A case for including social sciences in curriculum of education in engineering

Other than the bleak statistics on education and depressing numbers of out of schoolchildren, the status of higher education in the country, also, doesn’t portray a solacing picture. The status of primary education, the failure to enroll children and then the abysmal numbers of child retention in school is one part of failure of the state. Complimenting this failure on the other end is the disappointing lack of mention of the country’s institutions of higher education in global rankings and the failure to produce research which can find place in good quality journals of their respective fields. The debate about higher education takes place under the hierarchy of the number of graduates produced, the number of departments, the number of faculty and the parameter of a successful education or standing of an institution is determined by the ratio of job placements. This hierarchy is not to be loathed, as this form the formal structure of any higher education, but it has to be complemented by substance of the education.

Given that education is often a guarantee of upward social mobility, the higher education in a backward economy like Pakistan, becomes a strategy about return on an investment and social as well financial security rather than following the dreams or passions, as the mantra of the motivational speakers and Hollywood slicks of finding the one true calling would have us to believe. The premium on the kind of education which brings with it the prospects of employability are high and thus such fields will be saturated. Social sciences globally have seen a decline in intake and education in liberal arts is now increasingly seen as domain of the upper middle class, upper class and such.

That leaves only the directly ‘employable’ fields  which have the incentives enough to the  middle classes to invest whatever they have on their children’s education in. 

The unwavering certitude of employability as well as the social prestige that a medical degree brings makes becoming a doctor as the priority number one. That is followed by the prospects of employability by studies in engineering. This is not to say that social sciences and humanities are left vacant but rather that privileging of certain degrees over others is an established social practice. This has seen mushroom growth of engineering colleges, institutions and whole universities dedicated to education in engineering in the country. The medical field remains somewhat regulated because of the strict laws regarding opening of new private medical colleges and also because the astronomical expenses of private medical education limits access to upper middle class only. This has left the field open to private engineering colleges where Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), the premier regulating body of engineering education and a body representing the collective interests of engineers, don’t come across as strict as Pakistan Medical and Dental Association, the counterpart for regulating medical education in the country.

Premised on this ground, the education in engineering has a tunneled vision. The unique nature of the discipline of engineering brings with itself unique problems which are in addition to the substance of quality of the education as discussed above.  Now, no discipline can be charged with a narrow vision if it sticks to the technicalities of the discipline only, but education in engineering has become particularly tailored for one kind of employability. And in this mindset lies the problem. The prospects that one will be able to get a stable job where the already made designs will be maintained under an intuitional framework and a stable income will be provided strikes right at the core of innovation which is the spirit of engineering.

In Pakistan a trend can be observed where the engineering graduates in particular and STEM graduates in general tend to be conservative and thus are more susceptible to fundamentalism. Engineering in essence is the application of science. Engineering in most part don’t ask fundamental questions and the arc of development of a mind trained in engineering is a closed loop where answer to every question and problem is possible. A mind trained in engineering is suspicious of doubt. Machines don’t work on doubt! On the other hand social questions don’t have an answer. There can be possible solutions and alternatives but a reductive, fit-for-all answer is an untenable reality. When confronted with complex questions of social arrangement and political scenarios, a mind trained in certitude will tend to find a workable, limited in dimensions answer. Those kind of easy answers are provided by dogmas of conservativism. Hence, we observe the lack of progressive thinking in STEM or particularly in engineering graduates.

This combination of advanced knowledge of sophisticated technology with a fixed suspicion of open-ended socio-political reality makes for a lethal prospect. This can be exploited easily, not because they are uneducated but because their education can be a fertile foregrounding for a conservative kind of politics or even of extremism. If even the worst doesn’t materialize then it is an opportunity missed for ameliorating the social conditions and economic standing. There is a huge gap in the economy which can be filled if the technologies which are accessible, operable and the products locally reproducible are employed in innovative ways.  It goes without saying that a socially sensitive employment of technology and the use of technology to come to unique solutions the economy and society are facing will be possible only if engineers have a sense of inner workings of the society, the social attitudes and the economy.

Entrepreneurship is now considered an integral part of education in engineering. Entrepreneurship entails in the very conception the application of the technical knowledge to come with possible innovative solutions of the problems of socio-materialist production. Given the lack of industrialization and huge investment of capital, small and medium scale industries and social entrepreneurship can not only kickstart the economy but put the economy in the right direction. Again, without emphasizing, it is imperative that for using technology and engineering for social entrepreneurship, a knowledge of society and understanding of needs and of the socio-economic conditions is a predicate.

As pointed out earlier the mushroom growth of engineering institutions and the attraction toward engineering, it is necessary to revise the curriculum and make space for social sciences and humanities in the discipline. There is a problem, may be peculiar to Pakistan only, that the technical education in engineering and associated fields is imparted in places where interactions with students of other disciplines is either absent or minimal. That calls for a special focus on sanitizing the students in engineering to social needs and social dynamics.

For now, in Pakistan, only Pakistan studies and Islamiyat, are things extra to engineering education (the ethics and management subjects are tailored for a narrow application in the field or in theory). These two subjects are what have been taught at school  and college levels. It is no wonder then that the engineers produced by the country don’t and can’t live to the full potential of social innovation. Not only for the reasons to counter the innate nature of a focused reality, but to enable a new kind of social engagement, there is a need to include social science and humanities in the curriculum for education in engineering.