It is a well-established fact that education is the answer to many of the misfortunes of our country. Unfortunately, Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the literacy rate is 55 percent and Pakistan stands at 160th in the countries of the world. The general understanding of literacy in Pakistan is the ability to read and write and unluckily, millions of people in Pakistan are dispossessed of even this. The situation seems even worse when we look into the urban-rural divide. There are numerous factors behind this ever-growing gap between rural and urban development, of which education is in the forefront. Education is the key factor to bridge the gap between the rural and urban populace.
The government of Pakistan has made remarkable progress as far as policy development and signing international commitments is concerned. However, the results of these efforts remain to be seen. It is imperative to recognise the practical challenges in bridging the rural-urban educational gap. In order to attain the desirable results, first step is to foster preconditions for what we aim to reap. In rural areas, the basic infrastructure is virtually missing. Basic facilities in existing schools are drastically scarce; however, these could have been attained by engaging effectively with the communities and other stakeholders. Community mobilisation is often mistaken as the strategy and strength of NGOs alone. Yet, it is equally significant for government authorities to engage with the rural communities to empower them, mobilise the demand for education and pave the way for a sustainable positive attitude for education. I am not convinced that resources are scarce. I believe the resources are adequate to get the optimum levels of improvement. I consider rural communities as a rich resource to be capitalised. They can be proactively engaged in a variety of creative and meaningful ways to bring about a paradigm shift in the education system.
Rural communities need to visualise the practical link between their poverty and education to recognise the relevance of the education imparted in schools with their practical lives. Many rural households do not consider it rewarding to send their children to schools, where they sit for long hours behind broken desks, acquiring reading and writing skills for which they do not see any use in their day to day life. The children themselves are often unable to see the connection between what is taught in schools and their practical lives. Families prefer to put their children to work instead of sending them to schools because rural children, more so than urban children, are required by their parents as labour on the farm and in the home.
There is a lot that can be done to improve the situation. There is a direct correlation between demand and supply; more awareness in communities will increase the demand for quality education in rural areas and will pay off. Government machinery, political activists, social and development workers, writers and volunteers should all contribute. This is everyone’s task. Effective resource management, based on the principles of equity instead of equality, should be a key principle. However, where the resources are still scarce, the option of a public-private partnership should be utilised. The supremacy of merit throughout the system has its own merits; it would help provide the preconditions to change the situation.
There are many other benefits that can be reaped from the integration of schools and the usual business in communities. The schools are already providing a number of services, often informally, like serving as relief camps during floods, election booths during elections, etc. The schools have the potential to become hubs for community education and engagements. School can be made available for adult literacy classes, extension activities, women’s groups, community discourses and other social development activities and events. This will not only bring parents into the school, but it will also help transform the school into a multipurpose learning and meeting centre. There should be projects developed and led by the communities, with a little facilitation from the education department, in order to enhance the educational outcomes and the collective betterment of the communities.
A single education model will not pay off equally for rural and urban settings. The education curriculum should be altered as per the needs of both the settings, as must the teacher-training modules. Inducting technology into rural schools is another unexplored and unutilised opportunity to connect the rural schools with their urban counterparts in the country, as well as with other parts of the world to expand their horizons. Opting for solar energy for such schools can be a sensible alternative because power cuts are a major challenge in the rural areas.
Although narrowing the gap between rural and urban education systems requires tremendous political commitment and efforts from the bureaucracy, the cost of not doing so is horrendously high. The void of the formal education system will be swiftly occupied by non-liberal and undemocratic forces. More migration to urban areas for quality education (one of the major reasons for rural-urban migration) will put an additional burden on city governments to accommodate the huge populations that the cities were not designed for. Increased inequality between urban and rural populations in terms of opportunities, power, social status and quality of life will lead to resentment between the two and exacerbate the rural-urban divide. It is a judicious choice to invest more in the rural education infrastructure for the holistic advantages that literacy will bring.
The writer is a freelance columnist