Education in Pakistan

“Education is the third eye of a man”

Education is only the weapon by which one can fight and conquer the battle of life. The education has been a very essential part of the different civilization of the world in historical perspectives. In olden times, cave men had no ideas regarding communicating themselves with one another; the first step was taken in this regard was the formation of language, and it had become the very inceptive source of communication in the earliest history of mankind. They came to know that they had already been bestowed upon a tongue as a source of communication by the Allah Almighty, and now, it was their emphatic job to be civilized and moral etiquettes were required to be shaped.

Then, the early sages made a format of alphabets and thoroughly worked on philology. Thus, gradually grammar was made up, in which, different bifurcations were made; as, man could easily operate the language as a source of communication.

Since then, the world has witnessed the outflow of knowledge that has crossed the boundaries of the different regions and made a world like a global village in recent times, all it was done by the untiring efforts of mankind that has been imparting valuable contributions in different walks of life especially ‘EDUCATION’.

Here, it is necessary to focus on the system of education in Pakistan; and how long this department has been a victim of negligence by the people from different strata of our society and it will be observed, being an individual, who is responsible for the downfall of education in the country.

Before independence, in 1875, a Primary School was established at Ghazipur, (India) by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, later a High School was established at Aligarh by the same mighty man. But through out India, Muslims were denigrated and the basic needs of life were denied to them by the English. Keeping this in view, Sir, Syed Ahmed Khan aimed at to open a college for the Muslims of India so that they may be able to get the best in higher education. In 1876, Mohammadan Anglo College was established at Aligarh as to meet the demand of education of Muslims of India.

The college was affiliated to the Culcuta University; degrees were conferred upon the graduates by Culcuta University for about 43 years, and in 1919, the colleges was upgraded upto a university level and renamed as ‘Aligarh University’. The university produced thousand of graduates who spread throughout India and started to champion the cause of un-educated and fought for the freedom for a separate homeland.

The Muslims of India, of course, were backward in education than their Hindu counterparts. The Muslim could not follow the way that was directed by the English and the Hindus, as, it was against their religion. The poor type of education made the Muslims unable to get good jobs in English offices; hence, they remained out of politics for they had the scarcity of consciousness. This came to them through the light of education and they went successful in getting the freedom of Pakistan.

Standard of Education in Pakistan:

In Pakistan, unfortunately the people have been introduced the double standard of education. The one, which prevails through out the country is related to public sector and the other is an out come of private investors.

Let us examine that how far the public sector has fulfilled the requirement of the people of Pakistan by providing them in education. The country had got independence 58 years ago, since then, the contribution imparted by this sector is a little bit worth to be mentioned. The result produced by the sector is very poor and the quantity has outdone quality as far as the contribution and creation is concerned. The education system in Pakistan faced enormous problems after independence. A little attention was paid in this respect. The education has remained an orphan child in our society by facing double standard and has created an atmosphere of frustration among the young ones.

Government has established schools, colleges and universities throughout the country that have been imparting education in different respects and studies of life. The students from these departments are wandering due to lack of opportunities. Everywhere they are denied services because they bear a label of government academies. Now one can imagine that why the government system of education is being neglected throughout the country and why the establishment has allowed private sector with its tails up to introduce another standard of education.

Parents are scared about their children and they even do not allow their children to be admitted in public sector school, they prefer their child to get education in private sector as, it suits them more. This does not mean that public sector schools are not producing the cream of the future, most of our genius and sages who are imparting their valuable services, are out come of public sector schools. The only submitted reason by their parents is lack of management in public sector schools. The well management is offered at private schools.

The relation between teacher and student is sacred. Children are taught social and moral etiquettes with more comfort at private schools, the behaviour of teachers is quite frank and the student can come in direct contact to their teachers. On some scale, this is true that contact between learner and learned lacks in public sectors but the thing they are learning must be the same for both sectors, I mean the curricula. The Curriculum Board has been established but it has allowed private sector to run their own syllabus. Now, the degrees are same but the scope of knowledge got by the two is too different to be compared. Here, students face many complications by studying under different curricula. This has created a big rift between the two sectors.

Causes of Downfall:

There are enormous causes for the downfall of education in Pakistan which are discussed under different sub-headings.

Economical Negligence:

Since its inception, Pakistan has remained a weak economy of the world for it has got nothing in its just assets that were aggressively snatched by India. The conflict between the two countries over Kashmir issue has hardly allowed the government to consider and allocate funds in budget for other sectors, the education is not an exception in this regard. Still, only 2% of GDP is allocated for the welfare of education, which is quite inappropriate to meet the demands of education. And it is worth to note that this allocation budget is too not spent for educational purposes, the whole money is taken away by using unfair means by the concerned officials. All these funds are not given through a proper channel so that a false audit report is submitted that the utilization of funds has been spent on requisite purposes.

Rapid growth in poverty:

According to 2002 Economic Survey of United Nations, “Most of the inhabitants of Pakistan are poor and 40% of them live under poverty line, about 70% of its population dwells in villages. About 300,000, young ones are jobless. They have no access to good education”. The reports shows that how much difficulties and troubles have been faced by this poor and suppressed class of the country. Their main occupation is agriculture and its yearly out put cannot meet their daily and basic needs of life. It is worth to note that only 1% landlords hold almost 95% of lands in Pakistan. This unjust division of land further creates economical problems not only for the poor but also the government does not get the lion’s share in this respect.

Political Negligence:

“If you want to destroy the future of any nation, no need to wage war with them; defunct their education, they will remain no more live on the map of the world.”

No politician has paid attention in improving the standard of education so far, as far as the question of history of development of education in Pakistan is concerned. In case of Sindh, in early 1970s, lingual riots took place and a new cancer of copy culture was introduced and boosted up by politicians to prevail among the people. No official steps were taken in curbing this fatal disease. Now, the result is that throughout the country Sindhi students are understood the out come of copy culture and basic rights in every walk of life are denied to them, because however, they may be genius and creators but the fact remained that they lack in management and unable move the economy of the country just because they bear a title of COPY CULTURE. It was a political conspiracy based on totally bias. Being a Sindhi, I do not favour Sindhis that they are not given a proper share in different walks of life, whatever is happening to them is the only out come of wrong and misled policies which have been blindly followed up by them. Patriotism is the very hinge for all virtues, living in the same country every one at first is Pakistani then Sindhi, Punjabee, Balochee and or Pathan, respectively. So, now it is our turn to turn a new leaf and pace with our other provincial brothers to improve the management of our beloved country Pakistan, believing in “united we stand, divided we fall”. Education has become a question of survival for us; less developed man cannot bring the change in improving the skills that are vital for the uplift of the education.

Irrelevant Induction of Staff:

It has been a dilemma of our educational system that it has embodied irrelevancy in inducting its staff; broadly speaking, I personally have come across enormous experiences in my minute observation, as it has been generally observed that if a person has some specialization in some particular subject but he seems to be teaching something else. More openly, if some one has got his/her masters in English Literature, he seems to be teaching Mathematics to his/her students. The fact remains that students cannot learn first hand and ground information regarding their subjects. Nepotism is kept on priority while inducting staff, the induction of staff on quota system has made impotent the working format of the education system, ministers choose their relatives for induction without thinking that either they could serve better or will create complications for others.

Misconception of Purpose:

It is also a dreadful fact that today’s young ones have changed their motives pertaining to acquiring education. Actually, “the education should be for the purpose of getting education” as it has been wisely said; but, we have changed the slogan, “education should be for the purpose of getting jobs”. If, we keep on remaining this theory in mind then we will be digressed from our way and education will be out of our reach. By getting education we come to the ways that how we could be able to lead our lives in the best and a possible way.

Unemployment:

Unemployment is on full swing throughout the country. Country has been facing huge economical setbacks since its independence. The poor economy of the country cannot meet at once the demand of employment of the countrymen at once. On the one hand the disappointed youth, keeping their degrees in hand, wander the whole day in search of job but ‘No-Vacancy’ sign boards inflate their disappointment on the other. This situation creates negative creation of thoughts in their minds; concluding, they come out as dacoits to waylay and let their names to be enlisted in criminal list; and society faces much more troubles through this kind of misshapenness.

Remedies:

Every one of us takes things differently, so there is a room for different suggestions. All of us should aim at to abreast and pace ahead to take the task of improving the education system in a systematic way by implementation different programmes. Awareness should be created amongst un-aware fellows, the importance of education must be expounded in real terms but in an easy way, different literacy programmes should be commenced throughout the country in order to provide assistance pertaining the impediments faced by the poor. Government should take an active eye and spend much more money for the improvement of primary, secondary and higher education. More schools, colleges and universities, medical and engineering colleges are needed to be opened. Special attention must be paid on the development of scientific and technical education so that the settled trend of people in getting academic education may be diverted to the technical education. Subject relevancy must be paid in mind while induction of staff for the concerned posts. Politics must eliminated from education department. Student should pay attention much more on their studies than chalking walls in propagation of different leaders, by doing so they are just wasting their time; nothing can be got by nefarious means. Honesty of purpose and quality in work should be our motives. Every one of us (parents, students, teachers and the supreme government) should root out the copy culture from top to bottom from educational system that has been eating away the fresh brains of our youth for the times unknown. The education must be got for the purpose of education not for getting jobs. Text books must be updated with current topics and rapidly changing of the scenario of the world must be given in the textual books. These suggestions are not enough but whatever has come in my mind I have honestly jotted down; there is a room for suggestions as already has been mentioned. In the last but not the least let us work together for bringing revolutionary changes for the effective function of educational system in the country. Let us pray to Allah Almighty may He enable us to bring and get our desired results by putting our entire efforts in this respect.