Moot advocates for progressive, globally recognised education system

Speakers at the conference “Decolonising Curriculum: Reimagining Education for Equity and Ubuntu” at Ziauddin University in Pakistan have underscored the need for creating an educational system that is academically progressive and internationally recognised, yet rooted in local culture, history and aspirations. Professor Farid Panjwani, dean of the Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University (AKU), stated, “We need to decolonise the mindset to decolonise the curriculum and education, bring students together, and not divide them on ethnicity, religion, language and nations.” While highlighting how economic dominance shapes education, he remarked: “Where there is power, there will always be resistance. Colonisation is not a relic of the past, but a living system, perpetuated today through economic structures, techno-feudalism and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. If we truly wish to dismantle modern-day colonialism, we must begin by decolonising the mind.”