoretically that
how to drive a car but never teach them practically.
These days when everyone is talking about rights so education is also a right of every citizen and
it is the duty of state to provide quality education and as we can see that It is mandated in the
Constitution of Pakistan to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the
ages of 5-16 years and enhance adult literacy but still Pakistan has 58% literacy rate and
somehow teaching methodology is the main reason behind that but as the quote says earlier that
there are bad teachers in a same way there are some good teachers as well.
In Karachi there is a teacher name Zain Mustafa who is an architect by profession. He returned to
Pakistan from abroad after completing his studies in 2010. He has also taught at the Indus Valley
School of Arts and Architecture (IVSAA). He was invited to teach their interior design
programme, when the 21 chairs debacle took place and resulted in the departure of 13 teachers.
He signed on, but was extremely determined to use his own method.
There were five girls enrolled and all were failing. I couldn’t understand how this was possible.
Yes, they were weak but all bright, talented, intelligent individuals, so I was left to conclude that
there was something wrong with the way they were being taught, Mustafa explains.

With only four short months to transform his students to professionals in the real world, Mustafa
taught them how to use 3D rendering software (then they had not done so before), put their
projects online, updated their progress on Facebook and kept his lectures open. He even held an
open jury every two weeks where professionals from different fields were invited to critique the
seniors work. His hard work paid off and all five graduated some with distinctions. Although he
was asked to teach again the following year, the four-year interior design program lacked a
curriculum and he chose not to go back. Instead, he started his own design school Cube.

Students need role models, people they can relate to. It’s time to let students take charge, take the
initiative, take responsibility. Slay the dragons, let creativity flow, he says. Cube aims to
empower individuals to build Pakistan’s design identity. It’s open to everyone and anyone who is
interested, regardless of age, occupation and background.

Mustafa says he has everyone from high school students to home makers to businessmen coming
in twice a week for the eight week long course. Prior knowledge isn’t required and we don’t have
any prerequisites except for an open mind, smiles Mustafa.

Although Cube is his brainchild, it began with the joint collaboration of three teachers; Sehr
Bokhari, Sheba Akhtar and Mustafa himself, all of whom want to encourage Pakistanis to
develop critical thinking, expand their theoretical knowledge and hone their technical skills. The
core teaching medium in Cube for all courses is film. Film is a medium of art, it is easily
accessible, easy to understand and pretty interesting for all my students, states Mustafa. We also
provide hands on training and emphasize the importance of being able to communicate with local
karigars (craftsmen). We hope that Cube can become a social enterprise and training Centre for
karigars as well as design students.

When asked why he decided to take on this project with other, more lucrative projects for
someone with his background, both in Pakistan and abroad he replies, the government is so
disinterested that anyone can stand up and make a change. And the time is now; Pakistan is ripe
for change.
There is only one Teacher Training Organization (NGO) named Durbeen which is owned by
Salma A Alam who is the wife of renowned singer and social worker Shehzad Roy, NGO had
partnered with the provincial government to revamp a government college for teachers’
education to produce top-quality professional teachers, but this is not a permanent solution
Mustafa said as our government is facing financial issues so they can’t give proper facilities to
students but we are in 21st century where everything is digitalized so if we really want to reduce
our illiteracy rate so the best way to do is to modify our education system and digitalized it,
YouTube is the best medium and almost every one has assess over it, we can make some
channels where we can put all the data and educate the children’s.

In 2019 Pakistani government is working hard for the development of the country but as Nelson
Mandela said; “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.” So if the
government is really sincere with the development of the country so first they have to develop
the education system so they can increase the literacy rate and once citizens became educated
they will put their part in much better way for the betterment of the nation.
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