The rationality of the fancy words of ‘actualizing one’s productive potential’ can be denied if the above facts are surmised. Bearing in mind that while we already have a plight of many socio-economic exogenous issues that hinder many young children to acquire education, such statistics add their fair share in parent’s willingness to send their children to schools, primarily girls. As if the exigencies related to poverty or traditional mindsets was not enough to erode the value of every human being. Regardless of the highlighted eminence of digital skills during Covid-19 – they were much needed since the dawn of the previous decade. Information technology is going to become a ‘structural support’ for the future economies. However, it is very evident that we certainly are not on the right track to fulfill this much needed prerequisite for economic growth because of a lack of basic internet connections or other IT equipment in schools.
Keeping in view the current worldwide trends in the fields of education, teachers are advised to incorporate different kinds of teaching strategies and course designs to elucidate full concentration and participation of children, and thus preparing them for critical thinking. However, considering the major chunk of our teaching staff, aside from all these practices, rote learning is imbibed in children. The future demands innovations as suggested by many development theories. Benhabib and Spiegel hypothesized that human capital affects growth directly through technological-innovation growth rate of a country or indirectly through affecting the pace of absorption of technological related knowledge. Simple parroting of knowledge hinders the creative potential and the process of critical thinking needed to solve issues of the real world. All these phenomena factor in, and create a bigger picture where students get demotivated from learning and their potential is hampered. Assuming that with a lack of education, these children will join the informal economy in the future, we are not on the path to sustainable development.
While it may be clear that problems in our education system are manifold, it is never too late for a remedy to work. We need to let go of our own rhetoric of slogans, and yearly experiments which lead us to nowhere. Simultaneously, we need to understand the reality that our country needs increased budgetary commitments, institutional arrangements and proper management of existing resources to deal with the dilemma at hand. While this year, many people initially applauded the achievement of marginally increasing the budget for education to PKR 83 billion at the time of a pandemic, the real deflated amount shows a decrease from last year to an amount of PKR 77.04 billion in real terms.
Instead of creating a bubble economy, we should use resources to our advantage by utilizing our abundant labor force in contributing to innovation, productivity, and thus to economic growth
Nonetheless, few major priorities of the government should be: availability of proper infrastructure at schools, training of teachers on the basis of keeping up with the research and skills worldwide, and imparting digital know-how to students. At the time of this pandemic, the decision to re-open schools should be kept pending for a few months in the future because with the current infrastructure, students will not be able to probably keep up with the standard operating procedures. Instead, the government should facilitate internet access to remote areas. The digital skills, a proviso for the future, along with other competencies needed should be taught using national television.
Reinventing the wheel every few consecutive years should cease. Considering that these children are the future of our economy, we certainly have a dire need to revamp our education system. The rising inequality in Pakistan can also be explained by a widening gap between the quality and access to education. Instead of creating a bubble economy, we should use resources to our advantage by utilizing our abundant labor force in contributing to innovation, productivity, and thus to economic growth. Surely, the road ahead is bumpy with debt servicing, fiscal deficits, ballooning pensions and increased health costs, but we can certainly focus a little more on education as a priority at the moment. This pandemic has taught us one valuable lesson – the importance of contemporary education, breakthroughs and digital skills – all of which are necessary for survival in the future. All of us should realize the responsibility we have to our future generations. Ultimately this all fits into the paradigm of sustainable development.
Dr. Izza Aftab is the chairperson of the Economics Department at Information Technology University, Lahore / Noor Ul Islam is currently working as a Research Associate at the SDG Tech Lab established in collaboration with Information Technology University, Lahore, UNDP and UNFPA