Education

Though they echo with the longings of the educated and wistful NGO worker, and are reminiscent of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 19th century “The Pen is mightier than the sword” speech, the title of this article represents the heartfelt wish of the Afghan refugee Jamila Abassy.

Jamila has just opened her second primary school in the Pakistan refugee camp where Hamid Karzais [leader of Afghanistans provisional council] - father was captured and killed by the Taliban in 1999.

Jamila,…

Roland Meighan is an acknowledged “educational heretic” for his view that mass compulsory schooling is an obsolete and counter-productive learning system which should be scrapped as soon as possible. His latest book, Natural Learning and the Natural Curriculum challenges the very essence of the education system today. It is a devastating critique-and rightly so.

Caroline Austin: In your latest book, Natural Learning, you quote Mark Twain, who “never allowed…