In recent days, due to Covid-19, Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan released press statements about the delay of Cambridge and board exams along with a delay in the overall academic calendar for universities by two months, as they are likely to remain close until further notice. This accounts for a huge loss to not just academic calendar in universities throughout Pakistan, but also the long-term delay of graduates entering the workforce in 2025, which ultimately will result in a downward spiral in economy unless some precautionary measures taken. Fortunately, Prime Minister favored HEC’s decision to conduct online classes to cover the syllabus as students in the school have to prepare for their exams.
While the Government of Pakistan explores better ways to treat this global pandemic, let us first look at the big picture. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), only 47% of females aged 15 and older are literate in Pakistan as of 2017 census, this number is likely to decrease as the spending on education continues to decline, as proved by 2019-2020 fiscal year budget. 2019-2020, Fiscal year budget announced a cut in education budget up to 20.5% compared to the previous year which amounted to only 2.4% of the GDP, while Pakistan Vision 2025, published by the Planning Commission of Pakistan aims to target education by at least 4% of the total yearly budget.
The spending on education is likely to decrease given the current market scenario due to Covid-19. It also means that Pakistan will fall short of its Sustainable Development Goal target#4 titled “Quality Education”. SDG# 4 focuses on improving literacy rates amongst people of all genders. As the story unfolds, UNESCO’s statistics about less than half of the female population in this country getting “literate” is likely to decrease with time. This is the high time, we take online education as a blessing rather than disguise no matter how the idea unfolded and in what kind of circumstances.
Distance education is actually showed some positive results in previous years, according to Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), a total of 1,36,7210 students were enrolled in distance learning in 2017-2018 academic year, out of which 49% were female students. HEC also partnered with a famous website courser to provide online courses for more than 80,000 from universities throughout the world to Pakistani students for free and we have all witnessed the success of the “Digital Punjab” campaign. So, we will not just be saving electricity on campus but will be improving the current scenario instead of experimenting with something entirely new, the risk might be worth taking. An article on Forbes published in 2019 already emphasized on digital trends in education in 2020.
The article talks about how digital education could lead to customized learning experiences, for example, some students are able to learn through visual cues while others do just fine through audio lectures, others might need a combination of both. While the students enter the workforce and improve Pakistan’s economy and help pay off foreign debts, the flexible learning hours along with customized experiences could lead to the overall improvement in literacy rate.
The much needed digital transformation could also mean more “accessibility”, reaching out through video conferencing to rural areas of Pakistan, education to people prone to floods, drought and malnutrition as we see more climate change catastrophes in this as well as upcoming years and employing sign language teachers for students with disabilities. As most people below the poverty line can neither afford nor will allow their children, especially girls due to preconceived cultural norms to go to schools, going digital can help us reach higher up the ladder.
I am not suggesting going digital 100%, but we can reduce the calamity of the situation by buildings by embracing the change. The old Chinese proverb perfectly sums up digital education for Pakistan in 2020 and beyond, “When the wind of change blows, some build walls, while others build windmills.”
The writer is a climate scientist and writes about Feminism, Global Health and Climate Change. She can be reached at [email protected]