Education, Still a Nightmare in Pakistan
By: Muhammad Umer Sheikh
To draw an easy comprehension regarding the issues that our beloved country is suffering from, our meager literacy rate explains a greater chunk. Recently Pakistan celebrated its 74th Independence from combine sub-continent but in these seven decades not much excellence have been observed especially in the walk of education, our literacy rate is 59.13% making us 113th among 120 countries and yet the nation seems to be wondering the root cause of the fiascos it notices daily.
Regardless of our copious prejudices and biases against each other, the poor education system may seem to be a binding force between the provinces. Sind 60%, Punjab 64%, Baluchistan 40%, and Khyber Pakhtun Khuah 57%, while on the contrasting hand no aggression from government or concerning bureaucracy is recorded.
The problems associated with our education system is lack of adequate budget, lack of stern policies, poor implementation of procedures, defective examination structure, inadequate physical facilities, lack of quality teachers, absence of reputing syllabus, low enrollments, higher attrition rate, strong political influence and awareness towards the problem. The system with such deficiencies cannot produce the desired outcome; it needs to be handled with utter attention and sheer clarity.
Our education system is divided into six standards, pre-school, primary school, middle school, high school, and then intermediate, catering to students from age of 3 three years to 18 years. Another defective pore in our education structure comes in handy when we talk about different prevailing systems, in broader terms the private education system and the one being supervised by the government, give birth to two extreme marginal sectors of the society that are often in collision in the practical framework. Pupils from the government sector recurrently face obstacles in their career path while on the divergent hand, students from private schools and colleges easily slip into the professional stature of the society. This gives rise to jealousy, privilege, and prerogative immunity that is completely uncalled for and the burden rests on the governments of the past and the one that is ruling.
As Karachi represents the highlights of the country it surely will in the education system, let’s visit the rudimentary circumstances of the education structure in the city. 773 schools are deprived of the basic necessity of electricity while 663 do not have a Washroom or toilet facility and 978 are still waiting for the drinking water. 317 schools lack the cornerstones and at least the attendance of the teachers and the students above 30% is the luxury this city incessantly awaits.
Talking of Sind, the stats are indeed mournful, according to a survey, 50% of schools in Sind are deficient in fundamental prerequisites, Forty thousand schools do not have laboratories and libraries while thirty-seven thousand are too late for playing grounds and twenty-two thousand schools require drinking water. This is the education standard of the province with the second biggest population in the country, and the credit is shared among all the governments from the past equally. Despite the fact millions of rupees are allocated for the provincial education system, no exciting improvement is observed. Ghost Schools are another area of grief where the school is closed on papers while the salaries to the teachers are still disbursed and its better share of funds is still being allotted. According to a survey, around 8000 schools have been closed in April 2019 in Sind, however, miraculously salaries of the teachers are being issued. The Government seems to have turned the blind eye to the problem relentlessly calmly waiting for the entire system to collapse organically. For other provinces, the numbers are no different however Punjab reflects some strength over the graph but concerning its population, it is nothing but a mere satisfaction.
While sophisticatedly dissecting the issues regarding the education system in our country one will surely come across the horrific indulgence of the Feudal System as a complete manifold to destroy it on as much as possible basis whilst the political influence to deprive the rural population of education and render the schools as non-functional is the cherry on top. Very smoothly a mindset is shaped that demonstrates the complete absence of education in the rural livelihood and neither do the people require it, nevertheless, the fact very few still struggle very hard and become the shining stars of the sky.
For the urban population, private institutes have a very competitive ground while as rest assured the government never feels to be a part of such edgy competition, however still pays its share of contribution in the exploitation of power. In urban capacities, these private conglomerates have given birth to commercialization of education, because of which only upper and upper-middle classes can afford quality education for their children leaving a weightier portion of the urban population struggling and thriving very hard to somehow afford the standardized education. The sheer mediocrity of the system comes in front when an intelligent student dies within as the fee of the organization was a little too high that it suppresses his dreams.
The Government Institutes in Urban Capacity have the operational Quota System working that serves as nothing but a mere silver lining for the underprivileged rural populations. In Sind, there is a district-wise quota system in renowned medical and engineering colleges, with such upsetting stats it may not be called an uplifting exercise but ironic mercy of the system.
By an in-depth analysis of the different regimes over Pakistan, education seems never to be on the priority; this clearly reflects the poor taste of our political leadership and the bureaucracy. Pakistan is among the very few countries in the world with no world-class research center, no technological advancement laboratories, no think-tanks to design different levels of educational curriculum and a good standardized higher education is too soon to discuss.
Quoting Jalib will sum up the problem eloquently;
“Wo jis ki roshni Kacchay gharon tak Pohanchti hai
Na wo suraj nikalta hai na hamaray din badaltay hen”
Few hundred words carefully chosen to describe the educational loopholes in our country are not even the part of a competition to serve a mere justice to the disaster itself, the decades have been used to willfully sabotage the education and millions were and are being deprived of the fundamental right of awareness, education, knowledge, and basic schooling. If the governments and authorities still do not pay their utter attention to the issue it may steep down to the levels that it will become harder for others to pull it.