Pakistan’s Poor Education System Implications | Daily Writeups | Opinions
The following article, “What Would be the Implications of Poor Education System in Pakistan?”, is written by Tehreem Zafar, a student of Sir Syed Kazim Ali. Moreover, the article is written on the same pattern, taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. Sir Kazim has uploaded his students’ solved past paper questions so other thousands of aspirants can understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
Education is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects that can make or break a country’s fortune. It serves as fate’s chandelier, playing a significant role in shaping a nation’s future. Education undeniably impacts individuals’ physical, psychological, and social development, and it is a fundamental pillar for a country’s socio-economic growth. Education is not merely a means of acquiring knowledge but also critical in transmitting cultural heritage to future generations. Pakistan’s founding father, Quaid-e-Azam, recognized the importance of education when he emphasized, “The importance of education and the type of education cannot be over-emphasized. There is no doubt that the future of our state will and must greatly depend upon the education we give our children and how we bring them up as future citizens of Pakistan. We should not forget that we must compete with the world, which is moving quickly in this direction.” However, Pakistan’s education sector is not encouraging, as the country has witnessed many disparities. These disparities have led to severe implications, such as national disintegration, threat to sovereignty, and identity crisis. The education system in Pakistan requires immediate attention, and the government must take a responsible and pragmatic approach to address the issues. If the government fails to take the necessary steps, putting Pakistan on the path towards prosperity will be challenging. This article aims to provide a detailed account of the implications of Pakistan’s poor education system and suggest ways to rescue the country’s fragile education sector.
Currently, Pakistan’s education system has grappled with many challenges. Pakistan’s poor education system-unfortunately- exists within the line of crucial factors, like inconsistent policies, multilingualism issues, minimalist education funds, stratified curriculum, and outdated examination and assessment patterns. All these factors place the country’s education system in the lowest rankings. According to the Education for All’s Development Index (EDI), Pakistan ranks 130th out of 146 countries. As a result, the aftermaths of these challenges and issues come forth in Pakistan’s lacklustre development in the economic, political, and social arena, exhibiting the worst consequences: poor literacy rate and failing democratic practices, and, above all, exacerbating terrorism, extreme hunger and poverty, and threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Moving ahead, poor education in Pakistan may have grave implications for the country. First, the poor education system in Pakistan would not only trouble the identity of the child who is the product of such a system but also harm the cultural identity of the whole nation. Sorrowfully, outdated curricula have been taught in Pakistan’s education institutes, which has caused the students to feel alienated in the rapidly changing and modernizing society. As a result, they always remain confused and feel disassociated and inferior to others in the highly technical era. Due to these sub-standards, Pakistan’s education institutes have never reached the height of their glory at the national and international levels. According to the Time Higher Education Report, no Pakistani universities made up the top 500 international universities due to outdated teaching patterns. Therefore, students cannot find the ever-lasting purpose of seeking education in the rotten system and fail to maintain their individual and national identity and ideology.
Next, the poor and stratified education system in Pakistan may lead the country towards total national disintegration. Indeed, the existing education system in Pakistan is inherited from the pre-partitioned Indian British era, which is deeply rooted in the class difference between the elite class and lower-middle class. Due to this very reason, today’s country’s education system is divided into multiple categories: privately owned, government-run, elite-based, and madrassa. This kind of educational stratification has resulted in disrupting nationalism by encouraging public mistrust and boosting discriminative factors in caste, creed, religion, race, language, lineage, and politico-economic affiliation. To illustrate, the Baloch’s sentiments on the violation of their rights and the demand for a separate province by the people of South Punjab are the most evident examples of national disintegration. Whenever aggravated in the aggrieved state, all these differences would plunge the civil war into it. All in all, the spoiled, stratified education system of Pakistan may become the real enemy of effective nation-building in the country.
Further, the deterioration of the health sector in Pakistan could be another significant implication of the failing education system, as education and health, the essential elements of human development, always go hand in hand. The first and foremost thing is that an educated, literate mind will only understand the importance of having a healthy lifestyle, which is impossible without better health care in the country. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s education system is worsening, directly impacting peoples’ mindsets, and so is the health sector, halting the country’s human development. According to the UNDP Report 2022, Pakistan’s Human Development Index (HDI) is 161st out of 192 countries whereas India’s HDI rank is 132, which is far better than Pakistan. It means due to the low literacy rate as a result of the prior discussed situation of Pakistan’s education system, the masses have become so dull they never rely on seeking proper professional help -be it physical or mental health- whenever they face an issue, so identifying the health sector’s loopholes have become a far cry. If the situation remains the same, the country’s sectors may collapse, leaving human development a dream, not a reality.
Moreover, the poor education system may make dictatorship the fate of Pakistan by overthrowing democratic leadership. Verily, the democratic rule always prevails in the world of literate citizenry. Contrary to this, the uneducated, unaware citizens who neither have political education nor know the worth of the Constitution always become the pawns of the power-hungry political leaders. Undoubtedly, Pakistan has already observed the imposition of martial laws in its political history. Not only in history but also in the present, the political unrest episodes from Imran Khan’s ouster till now in the country seem to be the major setback to its democratic rule as the masses are not educated enough to take a stand against the ongoing political repression in Pakistan. Hence, if the country’s condition at the hands of illiterate masses and unscrupulous politicians remains the same, Pakistan’s democracy may rest in peace entirely.
Besides this, the degree-holder youth have impractical, outdated theoretical knowledge about their field due to Pakistan’s poor vocational and skill-based training institutions. In this case, importing a foreign labour force has become mandatory for the state to run its reigns, which may further paralyze the youth’s creativity and capability. Woefully, suppose the government of Pakistan does not invest in its youth by offering them skill sets. In that case, its condition would be similar to 2021’s Saudi Arabia. According to one of the studies of Harvard University in 2021, “The kingdom faced one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world, as over 80 per cent of its private sector consisted of foreign labour.” In a word, Pakistan can also face heights of poverty and terrorism in its society at the hands of its frustrated, unemployed youth if its education system remains stagnant like today.
Lastly, the rising threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty can also be another significant implication of the impoverished education system. At present, Pakistan is struggling with the sovereignty issue owing to its massive dependence on foreign aid and loans. According to the famous IR Professor Dr Moonis Ahmar, “Sovereignty would remain at risk as long as Pakistan is on the dole and heavily dependent on the external powers for providing loans and aid.” This is because the country’s stakeholders have always given poor attention to the research and development units of the education sector. Due to this, there is a shortage of technicians and economists in the fields who actively put the country out of the crisis. As a result, the sovereignty dilemma has become the country’s constant pain, which may become real in the shape of the external powers’ total subjugation.
Regarding recommendations, Pakistan can only save itself from these severe implications by taking pragmatic measures. The first measure is engaging the Ministry of Education to open an independent think-tank to analyze and examine problems in Pakistan’s education and offer innovative, well-researched solutions to these problems. Further, these solutions must be aligned with globalized educational norms. Also the educational practices in Pakistan are nationalistic, so the think-tank must be able to integrate nationalized educational practices with global ones, thus helping policymakers revise educational policies.
Adding more to it, imparting technical education in Pakistan’s education system is also a significant solution to polish Pakistan’s poor education system. By doing so, the youth will be equipped with an essential skill set, and this crop of labour force will also contribute to improving and flourishing the country’s social gradients and economy. Hopefully, Pakistan’s ranking and statistical values will also rise after this, which is essential for building its good image on the international platform. Thus, skill-based training in Pakistan must be included in its curriculum to strengthen the country socio-economically.
Finally, a robust accountability system should hold the significant entities from the education sector accountable, like educationists, the teachers’ community, and policymakers. It would create a sense of responsibility and boost the chances of free, fair transparency in all affairs. To achieve this, the accountability benches must be settled at the district level nationwide. Along with this, expert recommendations must be considered to address the mindset and needs of students, hence making the country’s education sector a healthy institution.
To conclude, dancing around the fire is not the solution to a problem. Instead, the government should try to see beneath the surface to understand the fundamental issues. Despite a stream of solid words by successive governments, nothing concrete has been done to cure the problems in the spoiled education system of Pakistan. Undoubtedly, the worst condition of the country’s education system lies at the heart of multiple challenges, which can put the country into quagmires of implication. However, the state should revise its educational policies, hold the policymakers and the educationists’ community accountable, conduct research, and many more to prevent the state and citizenry from their anathema. Thus, through the collaborative efforts of concerned authorities, Pakistan will surely reach the heights of social, moral, political, and economic development and prosperity.
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