EDUCATION'S PLIGHT....

Education’s plight in Pakistan

DECORLOOT

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. – Malcolm X

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn …and change.”

Carl Rogers

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”

Clay P. Bedford

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

All these quotes refer to one thing that education is an essential element of a person’s life and for the development and progress of our country. Pakistan is facing a serious challenge to ensure all children, particularly the most disadvantaged, attend, stay and learn in school. While enrollment and retention rates are improving, progress has been slow to improve education indicators in Pakistan. An estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 are out-of-school.

According to available statistics currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group. In the 5-9 age group, 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, the number of OOSC doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education. Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52 percent of the poorest children (58 percent girls) are out of school, and in Baluchistan, 78 percent of girls are out of school.

When we look at the education system in Pakistan we find out that it is generally divided into six levels: preschool (for the age from 3 to 5 years), primary (grades one through five), middle (grades six through eight), high (grades nine and ten, leading to the Secondary School Certificate or SSC), intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to a Higher Secondary School Certificate or HSSC), and university programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees. However we see that none of this level is doing as per expected for the growth of Pakistan.

Our educational budget is far lesser than what is needed to boost education in a country like ours. Pakistan' public expenditure on education as a percentage of the GDP is estimated at 2.4 percent in the fiscal year 2018-19, the lowest in the region, revealed the Economic Survey (2018-2019) released, with more than 92 million Pakistanis (49% of the population) having a command over the English language. Among other criticisms the Pakistani education system faces is the gender disparity in enrollment levels.  On top of that, Pakistan produces about 445,000 university graduates and 80,000 computer science graduates per year with very little job opportunities thus creating a sense of uselessness for education. 

 Let’s see in brief the reason of such a bad performance of Pakistan in the education sector. Pakistan's poor performance in the education sector is mainly caused by the low level of public investment. As of 2007, public expenditure on education was 2.2 percent of GNPs, a marginal increase from 2 percent before 1984-85. In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education, allowing the upper income class to reap the majority of the benefits of public subsidy on education. Lower education institutions such as primary schools suffer under such conditions as the lower income classes are unable to enjoy subsidies and quality education. As a result, Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of literacy in the world and the lowest among countries of comparative resources and socio-economic situations, just little ahead of Nigeria.

Talking about the formal school systems, most of the formal system under the public sectors just runs ghost schools and training centers, most being vocational-oriented like technical training centers,  agriculture and vocational training centers. An apprenticeship system is also framed by the state of Pakistan. Informal education is also important in Pakistan and regroups mostly school-leavers and low-skilled individuals, who are trained under the supervision of a senior craftsman. Few institutes are run by corporate to train university students eligible for jobs and provide experience during education fulfilling a gap between university and industry for example.

Furthermore in Pakistan, the quality of education has a declining trend. Shortages of teachers and poorly equipped laboratories have resulted in the out-dated curriculum that has little relevance to present day needs. The education is based just on cramming and the students lack professional skills as well as communication skills when they are graduated from an institute. Moreover the universities here are too expensive, due to which the Pakistani students can't afford a university to get higher education. Last but not the least, the universities here don't provide skills that have a demand in market and job oriented education. They just stuck to their out dated old and redundant curriculum and don’t take the pain of upgrading it in accordance with modern day requirement.

Let me highlight some of the serious challenges faced by the education sector in Pakistan:

1: Highest Number of school unrolled children.

2. Bad and not sufficient Infrastructure.

3. Substandard teaching staff with an obvious shortage of Trained Teachers.

4. Learning quality of the students is very poor.

5. Outdated Curricula that Needs to be changed.

6. Parents lack devotion level for children education.

7: School Committees are Ineffective.

8: Poverty, Family Factors, Parent Involvement & Student Health.

9: Technology, Classroom Size & Funding

10: Student Attitudes and Behaviors & Bullying also hinders educational standards.

In short we can say that Pakistan is faced with a multitude of challenges in the education sector. These can be divided into quality (curriculum, teacher quality, learning environment, assessment) and quantity (school availability, increased enrollment, infrastructure and facilities, teacher availability). Lack of access to education and poor knowledge, are the main factors influencing unemployment, particularly for those in the new settlements around Bishkek who tend to be unskilled, on low incomes or unemployed. This means that children suffer from lack of attention from their parents and they are poorly-educated and much more.

We all know that education gives us knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something better. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether education is the only thing that gives knowledge. Lack of education causes many issues such as: Poor health or nutrition deficiency is seen among people due to illiteracy. Lack of education causes gender inequality. Lack of skilled labor and less productivity is seen, leading to an ultimate lower level of growth and development in Pakistan.

In order to accelerate progress and ensure the equitable expansion of quality education, it is needed that we as a nation in general and Government of Pakistan in particular should take up the matter of education on war footing and should take up serious measures to ensure quality modernized and updated education to its population at every level irrespective of class and gender.

LETS HOPE AND KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED.

BY: DECORLOOT TEAM