Bridging gaps in educational structure

By Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri

Traditionally, Pakistan's education sector has been classified broadly into three
parallel systems “public or government-run schools, private schools, and madaris
-- each of which follows its own curriculum, teaching methods and examination
processes. The state-run school system's inability to respond to the country's
educational needs has benefited the madaris and private schools alike. Madaris
offer free education, boarding and lodging, providing incentives to the homeless
and less privileged sectors of society, whose demand for education is weighed
down by economic restraints.

The private school sector has similarly benefited from the failure of the public
school system, with the number of its institutions mushrooming to above 36,000
over the past two decades. Many of these institutions are driven by profit and
cater to the more privileged segments of society, with tuition fees that are
unaffordable to a majority of Pakistanis. The standards of education in the most
privileged of them, including their use of English for instruction, is far superior to
those of the public schools, which teach in a vernacular language.

In effect, the private school system has created a system of educational and
linguistic division. The products of the public school sector often are
uncompetitive in the job market. One study observes: “The present education
scenario is full of contradictions. On the one hand, there are dynamic, fast
moving educational institutions charging exorbitant fees, while on the other there
are almost free or very affordable government schools as well as religious
institutions (Madasris), which are entirely free. The students of these institutions
live in different worlds and operate in different languages.

The only way to address this increasing segregation is through a radical reform
of the public school system. The majority of Pakistanis do not have the means to
access quality private school education, and the private school system has
neither the resources nor the incentive to expand to the extent that it could
accommodate all Pakistani families. Moreover, it is the state's constitutional
obligation to provide education to its citizens.

The failure of public sector to provide the basic services such as education to its
citizens has resulted in the phenomenal growth of religious seminaries across the
country. What further allowed the Madaris to grow at fast pace was the state’s
involvement in Afghan War in the name of Jihad when foreign money and
extremist ideology found its easy way into Pakistan. The development was only
to leave an indelible effect on the country’s structure and polity for the worse.
One key feature of these religious establishments has been their construction
along sectarian lines meant to serve the interests of the ‘donors’. Hence the kind
of curriculum taught in these seminaries was designed in accordance with the
peculiar sectarian interests. The absence of oversight by the state and society
was instrumental in the production of religious ideologues that ignited the
sectarian fires and divided people along these lines.

This also explains why the forces of extremism, terrorism and radicalism have
emerged in the country with consequence we are having to put up with. It is
unfortunate that instead of nipping the evil of radicalism in the bud through broad-
based reforms of the religious seminaries, the successive governments have
gone about doing things for short-term, tactical ends. These measures can only
bring in small benefits but cannot eliminate the mindset from which pervert ideas
stem.

There is a dire need that the government brings these religious seminaries in the
mainstream by breaking their age-old isolation through various time-bound
reforms. The modification of curriculum and placement of graduates of these
institutions in the job market can be helpful. This calls for serious consensus on
the issue starting with documentation of religious seminaries. The state cannot
and should not jettison the fundamental obligation of educating its citizens to
shadowy actors with suspicious interests. This is where the role of provincial
governments is of crucial importance after the devolution of education thanks to
the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

Effective education reform in Pakistan will, admittedly, be complex, difficult, and

unlikely to achieve immediate milestones. It requires a level of political will and
commitment that has been lacking. Pakistan's education sector is highly
politicized, tailored more to the interests of various state and political actors than
to an objective assessment of educational requirements. Far from curtailing an
upsurge of intolerance and extremism, it has widened class and ideological
divisions.

In the past, the government has initiated programs to upgrade the public
education sector and achieve an equitable education delivery system. Many of
these initiatives have focused on increasing access to education, especially for
female students. Others have focused on the quality of instruction, through
teacher training. While such schemes are important, they have failed to redress
some of the most significant failures of Pakistan's education system policies at
the national level that cater to political rather than development interests;
bureaucratic obstacles to policy changes; a carefully controlled, highly
centralized syllabus that plays on political, religious and sectarian divisions; and
a culture of corruption and manipulation that has impeded any significant change
to public schools.

63 years after independence, Pakistan still lacks an equitable education system,

and the literacy rate is 49.5% one of the lowest in the world. Despite an
assortment of declared strategies for providing education and removing
inequalities, Pakistan's education indicators remain deplorable, including low
public spending, literacy and enrolment levels, high dropout levels, acute regional
and gender inequalities, and budgetary inequities. Government policies and
reform efforts have clearly failed to address the economic, social and political
dimensions of the problems facing the education system.

(The writer is PhD candidate currently based in Australia)