We all know the importance of
education. It is the most important aspect of any nation’s survival today.
Education builds the nations; it determines the future of a nation. So that’s
why we have to adopt our Education Policies very carefully because our future
depends on these policies.
ISLAM also tells us about Education and its importance. The real essence of
Education according to ISLAM is “to know ALLAH” but I think in our country we
truly lost. Neither our schools nor our madrassa’s (Islamic Education Centres)
are truly educating our youth in this regard. In schools, we are just preparing
them for “Money”. We aren’t educating them we are just preparing “Money
Machines”. We are only increasing the burden of the books for our children and
just enrolling them in a reputed, big school for what, just for social status???
On the other hand in our madrassas we are preparing people who finds very
difficult to adjust in the modern society. Sometimes it seems that they are from
another planet. A madrassa student can’t compete even in our country then the
World is so far from him. He finds very difficult to even speak to a school boy.
It is crystal clear that Islamic Education is necessary for Muslims but it is
also a fact that without modern education no one can compete in this world.
There are many examples of Muslim Scholars who not only study the Holy Quraan
but also mastered the other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy
and many more, with the help of Holy Quraan. I think with the current education
system we are narrowing the way for our children instead of widening it. There
is no doubt that our children are very talented, both in schools and in
madrassas, we just need to give them proper ways to groom, give them the space
to become Quaid-E-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan,
Alberoni, Abnalhasam, or Einstein, Newton, Thomas Edison. The education system
we are running with is not working anymore. We have to find a way to bridge this
gap between school and madrassa. Robert Maynard Hutchins describes it as “The
object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout
their lives.” We should give our youth the way to educate themselves.
In Pakistan there are two major educational systems followed which includes the
national educational system that includes Matric and Intermediate while the
second is British Educational system that comprises of O-Levels and A-Levels.
This is very unfortunate that the educational system has two classes which are
being differentiated on the basis of economic and financial strengths. And this
creates disparities and enhances the complex in the students at the very young
age, which remains in their mind throughout their lives.
This is evident upon examination of Pakistan's overall literacy rate of 37.8%
(50% for men and 24.4% for women). Literacy being defined as those over 15 who
can read and write. In term of population, low literacy rates are often observed
with high population growth. A poorly educated population is unlikely to
participate in family planning or any other form of population control.
Secondary,a poor educated populace makes Pakistan a poor choice for the foreign
investors that it so desperately needs. Further more,the extremely low literacy
rate among Pakistani women (24.4%) lends itself to a society where most women
never enter the labor force,creating less incentives for them to limit the size
of their families. This is best illustrated by the fact that only 38 million of
Pakistan's 141 million people make up the entire labor force.
Edward Everett said that “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a
standing army.” Sadly, in Pakistan we are spending more budgets on our arms than
on education which depicts our ideology about education!!! Since 1947 not a
single government is able to change this scenario. In price of a grenade almost
20 to 30 children can go to school for the whole year and the other picture....
a grenade can kill 20 to 30 grown people!!!!!!. So a grenade is damaging in two
ways stopping children education and then killing innocent people!!! Why not
authorities think about this? Answer.... we all know that!!! Don’t we?
Now lets talk about our Policy Makers, it seems they are not working enough.
Every year policy for education is reviewed by the government but the results
are same.... Illiteracy rate is going upwards in Pakistan according to a recent
survey. Somebody starting “Nai Roshni School”, somebody starting “Parha Likha
Sindh” somebody starting "new educate punjab" etc for what to educate Pakistan?
Well, I don’t think so. These “People” are playing with our nation for the last
60 years just for their on profits and aims. We should and we have to think
about our children education now that are we educating them in the right way? If
not, what should we do? We have to act now otherwise it’s going to be too late
for PAKISTAN!!!