By: Deedar Ali Bangwar
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. Education plays a crucial role in the socio-economic and cultural advancement of a country. It is a pattern of learning in which the knowledge, skills and habits of groups of people are altered from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education is a social tool through which humans can guide their destiny and form Their future. It is associated with the personal, social, economic and cultural facets of being human. It assists in understanding the societal norms, offers individuals self-reliance and discourages discrimination of all kinds. Islam encouraged men and women alike to crave knowledge.
Education is deemed as the cheapest defence of a nation. The negligence of the government in the education sector in Pakistan suffers huge testimony of the fact that it is incapable to maintain its own sector. In the Human Development Report, Pakistan is positioned at the low degree possessing a 49.9% educated masses. Education is the most fundamental element for the advancement of a nation. It is an undisputed fact that nations who have touched the pinnacles of advancement and prosperity have performed it by utilizing education as an instrument to accomplish it. Education is simply an investment to attain both human and economic progress. But, unfortunately, it is one of the biggest dilemmas in Pakistan. The education system of Pakistan is rotten to the nucleus. Some of the very fundamental shortcomings of the education system in Pakistan contribute to the economic, ethnic and socio-political catastrophe within the country.
The educational system in Pakistan is based on irregular lines. The medium of education is different in both, the public and private sectors. This builds a kind of difference among people, distributing them into two pieces. Most private schools are English medium while the government schools are Urdu medium. The regional disparity is also a central cause of the impoverished educational system in the country. Besides, the egalitarianism of education in most of the public schools and colleges are well below par: the teachers in government schools are not adequately trained. People who do not get a job in any other sector, they strive for their fate in the educational system. They are not professionally skilled teachers so they are incompetent to educate the nation. The integrity of teaching needs special attention in rural regions where the teachers lack in all departments.
Just because, Quaide-i-Azam said, “Education is the matter of life and death for Pakistan. The world is progressing so rapidly that sans requisite advance in education, not only we will lag behind others but may be wiped out altogether”.
The main aspects that hinder enrolment rates of girls encompass destitution, cultural restrictions, illiteracy of parents and parental concerns about the protection and mobility of their daughters. Society’s emphasis on girls’ modesty, safety and early marriages may restrict the family’s enthusiasm to send them to school. Enrolment of rural girls is 45% lower than that of urban girls; while for boys the difference is 10% solely, showing that the gender gap is a significant element. Pakistan’s attention in the war against terrorism too affected the growth of literacy movements. The militants targeted schools and students; many educational institutions were blown up, teachers and students were assassinated in Balochistan, KPK and FATA. This may have to participate not as much as other factors, but this remains a vital component.
Pakistan pays 2.4% GDP on education. At the national level, 89% of education expenses encompasses of current expenditures such as teachers’ salaries, while only 11% comprises of advancement expenditure which is not enough to bring up the quality of education. Sufficient attention has not been paid to technical and vocational education in Pakistan. The number of technical and vocational training institutes is not enough and many are deprived of infrastructure, teachers and instruments for training. The population of a state is one of the fundamental ingredients of its national strength. It can become an investment once it is skilled. An untrained population indicates more unemployed people in the country, which impacts national progress negatively. Thus, technical education needs priority handling by the government.
The reforms needed in the education system of Pakistan cannot be performed by the government alone, public-private participation and a mix of formal as well as non-formal education can pull out the majority of the country’s population from illiteracy. Similarly, to make the youth of the country an asset, attention must also be paid to vocational and technical training.
The writer is a freelance columnist, based in Kandhkot, He can be reached at [email protected]