Oversight of Public Speaking in Pakistan School System

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of character building in grooming and how it can help achieve strong character. Communication skills are one of the most important skills in today’s life and through public speaking we can attain it. This paper sheds light on the role of public speaking in Pakistan Education System. Despite being a very useful resource in one’s life, still it is neglected in Pakistan. Who is responsible for this, whether the education system or the students themselves? This paper takes a look at the international point of view of this ability. Why is it failed to perform well in Pakistan and still students and educational institutes overlook it? It tells about the different methods and techniques opted by the international schools of thought and how it has helped them shape a better future. It takes in detail about different books and experiences defined by one of the most influential people of the world. It also states how most of the successful people value public speaking and strong character as their main and most powerful virtue. It takes a deeper look on the grooming years of children and why the education is solely based on exams rather than strong character. Public speaking can be a very useful resource and can be opted as a profession as well. It tells us that how many opportunities can be accessed just by paying attention to this specific skill.

Introduction

According to Merriam Webster, the word Public Speaking is defined as “the art of effective oral communication with an audience”. While the word, Character means “one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual. The significance of this topic lies in the fact that how much of a role it plays in our life. And through great character we can influence people in our social lives as well as work lives. Public speaking or communication skills can provide us with a lot of opportunities that we miss otherwise.

The reason I thought this topic “Oversight of Public Speaking in Pakistan School System “required more attention is, there were plenty of research done by the foreigners. But Pakistani researchers have failed to address its importance. One of the articles failed to address public speaking outside of the classroom, the other article only emphasized on army training specific schools. However, my study is all about the public schools. Another one, only talked about the preparation of the debate, but failed to provide any real-life experiences or practice. A different study was made on the middle-aged people, whereas my focus is solely on the school going students. The last researcher only talked about public speaking in classrooms, while this is a skill that can help you in your whole life.

The research methodology that I have opted for this paper is mixed methods research. I have conducted my primary research by asking male students from classes primary and secondary. Studying in different schools of elite, public and government status. Whereas, my research does not include female students of schools. However, by reading different articles from around the globe, I have done my secondary research. The main research question is whether people know about the importance of public speaking in grooming through school or not. To tell them how an important role is played by a strong character in your practical life.

Literature Review

Patricia H. Phelps (1993) in her article “The Challenge of Character Building “has discussed her story of teaching Latin in a secondary public school. Her primary research helped her determine two major aspects i. e. physical and psychological. Through her article she sheds light upon the teaching lives of teachers and their interactions with students. I found this article really helpful because it tells us about the narrator’s own struggles of teaching character and importance of public speaking and how she tries to solves them. It feels as a realistic approach in regards to building a strong character. However, the only downside I felt it has is that it fails to address character building outside of the classroom through public speaking and how it can help the growing students achieve more in their practical lives as well.

T. Price (1996) in his article “Some Aspects of Character Building “has discussed the Boy Scout Movement, The British School Exploring Society and the Moray Badge schools of Great Britain. His primary research helps him determine two major aspects of character building i. e. physical and psychological. The article is helpful because it tells us about the origin of character building and why was it taught to students in their early age in army specific schools. It was thought that strong character can help the cadets to win wars and also accept their defeat with pride. However, this article only focuses on army training specific schools and is not applicable for public schools. Because public schools only see education as a mean to succeed in exams rather than life.

Stephen J. Zippo (1991) in his article “The Pros and Cons of Environmental Debates “has discussed two major points of delivering a good speech i. e. attention and concise. The article is helpful in a sense that it tells the basic block of public speaking that is preparation and we should put the most of our effort in the pre-production of the speech. It tells us that the attention span of audience is very small and we should work on our starting point the most. We should grab the attention as soon as possible. But the downside to this article is that there are no real-life examples of great speeches. As we all know in life, practice is what makes you perfect.

Dale Carnegie (1990) in her book How to Develop Self Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking has discussed her own story of teaching different people of different ages and professions to gain self confidence in public speaking in different parts of the world. It has discussed the most important aspect of public speaking that is stage fear. It states that people being very powerful in their economic position fail to address even small amount of people. This article is quite helpful as it teaches us that it’s never too late to learn and nothing to feel bad when you face failure. However, this study is all about middle aged people, and fails to focuses on the school going children who are in their grooming period of their life.

Steven Grabaugh (1990) in his article “Public Speaking Reducing Student Apprehension and Improving Oral Skills “discusses about how important is it to teach public speaking to students at a young age. It says that classroom is the best place to start off with this skill, as students are keen to learn well and fast and this would help them later in their academic life. It emphasizes on the most important problem that student face during public speaking, that is anxiety and depression. It also tells us about the role that the audience plays in a good public speech. But this article lacks the implementation of these skills. It puts more attention on learning public speaking for academic institutes than for life.

Discussion

In this modern life, everybody craves to be the most successful person in the world. The definition of success might vary for different people, some think money is everything, some debate that happiness is the ultimate goal and the list goes on. To be a successful tree, one should make sure to have the best roots. This is what public speaking at a young age does to the students. This is a very valuable resource that is most of the time neglected by the higher commission of the education system. Educational system of Pakistan overly emphasizes on the fact that students should only prepare for their exams and not for their character building. Through my primary research, which was conducted by asking male students form elite, government and public schools. I got to know that a debating competition is only held twice a year just for the sake of compositional requirements of the school system. There is no beforehand practice for the competition. Moreover, the winners get no sort of valuable appreciation which kills their motivation for further competitions. Whereas, exams are held four times a year and different quizzes held all along the year. Communication is the backbone of any society. It helps us form connections that help us later in life. It gives us the confidence to talk about what matters. Public speaking also open doors of new opportunities by increasing our self-esteem. Through public speaking, we can give us a strong character. It makes us influence other people’s decisions and gives us the power of persuasion.

Strong character is defined to be one of the most important aspects of living a successful life. Whether it may be coping with the pain or motivating people in their daily lives. Strong character always plays a strong role. Patricia (1993) states in her article” The Challenge of Character Building “that how she teaches eight of the basic principles to the learning students of her classroom. She sheds light on the fact that first of fall all the students must be friendly with each other. This helps their morale and gives them more confidence in what they do. She has composed a well written research paper but struggle in defending the point that public speaking is a skill learnt for life rather than a classroom. She only focusses on the basic points that can be fulfilled in classrooms only. For example, she says that students get written notes for their appreciation or teachers should have lower expectations for their students. While in real life you don’t get people to appreciate one’s work by giving them letters. Most of the time people do not even understand your points and critique one’s speaking. You have to be able to bear the consequences. This is a practice that is most of the time not applicable in the classrooms. Just like that you may not be able to fulfil the expectations people have from you. Best of the best also make mistakes as Dale Carnegie (1990) reports that,

“Many speakers of England have made poor showings at first that there is now a feeling in parliament that it is rather an inauspicious omen for a young man’s initial task to be a decided success”.

This just further explains my research point that teachings of a classroom are very different to what is useful in one’s life Henceforth, it shows that Patricia H Phelps had some issues in her article that she wrote in accordance to public speaking.

Character building has been around in schools since the World War 2. It was taught in army training specific schools so that the soldiers could accept their defeat, bear the torture of the enemy sand have no psychological disorders due to the killing in the war. Price (1996) states in his article “Some Aspects of Character Building “that how different techniques were taught to the grooming cadets of the nation. She says that fighting for one’s country is the biggest responsivity of every citizen. World War 2 was a very dark time for United Kingdom. So, they had to set up concentration camps to build a strong character in life. He has written a well-organized research paper in the favour of strong character. But fails to put light on this matter in public schools. As now the amount of public schools outnumbers army schools, so he could have put light on this factor as well. Years have passed by since the World War 2 but Pakistan Education system has failed to take in consideration this valuable resource that just goes to waste. Dixon (1918) states that:

“But what good to him is the knowledge of any subject or all of these if he is unable finally to express himself so that others may understand him or conduct himself before others with ease or impressiveness?”.

This helps to explain my point that education is of no good if you are unable to convey it to others.

What good is a speech that nobody listens or pays attention to. This is becoming a very serious issue that people are unable to grab the attention of the audience. Stephen (1991) in his article “The Pros and Cons of Environmental Debates ““states different practising techniques for a good debate. He informs the reader about the most important thing that is grabbing the attention of the audience. One’s debate should have a promising start and an overwhelming end, as these two things are what everybody remembers.

He says that one should always put most of his effort into the preparation phase for the best output of his debate. All this good talk about the theoretical side of debate is very well composed but fails to put any real-life practice of it. One should be careful that he does not spend too much time preparing rather than implementing all of his ideas. This is also where the education system of Pakistan lacks. All year students are made sure to learn everything present in the book but fails to enforce any knowledge of it.

As they say, there is no right time or do something or nerve late to start anything new. Same goes for public speaking and developing a strong character. Dale Carnegie (1990) in her book How to Develop Self Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking speaks about the main issue people face when they publicly speak, that is fear. Stage fear is something everybody faces in them at some point. No matter how big of a speaker you are, you start small. Stage fear is one of the worst problem one can face and how as Robert T. Kiyosaki said that:

“It is said that the fear of public speaking is a fear greater than death for most people. According to psychiatrists, the fear of public speaking is caused by the fear of ostracism, the fear of standing out, the fear of criticism, the fear of ridicule, the fear of being an outcast. The fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve their problems.”

This is true on so many levels as students want to be on the safer side so no one would judge or criticize them. As much as I like this chapter, one thing it fails to address is public speaking at a young age. I am a strong advocate of the fact that learning has no age. But why should wait till so late. Public speaking should be made an essential learning of our lives at a young age. Only through this we will be able to take out the full potential from it. Same is the problem with Pakistan’s education system. Things are taught in the absolute end, so students feel everything as a burden.

Students are the backbone of the nation is very well said. As they make up most of the population and has abilities to do wonders. Steven Grub augh (1990) in his article “Public Speaking Reducing Student Apprehension and Improving Oral Skills “hits at the right spot but slightly misses the target. In his article he has perfectly defined public speaking as a core value. He has provided all the required information to his students to make them groom as good as he can. It also states some of the post stress students face such as depression or anxiety. He says when students don’t perform well enough, they blame themselves and feel bad about it. He has written an outstanding article but puts too much attention to public speaking as a class activity. This is one of the main issues all face in Pakistan’s Education System. They only think about passing the class but failing to look at the bigger picture. If they teach that speaking with good character will get you many opportunities in life than students would make more hustle for it. This is something one can make money out of and do this professionally in order to live a meaningful.

Conclusion

As I found out through my primary research that students from elite, public and government are most of the time not aware of what they are missing out in life by neglecting to do public speaking. They do not see the need of it and this is very alarming. Schools are not only responsible for this as students also find no interest in attending these events. Some educatory seminars should be set up in order to provide basic knowledge about the power of public speaking and strong character. As this research paper states the unlimited benefits one can get from public speaking. Still Pakistan Education System fails to address this activity at its required level. Whereas, my secondary research provided me with some astonishing facts about public speaking. West has been doing this since years ago as they have found the essence it provides to one’s life. It is about time we adapt to this life changing activity for the betterment of this country. If one wants to beat the world, first one should learn from it. What they are doing right and where one is wrong. More research should be done on this topic with more deeper understanding and knowledge.

References:

1. Dale Carnegie, Developing Courage and Self Confidence, How to Develop Self Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking, Vermillion, 29 March 1990, Pg. 11 to 29
2. Dixon, M. (1918). Public Speaking in the High School. The English Journal, 7(9), 564-569. doi:10. 2307/801751
3. Graubaugh Steven. Public Speaking: Reducing Student Apprehension and Improving Oral Skills, The Clearing House Vol 63(6), Taylor & Francis Ltd, Feb 1990, pg. 255-258. Accessed 25-03-2019.
4. Patricia H. Phelps. The Challenge of Character Building, The Clearing House, VOL 66(6), Taylor & Francis Ltd, Jul-Aug 1993, pg. 353-355, Accessed: 20-02-2019.
5. Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Time Warner Books UK, December 1 2007, nap
6. T. Price, Some Aspects of Character Building, Journal of The Royal Society of ARTS VOL. 114(5120), Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturer and Commerce, July 1966, Pg. 680 to 695, Accessed: 19/02/2019.
7. Zippo. Stephen J, The Pros and Cons of Environmental Debates, The American Biology Teacher VOL 53 (3), University of California, March 1991, Pg. 172-175, Accessed: 19/02/2019