EDUCATION SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN
Essay
“Education is
the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the
world” (Nelson Mandela)
The word
"Education" has been derived from the Latin term "Educatum"
which means the act of teaching or training. A group of educationists say that
it has come from another Latin word "Educare" which means "to
bring up" or "to raise".
All these
meanings indicate that education seeks to promote the good qualities in man and
draw out the best in every individual. Education seeks to develop the
distinctive inner capacities of man.
Education is
the light of the life. It frees an individual from misconceptions and blind
beliefs. It enhances human status and leads everyone to respectability.
Education has
been accorded great importance in every religion and society. Islam also
attaches utmost importance to it.
The first word
of the Holy Quran was IQRA (READ) and Holy prophet (S A W) said
“Education is
mandatory for men and women.”
The above
Hadith does not discriminating gender that means it is not only mandatory for
men but also for women. Holy prophet (S A W) also said
“Seek knowledge
even you have to travel to China.”
Muslims ushered
an era of glory only with education but when they renounced it, they fell into
the depths of gloom and dejection. The west, today, dominates the world only
because it realized education’s vitality to development. Article 26 of the UNs
‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ reads: “Everyone have the right to
education”. It is the second objective in UNs Millennium Development Goals
(UNMDGs) which requires education for all (EFA) by year 2015. However the state
of education in Pakistan is far from satisfactory.
The education
system in Pakistan is generally divided into five levels: 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 HSC; and
university programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees. Education in
Pakistan is overseen by the Ministry of Education of the Government of Pakistan
as well as the provincial governments, whereas the federal government mostly
assists in curriculum development, accreditation and in the financing of
research and development.
Article 25-A of
Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory
quality education to children of the age group 5 to 16 years. “The State shall
provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to
sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law”. Pakistan produces
about 445,000 university graduates and 10,000 computer science graduates per
year.
Despite these
statistics, Pakistan still has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world
and the second largest out of school population (5.4 million children) after
Nigeria.
The literacy
rate for age 10 years and above in Pakistan, according to World Bank, is 55
percent (67 % for males and 42% Females). This is the lowest rate in the
developing nations of Asia. Silence has 90.7%; Indonesia has 90.4%, while
literacy rate in Vietnam, Iran and India reach 90.4%, 82.4% and 61%
respectively. In contrast in developed countries it is almost 100%.
In the sphere
of higher education only 3.7% of Pakistani youth of 18 to 23 age group is enrolled
this is also very low as compare to other developing countries as India has 7%
while Malaysia has 12%.
In Human
development Report, Pakistan is placed at 134th position out of 177 countries
of the world and education is a major indicator in human development index. We
may be conclusive about the ground reality that people in the 6th largest
country of the world have no access to the basic education even.
This is because
Pakistan is still struggling with its problems of Education system. At the first
place, the problems have arisen due to lack of commitment and inefficient
management on the part of state. The policies lack long term vision and its
implementation strategies are being affected by unnecessary political
interference. Over the span of 66 years, the nation has been given the 23
policies and action plans but we could not start the march towards success and
are waiting for a savior who could take the system out of confusion. The
National Education Policy (1998-2010) was developed previous to Dakar. It has a
clear cut vision and direction to support the education department. Since the
2001, the Ministry of Education has developed a number of policy documents
including that of National Education policy (2009) but the activities remain
focused on paper work more rather than the operationalization. The simple
reason is that the coordination is missing between the federal and provincial
governments which cause strong problems in the policy implementation.
The policy
formulating, planning and implementing bodies work in isolation as the water
tight sections. The government's consultation is very much restricted and does
not go beyond its specific quarters. It should have to be extended to non-state
sectors to initiate and mobilize the action. Teachers does not normally form
the part of policy making process, hence the process of sharing and
consultation remains missing. It leads to implementation of educational
policies without consultation, thus the efforts go in vain. In addition to it,
the measures taken are not evidence based and geared by the assigned interests
of the authorities. Whatever strategies have been applied failed to promote the
rational and critical thinking skills amongst the students. Because there is a
need to continuously update the syllabus because if it goes old, it does not
prepare the beneficiaries with the salable skills and expertise.
Secondly the
allocation of funds for education is very low as it never went beyond 1.5 to
2.5 percent of the total GDP. Even this amount was not utilized and had to be
surrendered back to the government as about 10 to 30% of education budget
remains underutilized.
In spite of
allocation, the amount is not spent for what it was meant for as the corruption
is found in all the levels of education. Corruption causes the educational
policies, plans and projects to fail because of being the major contributing
factor. There is no accountability and transparency in the system, the salaries
are low, the incentives are too less to be accounted and even those are uneven.
Thirdly the
system of education in Pakistan is working in match with the local needs and
ground realities. It is almost a key factor that the education in the mother
tongue surrenders more dividends but we have the system more separated and expanded
just opposing to our requirements. A good example of it is that we fail to
decide about the Medium of education over the span of 64 years. Different
mediums are operational in both, public and private sector. This creates a sort
of difference among people, dividing them into two segments. In the elite
private schools where the quality education is offered, a heavy fee is charged
that continues to be a problem. These private sectors schools are meant only
for a special sector of the population and are out of the reach of general
masses. The quick growth of private schools and academies of teaching reflect
the people's lack of trust in the public sector schools coupled with a
deficiency of sufficient educational institutions to cater to the needs of the fast
growing population. However, there are certain private schools which are
slightly better than the public ones. Private Schools in Pakistan enroll more
students than in other countries of the region. They least problem about the
capacity and facilities available, they rather over burden the teaching staff.
Education has been followed by these people as an industry and they fail to
cope up with the required standards. The leader with vision spoils the mission
as well as the projects undertaken. Their only committed is money making that
has caused the decay in the standards, introduction of sub-standard staff, and
inexpensive the deserving to grow. They don’t want to catch with the move of
success but they try to be good businesspersons.
Fourthly,
Shortage of qualified teachers is main cause of less interest of young students
towards education. Only 25% of university teachers are of PHDs and only 20 % of
them are active researchers Student-teacher ratio is very high in Pakistan. So
the teacher cannot properly treat students. Teachers are not given any
motivations for dedication to the profession. Salary and other facilities
especially at the lower levels are very disappointing. Training and refresher
courses are also insufficient. New techniques of teaching and facilities needed
for good teaching should be provided to the teachers.
Fifthly,
Examination System remained a problematic issue in Pakistan. How to judge the
performance of students is a difficult question. Instead of comprehension and
depth of knowledge importance is placed on test of memory. Learning is geared
to passing the examination. Some people work only at the end of the year and
get good marks due to fault in the system. Some of they use unfair means.
Students have were little knowledge of how the papers are actually graded. This
becomes a serious problem at the higher levels. Still there is a debate that
whether Annual system or Semester system should be adopted.
Sixthly, the
gender discrimination is a cause that is contributing towards the low
participation rate of girls at the basic level of education. The male and
female participation ratio is projected at the primary school in the shape of
ratio of boys & girls as 10:4 respectively. Only 22 percent of girls,
compared to 47 percent boys, complete primary schooling. Female literacy in
rural Baluchistan is only 32 percent compared to high urban male literacy
rates.
Seventhly, We
could not attract the general masses towards technical education making them to
earn of their own and make their living without being the burden on the
government. Education system is needed to be restored making a space for the
science, IT, management, and pupil with the excellence to go to the higher
education following the education of their own choice. Lesser importance on
technical education means the lesser manpower for industry and hence the
lesser.
Eightly,
Student groups have political links with outside groups. Political parties have
their sub units in educational institutions, which result in use of violence
and threats. This also damages the educational environment.
Lastly, the
increase of poverty has restricted the parents to send their children to tasks
for child labor. Poor parents are forced to send their children to madrassas
where the education is totally free. Madrassas 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 Quran but also mastered
the other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and many more,
with the help of Holy Quran. On the other hand, the students from the leading
class have little or no awareness of their religion and culture whereas those
passing out from Urdu medium schools are usually designed to work in religious
and lower level positions. We have to find a way to bridge this gap between
school and madrassa.
The above
mentioned problems affected our society in many ways like failure of democracy,
bad governance, and degradation of society and also hampered the economic
progress. Due to lack of education, our work force consists of only tiny part
of population. Agriculture and Industrial sectors have also suffered because of
lack of research.
The governments
of Pakistan have taken some steps for the betterment of education system which
includes the establishment of HEC and increase in spending on higher education.
HEC introduced
many reforms in the education system. The effective reforms include faculty
improvement programs, tenure track system for faculty remuneration, provision
of laboratories, equipment and scientific material, alignment of academic
degrees with international norms and standards, exploitation of the potential
of distance learning, provision of scholarships and a culture of accountability
in universities.
These reforms
resulted in the robust growth of enrollments. Recruitment procedures for
academic staff are now explicitly based on merit due to the efforts of HEC.
In spite of
these results still education system of Pakistan needs to be improve and
following measures can be taken for the improvement of system.
In the view of
importance of education, the Government should take solid steps towards
implementation instead of projecting policies. In this regard, the allocations
should be made easy and timely from provinces to districts and then to
educational institutes.
Allocations are
supposed to be made to the aspired levels as UNO suggests a country to allocate
at least four percent of its GDP towards education there is also a need to
justify the share at the different levels not ignoring any.
Primary education
should be made compulsory. The textbooks and uniforms should be provided free
of cost to the indigent children and rewards may be offered to them on passing
examinations.
There should be
a balance in dependence on public and private for enabling education to reach
the general masses in its true shape. Government should strictly check all
private educational institutions for keeping a balance of standards and level
of practices.
Hiring should
be made from amongst the highly qualified and the teachers should be paid not
according to the level of education but the qualification of the staff. Efforts
should be made to bring down the student-teacher ratio to 15:1 in lieu of
current 40:1. Therefore, the number of teachers will have to be enhanced, leading
to the rise in number of teachers and enabling the competent persons to be
inducted to the system of education. Workshops must be arranged for teachers as
a continuous feature for learning.
It is advised
that the Universities should be the research centers and must not be allowed to
act as the examining bodies for graduate or post-graduate examinations.
Higher
Education deserves serious attention in this regard. Steps should be taken to
attract youth to higher education. The investment is this sector should be
increased to meet demands of universities.
Technical
education should be filled into the regular system stream. As the education
board of Punjab has projected a plan to give tech- education to the children of
industrial workers. Introductory technical subjects should be taught at the
middle level to enhance awareness and encourage interest of students.
With a
surprising 5.4 million children out-of-school, Pakistan is likely to miss the
Education For All (EFA) target that was set to be achieved by 2015, according
to EFA Global Monitoring Report.
Projecting a
grim future, the report states that if the country moved at current pace the
adult literacy rate (15 and above) by the year 2015 will be 60 per cent of
which female at 47 per cent and male 72 per cent. Besides, the adult illiteracy
rate by 2015 also seems to be estimated at an appalling 51 million of which 65%
will be females.
The report
reveals that if Pakistan were to halve the inequality in access to education to
the level of Vietnam, it would increase its economic growth by 1.7 percentage
points.
Alarmingly,
Pakistan is ‘very far’ from meeting the 2015 deadline and ranks among nations
like Mali, Niger and Lesotho in the countries list away from achieving the
education goal, the report further states.
Highlighting
the dismal progress in education sector, the report states that around 59 per
cent of women would remain disproportionately affected by illiteracy by 2015.
Commenting on
the issue State Minister for Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher
Education said that Pakistan would be unable to achieve the EFA goals within
the deadline. However, the government was taking measures like National Plan of
Action to include all the out-of-school children with special focus on girls of
rural areas.
It is an
established fact that education serves as the backbone for the development of
nations. The countries with the effective impressive need oriented, saleable
and effective system of education comes out to be the leaders of the world,
both socially and economically. It is only education which can turn a burden of
population into productive human resource. Pakistan's current state demands
that the allocations for education be doubled to meet the challenges of EFA. We
have to reconsider our priorities to keep the country on the track of progress.
As education is the only cure of disability of the state and for bringing
revolution through evolution and by eliminating the social evils through
education.
