By Sobieya Khan
Education plays an import role in the progress and development of a state. Progress of any country depends upon its literacy rate and quality of education in that country. Therefore, it is the key priorities of nations. The Pakistani education system is one of the oldest in the world. They boast of having one of the most extensive and effective curricula in all of Asia. However, there are several flaws within the student system that need to be fixed. Unfortunately, our own country Pakistan is a backward one regarding its literacy rate. Even many poor countries have higher literacy rate as compare to Pakistan. Our education system is responsible for all this.
Education policies are very good but, unfortunately, there are many problems in this system and its implementations. Current situation needs more attention is being paid to the higher education instead of primary education. In small villages primary schools are not progressing. These are small buildings schools having little facilities. All of us know that primary education is the main pillar of higher education. In every field of life primary education plays the foundation and supporting role. Government must promote it according to its importance.
If we look towards higher education system, there are hundreds of private and government colleges and universities. These are of different categories, for example universities of engineering and technology, medical science, business, information technology, agriculture, survey and micro technology and other fields of life. Private colleges and universities are very expensive. Even middle class people cannot afford it. Their fee structure usually starts from 50000 rupee per semester. In government universities there are thousands of applicants every year but few hundred seats are available. Their merit touches the sky every year.
There are four categories of education at gross root level In Pakistan. First category is Cambridge school system. In this system foreign syllabus is taught. These schools are so expensive that middle class families cannot afford it. This is specialized for high standard and elite class people. Cambridge schools are creating difference between middle class people and elite people. Second category of education is English medium school system. These schools are totally private. In these schools Pakistani course is taught in English. They are also expensive and people cannot afford. Third category is Madrassa school system. special thing is that Madrassa are free of cost. But to understand Islam and Quran we need education, which is not reasonably being provided there. The fourth and last category is government school system, where Pakistani syllabus is taught in Urdu language. This is our grass root education system. This system is creating differences in educated part of our nation, which is a big hurdle in the way of progress of education system and Pakistan.
There are many factors affecting the education system in Pakistan for example lack of access to quality education, corruption, target killing, poverty, lack of interest towards education, inadequate government investment and lack of educational institutions. It is state’s responsibility to spread the education to everyone and to tackle the problems.
Literacy rate of Pakistan is lower than Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh which are poor, third world and under developed countries. The literacy rate of the population above ten years of age in the country is 58.5%. Male literacy is 70.2% while female literacy rate is 46.3%. (Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan. 2011) Our education system is greatly responsible for all this. To increase literacy rate a country needs strong education policies and implementations to make their citizens to be able to read and write.” Free Education for all” system must be applied which gives fruitful results. In Pakistan our leaders in past tried their best to increase literacy rate in different ways but could not succeed appreciably.
In Pakistan there is four provinces and each province has its own education system and syllabus. Punjab has different course, Sindh, KPK, and Baluchistan have their own courses. Their books are different to each other. Their teaching method is different. Some use their mother tong in syllabus. How is it possible for KPK student to learn and understand biology, physics and chemistry of Baluchistan?
Finally, Lack of women education and co-education is another problem in Pakistan. There are many people against the coeducation system. Some people don’t send their daughters to schools and colleges. They consider women education unnecessary. But women education is necessary because nearly half of the population is women. To increase literacy rate women must get education.
Government and NGOs are working upon different policies to get rid of educational problems. Government is trying to provide education free for all. Free books, uniform and transport are being provided to the students free of cost.
We need to recognize the importance of literacy and encourage people to read. The younger generation can learn from books with the example of citizenship, honesty, work ethic, and kindness. There are some important points which should be followed by government and responsible leaders to get rid of hurdles:
- There should be same syllabus for all Pakistanis.
- Syllabus should be compatible with international university or college syllabus.
- Government should appoint highly expert and experienced people in education staff as teachers
- Government must increase funds and budgets for education.
- More attention must be paid to the under developing areas of Pakistan.
- There should be more vacancies for the students in institutions.
- There must be availability of proper jobs after getting educational degrees.
- There must be the Public private partnership.
- There must be a check and balance system.
- There must be strong rules to avoid corruption in education.
In education system we need strong determination, love and sincerity with our new generation. We should make our grass root level strong. It is government responsibility to solve administrative and management problems of pakistan education system.