The generation that is expected to rise and mark country’s name at the least among the list of the world’s developed nations sadly falls behind the expectation line, barely manifesting itself to acquire such position in the decades to come, and that is more than disappointing.
Now and again, a man tries to compare what’s been transpiring to the young generation here in Pakistan with what the world has been struggling for its promotion, the man gloomily ends up finding himself in the state of despair and frustration. The pace with which our young generation is trying to manoeuvre towards progress hardly signals any evolution and development of the nation.
Since its independence, Pakistan has faced a number of mounting challenges yet after 72 years it is found the country being relapsed in similar crises as they were at the very outset.
Generally, youth is deemed as the backbone of any nation for it contributes to its rise and fall. Similarly, when the nation is neglected, the most affected portion is the young generation. Ranging from poverty to health and education, there is nothing as such that has not prejudiced the youth these days. Crestfallen with the grave conditions the youth has been mired in, a question as to why this has persisted arises on and off but is silenced with nothing but a pool of concocted excuses void of proper explanation.
The answer to this question lies in what the government of Pakistan gives priority to. When the defence budget is 12 times larger than the budget allocated for education, what remains to be answered. The fall of the nation isn’t far away considering the way it is transpiring, the youth continues to be thrown into the labyrinth of negligence. Today, there is hardly any crisis student has not been struggling with.
At the outset of any nation’s development, what is required in the first priority is education. But, Pakistan expects otherwise. With about less than half of the population being illiterate, and of those who have some sort of access to education, a whopping portion is seemingly deprived of ‘quality education’.
The education system that we have has become a total fiasco. Corruption in the administration of universities has speeded up; as a result of which that has begun to exist is significant loss of scientific and technical equipment, scarcity of scholarships for the students from impoverished segments, elimination of different projects on cognizance of students with emerging technology, novel and productive ideas, the importance of culture and customs, and code of conduct and discipline.
Growing of religious bigotry in the educational institutions of Pakistan is another such example that attributes to the utter negligence of the university administration. Devoid of instinct and reason, the young students have become susceptible to becoming aggressive, their minds equipped with religious extremism. Of late, the ordeal of the lynching of Mashal Khan on a false allegation of blasphemy at Ahmed Wali Khan University is staring us in the face.
No sooner did the educational institutions try to deal with the administrative problems than the problems students are faced with creep into their development. Incompetent and incapable teaching faculty, improper and inadequate guidance, long and boring syllabus, sexual harassment and molestation, to name a few, are the common things in practice in the universities.
Given that the universities in Pakistan have no match for that of the world, nothing more than the graduates subject to suicidal thoughts, religious extremism, love and romance culture can be expected. Instead of producing young productive and intellectual minds, what the universities and colleges produce is dumb, immature guys invested with a low level of self-confidence, the paucity of scientific knowledge and a great deal of religious extremism.
Subjected to the education crisis, the youth that the country has its future goes into hot water. Unemployment quagmire has continued to grow at a rapid pace. For the post of the clerk (BPS-11), thousands of graduates as well as scholars of ‘master’s degree’ are being witnessed to throng the test centres. Demotivated by increasing poverty, and because of the growing strain of unemployment, the educated youth today has turned to take drugs, and suicidal ideation and deaths, implying there is no future pertaining to a common man.
In the face of perpetual crisis, the educated youth has lapsed in the incumbent government’s callousness is beyond the understanding of the man of the common stature. The current government notwithstanding, its predecessors have done nothing seriously good for the future of the youth except for monotonously maintaining the expenditure on education and false progress of the educational institutions.
The first sign of the progress of education is to be indicated from the literacy rate. When the literacy rate is constantly low, what the education ministry has seen making of progress. Second, it is to be seen from how much our education system has scientifically and technically evolved. When the ministry is handed over to a man predominantly known for cracking creepy jokes and absurd statements, what is expected of science and technology is nothing better than that we already have.
When the production of scientists and PHDs out of universities is at the lowest rate, the claims made by the government officials demonstrate not only their ignorance but also their propagating disinformation among the masses. The government is supposed to show the responsible behaviour by taking full care of the education system and the budget allotted fully optimised without any corruption for the development of the education system. In case the government is working on the improvement of education, days won’t be far away when our youth is going to become the developed nation.
The writer is a student of M.A English Literature at Shah Abdul University of Khairpur