Education And Pakistan

Human beings today need to have a specific set of skills to

survive in this competitive world as well as progress.
This set of skills can be referred to as Education. Education plays
an import role in the progress and development of a state.
Progress of any country depends upon it literacy rate and quality
of education in that country.
Therefore, it is the key priorities of nations.

Education System in Pakistan:

The present system of education prevalent in Pakistan is the

heritage of the pre-partitioned British India.
A review of the education system of Pakistan suggests that there
has been little change in Pakistan’s schools since 2010, when the
18th Amendment enshrined education as a fundamental human
right in the constitution.
Problems of access, quality, infrastructure and inequality of
opportunity, remain endemic.

According to the Constitution of Pakistan (1973), the Federal

Government was entrusted with the responsibility for policy,
planning, and promotion of educational facilities in the federating
units. This responsibility was in addition to the overall
policymaking, coordinating
and advisory authority; otherwise, education was the concurrent
subject. The Federal Ministry of
Education also administers the educational institutions located in
the federal capital territory.
Universities located in various provinces are administered by the
provincial governments, but are exclusively funded by the federal
government through the university grants commission and now
called as Higher Education Commission located in Islamabad city.
The Federal Ministry of Education was headed by the Minister of
Education. The most senior civil servant in the Ministry was the
Education Secretary assisted by Joint Secretary and Joint
Educational Advisors of each wing.
There were 6 wings in the Federal Ministry of Education and each
wing is headed by Joint Educational Advisor. The concurrent
subjects have been delisted from the schedule – 11 of the
constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 as amended in
2010.
Now, the provinces of Pakistan are empowered to make policy
decisions as per their local needs for the communities and
individual citizens.

Educational Policies of Pakistan:

In Pakistan, the public policies on education reflect the National
ideology. It consists the political option, tradition, values, culture,
socio-economic needs, emerging trends and concepts and even
its implications in future. The following education policies were
framed and implemented in the true perspectives.
After the birth of Pakistan on 14th August 1947, the first effort was
made by the founder of this Nation.
In his message he highlighted the need of educational
improvement in the country.
A National Education Conference, 1947 was conducted for
getting the recommendations for implementation.

Thereafter, a number of the education plans, some reports,

policies and programs had been approved for educational
reforms. In this regard a comprehensive ‘Report of the
Commission on National Education, 1959’ had been documented,
while focusing on the overall issues of educational subject.
The chronology of developments in policy making showed the
New Education Policy – 1970, The Education Policy – 1972/80,
National Education Policy – 1979, National Education Policy –
1992 and National Education Policy – 1998/2010 from time to
time by the Government, respectively.

In this regard, a number of development plans had also been

implemented, simultaneously. It includes as; the National Plan of
Educational Development – 1951/57,
First Five Year Plan – 1975/80,
Sixth Five Year Plan – 1980/85,
National Literacy Plan – 1984/86,
Seventh Five Year Plan – 1988/93
and Eighth Five Year Plan – 1993/98.

In addition to adaptable policy documents, the long term

development programs had also been started since last four
decades.
It included as; a ’10-Point Programme, 1983’ and Nationwide
Literacy Programme (Nai Roshni Schools), 1986-90 whereas, the
evaluation of ‘Iqra Pilot Project, 1986-89’ had also been made at
Federal Government level.
Another effort has also been made at National level for raising the
literacy and numeracy level in the country.
Thus, the ‘Literacy and Mass Education Commission, 1981’ was
established to meet the objectives set at National level.
The announcement and implementation of policy frameworks has
resulted that the citizens were given the education as a
fundamental right for their well-being.
Therefore, the people of our country have become capable of
living their lives well like other Nations of the world.

Problems of Primary Schools:

• The problems of rural primary schools are more serious as
compared to-urban
primary schools. Some of the common problems are:
• In most cases, schools are single teachers
• Poor and inadequate building
• In most cases, buildings are of one room
• Buildings are in dilapidated condition
• There are shelter less schools
• Inadequate furniture (tats, chairs, tables)
• Inadequate instructional material
• Inadequate but in most cases missing basic amenities
• Absence of boundary walls
• Absence of sports equipment and play grounds
• The instances of dropout is high
• Poor scholarship of children
• Presence of untrained teachers
• Ineffective supervision
• Adjustment problems faced by teachers who do not belong to
that village
• Teachers absentees
• Poor / absence of transportation facilities
• Poor / absence of intra-structure of the villages
• Absence of residential facilities for teachers

Obstacles in the Achievement of Free and Universal Primary

Education:
Free and compulsory / universal primary education could not be
achieved because of various political, social, and economic
reasons. Some of these are:
• Low priority accorded to primary sub-sector in' the distribution' of
financial
resources.
• Unrealistic plans and their targets
• Poor implementation of innovative programmes
• Unattractive environment of schools
• Un-stimulating teaching-learning situation in the class rooms.
• High dropouts and repetition
• Other geographical situation and socio cultural factors.
• Weak political will
The universalization of primary education is a formidable task for
the government and if these conditions persist, there would be a
long way to achieve the goals of universal primary education.
The General State of Secondary
/ Higher Secondary Institutions:
The general state of Secondary / Higher Secondary Schools in
their quality of education is not better than what has been said
about primary schools.
Most of the institutions are deficient in respect of staff, equipment,
material and buildings.
The majority of teachers are not satisfied with their job and lack
competence and enthusiasm. In large number of cases, the
buildings are in advanced stage of dilapidation due to lack of
repair and proper maintenance.
Theft' is acute shortage of classrooms in the face 'of swelling
enrolment.
Equipment are scant and are of poor quality.
The secondary schools in Pakistan are often criticized for their
purely academic character and their failure to make adequate
provision for individual's difference on account of age ability and
aptitude.
Moreover, the class room work is very academic, bookish
consisting largely of parroting the least obviously with little though
on the part of teacher that the work should ha e some relationship
with the life needs of the people .

The State of Higher Education (Colleges):

There is a general complaint that the academic standard in
colleges have rapidly deteriorated. The major reason for this
deterioration of quality of higher education is the inadequately
qualified teachers with overcrowded classes of ill-prepared
students.
Other causes responsible for the decline of quality in education
are the inadequacy of buildings, libraries and scientific equipment.
The teaching of science is particularly poor. Hostel facilities are
also either missing or inadequate.
Which deny students opportunities for developing espirit-de-crops
and discipline for living in a kind of environment conducive to
academic work.
Private colleges are flourishing in the country because of the
encouraging policy of the government to open educational
institutions in the private sector. These private colleges both for
male and female enroll significant number of students because of
social and demographic factor.
Most of these colleges cannot provide adequate physical material
arid instructional facilities.
They also hire the services of academically and professionally
untrained teachers.
Though they are charging' heavy fees.
There has been tremendous increase in the enrolment of students
at the college stage because of the expansion in secondary and
higher secondary education and because of rapid growth in
population.
In spite of substantial increase in allocation of funds for education
by the government, the
educational programme at college level remains always under
financial constraints. Other
pressing priorities of the government such as universalization of
basic education also affect budgetary provision for college
education.

However, it is most desirable for the provincial government to

consolidate college education for bringing about quality
improvement.

Moreover, no new admission be made at intermediate level in the

existing colleges so -that the degree level be fully concentrated
and consolidated for quality improvement in Future.

Problems and Issues in University Education:

Some perennial problems in the past faced by universities were
mainly related to:
• Financial constraints / deficits
• Absence of coordination in academic programmes
• Consolidation/improvement of university institutions
• Modernization of curriculum in university
• Diverting the trend from general education towards more
technical and scientific
and Job-oriented education
• Consolidation of Research Institutions in university
• Staff development of the university
• Buildings, linkage. collaboration of Pakistani universities with
foreign universities
• Bringing about national integration through higher education
• Bringing about qualitative improvement in higher education
institutions
• Improving the state of corporate life and welfare of students in
universities.

Strategies for the Solution of the Problems:

For achieving the above objectives government had been making
continuous efforts to bring about desirable changes and
improvements in these important institutions through initiating
various policies and plans.
a) The first step in this direction ·was that universities had been
financing by the Federal Government. Since l980.
b) The University Grand Commission which had been established
in 1.974 expanded the scope of the activities. Presently it
disburses recurring and development grants and provide funds
for-many approved projects
c) The Commission also floats a number of. senior and junior
Fellowships and has established chairs in various Languages
d) It organizes pre-service and inservice training programmes,
seminars and conferences which are attended by eminent
scholars.
e) The Commission lays .down standard of education and
periodically reviews the syllabi and courses of studies in various
subjects taught in university institutions,
f) Providing grants for equipment and libraries in the universities.
g) An Information Service regarding high education for use of
government departments. universities and research institutions.
h) In order to improve and coordinate activities in universities,
Centers of Basic Science (COBs) has been established at the
University' Grant Commission.
j) A similar organization for Social Sciences and Humanity has
been established.
k) A computer training center has also. been setup at University
Grants Commission under the aegis of UGC.
l) In addition to the various activities undertaken by UGC, other
innovative programmes have also been launched by the
government to. Improve, develop and strengthen the instructional
programmes of higher education and to buildthe professional
capabilities of the administrators, planners and teaching
personnel of the universities in Pakistan. Some of such institutions
are worth mentioning.
• Institute of Science and Technology
• Centers of Excellence
• National Academy of Higher Education
• National Academy of Educational Planning and Management
• National Education Council
• Area Study Centers
• Pakistan Study Centers

Issues and the Way Forward

Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world. It enhances
not only analytical abilities but also critical thinking of the students. Unfortunately, being a
developing country, Pakistan faces almost all sorts of socioeconomic problems. One of the
major reasons behind all these problems is low literacy rate of our country. According to
the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2016-17, overall literacy rate has declined from 60
percent to 58 percent. Moreover, overall net enrolment rate at primacy level was recorded
at 54 percent. The data further show that literacy rate remained higher in urban areas (74
percent) than in rural areas (49 percent). The United Nations Global Education Monitoring
Report 2016 revealed that Pakistan is 50 plus years behind in its primary and 60 plus years
behind in its secondary education targets. Moreover, 5.6 million Pakistani children are out
of schools. All these issues call for an in-depth analysis of out education system so as to find
out a workable solution.

There are a number of reasons behind the bleak and worrisome situation of Pakistan’s education
system. The most important thing is that ‘Education For All’ commitment is not being fulfilled
properly. Federal and all four provincial governments seem unwilling to take serious steps in
order to achieve set targets of education.

Other than this, terrorism also holds children back from schools. Between 2007 and 2015, there
were around 870 attacks by different terrorist groups on educational institutions of the country. It
is a bitter reality that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) closed hundreds of schools in country’s
northern areas.

Poverty is another hurdle in the way of high literacy rate in Pakistan. Almost 30 percent
Pakistanis are living below the poverty line. It is a sad reality that the number of children at
different workplaces is more than the total number of children at schools. Amidst all the financial
issues, the poor parents find it advantageous to send their children to work in order to earn a few
rupees. Let it be very clear, the issues of education cannot be resolved unless poverty is
controlled. Though government initiated a few schemes to provide free education at school level
but it must be realized that this is not a long-term and sustainable solution. The government
provides free books and a few other facilities to the students of public schools, but many of these
books are in English, whereas many teachers, especially those belonging to rural areas, do not
have proficiency in the English language. As a result, they ask students to buy the same book in
Urdu. This shows the importance of training that must be provided to all the teachers.

In addition, all the appointments must be made on merit and all the teachers must be competent
enough to train and teach their students in a better way. Moreover, in many areas, school
buildings are without proper boundary walls and lack other basic amenities. Students are made to
sit in open areas even during harsh weather conditions.

Other than this, no steps are being taken to develop analytical and critical thinking of the
students. Even in many private schools, students suffer due to workload and, hence, they have to
focus on bookish material rather than thinking and analyzing different aspects critically.

Owing to all these reasons, the rate of unemployment is rising and pass percentage in
competitive exams is decreasing. Besides, the process of hiring faculty in our country is also
politicized. The issue of ghost teachers/schools and shortage of teachers has become another
common phenomenon. Our government must adopt strict policies to ensure the presence of
teachers at schools. Moreover, lack of proper facilities at different schools has also made it
difficult for students to keep pace with the rapidly-changing world. The need of the time is to
ensure the provision of modern equipments along with all basic technologies and facilities at
schools.

It is not wrong to say that old methods of teaching focus on rote system so they must be changed.
The world has become a global village and only those countries can now stand independently
that promote new ideas. By considering this fact, we must realize that we will have to change the
learning environment at our educational institutions. We are lagging behind the world in the field
of research and that is why our universities are not ranked among the top institutions.

It is never late to work for the betterment of our children. There is a dire need to increase the
allocation of budget for education and to start new programmes in order to improve the standards
of education in our country. As per the latest census, the population of Pakistan has swelled to
207.8 million but no steps are being taken by the government to improve our education system
so as to meet the emerging needs. Strict measures are needed to ensure attendance of teachers at
educational institutions.

Followed by a strong will of the country’s leadership, there is a need of strong collaboration
between provincial governments and the federal government. Technical education should be
made a part of secondary education. Corruption in education department should be dealt with
iron hand. It is imperative to provide proper training to all the teachers. Higher Education
Commission of Pakistan should form a team of highly-experienced education experts to revise
the curricula on regular basis in order to ensure the inclusion of all the new information and
latest data.

The world is changing rapidly and a number of new discoveries are being made with every
passing day. It is observed that the main focus of our academic education is on historical aspects
but the inclusion of new aspects and researches is still a wishful dream. It is easy to make
policies but quite difficult to ensure their full implementation. No country can rise to the height
of glory until its literacy rates are high. Education is important to solve not only socioeconomic
but also political issues a country is faced with. If education rate is high in our country, everyone
will stand for his/her rights. This is the only way to put our country on the path of progress.
However all this can be done with commitment and perseverance. Certainly, our children
deserve a better future.

Complete Essay
OUTLINE:
Education the basic need
Object of Education:
Importance of Education:
Background of Pakistan’s Educational System
Educational System in Pakistan:
Key Performance Indicators for Education Systems

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

1. Medium of Education:
2. Disparity of System at Provincial Level:
3. Gender Discrimination:
4. Lack of Technical Education::
5. Low allocation of funds:
6. Inefficient Teachers:
7. Poverty:
8. Corruption:
9. Social imbalance:
10. Mismanagement of System:
11. Infrastructure Problems:
12. Private school system:
13. Lack of educational policies:
14. Increase in population:
15. Lack of attention of the authorities:
16. Lack of uniform educational system:
17. Medium of Instruction:
18. Education as a business:
19. Delay in renewal of policies and syllabus
20. Political Interference:

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM:

1. English should be medium of Instruction:

2. Talented and qualified Staff
3. Fulfill the lack of teachers
4. Primary education should be made compulsory:
5. Increase in teachers incentives
6. Translation of foreign research to local language
7. Check on distinctive education:-
8. Scholarships and financial support to students:
9. Special Financial packages:
10. Betterment of education policies and teachers workshop:
11. Infused Technical Education:
12. Promotion of primary education:
Conclusion

Essay
Education the basic need
Education is the light of the life. Education proves to one of the most important factors for the
development of human civilization. Education enhances human status and leads everyone to
propriety. it is a continuous and lifelong process. It attributes most important, precious and
permanent property of an individual. Education provides manpower, strengthens national unity
and uplifts public awareness. It invites positive and constructive change in life. It makes our life
really prosperous and meaningful. Everyone wants to be well educated. Life can be successful by
the help of appropriate education. Educated person can only judge what is correct and what is
wrong?? And takes the appropriate and right decision but uneducated person fails to do so.

Object of Education:
Robert Maynard Hutchins describes it as “The object of education is to prepare the young to
educate themselves throughout their lives.” We should give our youth the way to educate
themselves. Edward Everett said that “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing
army.”

Importance of Education:
We all know the importance of education. It is the most important aspect of any nation’s survival
today. Education builds the nations; it determines the future of a nation. ISLAM also tells us
about Education and its importance. The real essence of Education according to ISLAM is “to
know ALLAH” but I think in our country we truly lost. Neither our schools nor our madrassa’s
(Islamic Education Centres) are truly educating our youth in this regard. In schools, we are just
preparing them for “Money”. We aren’t educating them we are just preparing “Money
Machines”. We are only increasing the burden of the books for our children and just enrolling
them in a reputed, big school for what, just for social status??? On the other hand in our
madrassas we are preparing people who finds very difficult to adjust in the modern society.
Sometimes it seems that they are from another planet. A madrassa student can’t compete even in
our country then the World is so far from him. He finds very difficult to even speak to a school
boy. It is crystal clear that Islamic Education is necessary for Muslims but it is also a fact that
without modern education no one can compete in this world. There are many examples of
Muslim Scholars who not only study the Holy Quraan but also mastered the other subjects like
Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and many more, with the help of Holy Quraan. I think
with the current education system we are narrowing the way for our children instead of widening
it. There is no doubt that our children are very talented, both in schools and in madrassas, we just
need to give them proper ways to groom, give them the space to become Quaid-E-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Alberoni, Abnalhasam, or
Einstein, Newton, Thomas Edison. The education system we are running with is not working
anymore. We have to find a way to bridge this gap between school and madrassa.

Background of Pakistan’s Educational System

Numerous international assessments could explore that Pakistan is lagging behind many
countries in achieving the Education for All goal (EFA). We were the signatory to the treaty
under Dakar Framework where it was decided by all the developing countries that they will be
trying to achieve the target of EFI in the meeting held in Senegal in 2000. UNESCO rates in
Pakistan are at a lower EFA development Index (EDI) because of low; enrolment at primary
school, adult literacy, gender equity and equality, equalities in education and quality of
education. The adult literacy in Pakistan, in spite of concerted efforts, fail to go beyond the
border line of 50 percent. The women literacy is much more belittling as thirty three percent of
the adult women cannot even read. The more embracing would be that we would not be catching
the target to achieve the adult literacy by 2015. Progress towards the achievement of the targets
is exceptionally slow, while gender parity goal is at risk of not being achieved by 2015.
Moreover, more than 6 million children are out of school.
Educational System in Pakistan:
Education system in Pakistan is really having a bad configuration at the moment. There is no
doubt in accepting the fact that education stands the backbone for the development of nations.
Looking at the history of nations, we may safely reach the conclusion that the advanced nations
of the world could reach the zenith of prestige and power taking support from education. The
allocations for education are too meager, and in spite of allocation, the amount is not spent for
what it was meant for as the corruption is found in all the tiers of education and also because of
the same delivery from the government institutions that is much below the desired and aspired
levels. Private education in Pakistan is far reaching for the poor and the turnover of this quality
education does not serve the country the way they are supposed to. Planning for education does
not go in congruence with the needs and implement remains ever ignored, so by this way the
system is getting more spoiled rather than flourishing. Our universities have failed to produce the
planners, developers, implementers, and decision makers. Rather the turnover is a mismatch with
the ground realities, the half backed persons we are producing are of no use to us. The students
we come across are degree seekers rather than the knowledge. The increase in number of
colleges and universities does not mean that we are going by the standards rather these are
worsening, a simple evidence of which is that no Pakistani university could find a space among
the top 1000 universities of the world. The socio-economic scenario is directly attached with the
status of Education in the country. The developed world managed to scale up their education in
line with the needs and market requirements. Despite the recent achievements, a lot more is
needed to be done as the country still faces numerous challenges which cause deterrence. We are
under obligation to raise the education of our population to the level of our South Asian
neighbors, to combat our own social and economic wants to the satisfactory level.
The very scale of Pakistan’s education sector -- more than 150,000 public education institutions
serving over 21 million students and a huge private sector that serves another 12 million –
presents formidable challenges.
Education is found to be the cheapest and tangible defense mechanism for a nation on the social,
political, and economic fronts. But the down trodden condition of education in Pakistan bears an
ample testimony of the fact that it is unable to defend its own sector. Over the span of 64 years,
the nation has been given the 23 policies and action plans but we could not start the march
towards success and are waiting for a savior who could take the system out of turmoil. There
were ample spending in the government of Pervaiz Musharraf on education and due to which, we
could see the visible positive educational change in Pakistani society. Currently the economic
situation in Pakistan is under severe stress and education sector has received the highest impact
in Pakistan. The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has led to the fact in the following
words,
“The state of Pakistan shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary
education within minimum possible period.”
In Human development Report, Pakistan is placed at 136th position because its 49.9%
population comes under the definition of education. The dropout rate is alarmingly high at the
primary level; consequently, it is revealed by the Data Center of UNESCO, that 33.8% females
and 47.18% in males could pass through the most initial level of education. We may be
conclusive about the ground reality that people in the 6th largest country of the world have no
access to the basic education even.
Key Performance Indicators for Education Systems
The frequently used indicators for assessing education and its systems are adult literacy rates,
male and female enrollment at different levels of education, participation rate in the different
areas of the country; the dropout rates, the amount of resources allocated to education as a
proportion of the GDP and some measures of the quality of education being pursued. At the
moment, the workability of these indicators rests on the footing of authenticated and recent data
so that the planning details may be worked out with confidence. Irony of fate, the indicators,
their footings and the quality of data all want more authenticity, but unfortunately, Pakistan's
record lacks objectivity and rationality on all counts.
PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
1. Medium of Education:
The system of education in Pakistan is operative in match with the local needs and ground
realities. It is almost a decisive factor that the education in the mother tongue surrenders more
dividends but we have the system more segregated and diversified just contrary to our
requirements. A good example of it is that we fail to decide about the Medium of education over
the span of 64 years. Different mediums are operational in both, public and private sector. This
creates a sort of disparity among people, dividing them into two segments.
21. Disparity of System at Provincial Level::
The Regions of Pakistan in the name of provinces are not at par as regards the infrastructure,
availability of staff, their training, content mastery allocation of resources and their utilization.
This develops a disparity not only in the system but in the turnover too. There is a need to revisit
the schools in Baluchistan (The Largest Province of Pakistan by area) because these are not that
much groomed as that of Punjab (The Largest Province of Pakistan by Population). In FATA, the
literacy rate is deplorable constituting 29.5% in males and 3% in females. The conditions are to
be made more congenial about teaching and learning in all parts of the country without any
discretion.
22. Gender Discrimination::
We should have know how of the population comprising females, unfortunately their education
is not attended to the way it was deemed fit. The gender discrimination is a cause that is
contributing towards the low participation rate of girls at the basic level of education. The male
and female participation ratio is projected at the primary school in the shape of ratio of boys &
girls as 10:4 respectively. In the decade passed, government invited private sector to shoulder the
responsibility of education of the youth. The intent was also to provide the education at the
doorstep to the children especially the female students. The private sector took up the challenge
and there was an increase in the growth of private schools but this step didn’t cause the increase
in the students or the quality. The masses could not be attracted because of precious education. It
created clear cut tiers of society and created a gap among those with the haves and have not’s.
23. Lack of Technical Education::
There is a craze for the white collar jobs for the same pupils. Select the general rut of education,
though they have the least tilt or the capacity to cope with the demands. China, Japan and
Germany have the ruts for those who have a taste for and do not achieve the excellence in the
general rut of education. We have kept the opportunities open for all to participate in general
education at all levels especially the university level. We could not attract the general masses
towards technical education making them to earn of their own act as the entrepreneurs and make
their living without being the burden on the government. Education system is needed to be
revamped making a space for the science, IT, management, and pupil with the excellence to go
to the higher education pursuing the education of their own choice. Lesser emphasis on technical
education means the lesser manpower for industry and hence the lesser finance generation.
24. Low allocation of funds::
The allocation of funds for education is very low as it never went beyond 1.5 to 2.0 percent of
the total GDP. Even this amount was not utilized and had to be surrendered back to the
government because of want of expertise and the knowledge of codal formalities and in time
release of funds. There is a need to increase it around 7% of the total GDP keeping in view the
allocations by the neighboring countries, there is also a need to rationalize the share at the
different levels not ignoring any.
25. Inefficient Teachers::
Government fails to attract the potential candidates for teaching with the zeal vigor and excellent
carrier. Teaching is rated as the lowest among the jobs for the youth, because of lesser
incentives, slow promotions and lesser fringe benefits. The teachers in government schools are
not well groomed and equipped with knowledge and training. People who do not get job in any
other sector, they try their luck in educational system. There is a need to reorganize pre-service
and in-service trainings making them matched with the requirements rather to keep them ideal,
unique and novel.
26. Poverty::
Poverty is growing over the years. The average class is vanishing like anything. It happens to be
a curse for the nation that exists without having the average income group. The escalation of
poverty has restricted the parents to send their children to tasks for child labor or at least to
public or private schools. In these schools, the drop out is very high because schools are not the
attractive places, the curriculum is dry and the teaching does not match the live situations. Poor
parents are constrained to send their children to madressahs where the education is totally free.
27. Corruption::
Corruption causes the educational policies, plans and projects to fail because of being the major
contributing factor. There is no accountability and transparency in the system, the salaries are
low, the incentives are too less to be accounted and even those are uneven. An estimated Rs.
2,594 million out of a total of Rs. 7,016 million provided for improvement of school facilities
such as buildings, electricity, drinkable water, etc had gone unaccounted during the fiscal periods
2001-06 (UNESCO Bano, 2007). Similarly, more than 70% literacy centers in Punjab remained
inoperative or exist only on paper (ADBP, 2007). The chances of ghost schools should be evaded
by involving the community in the processes of inspection and monitoring.
28. Social imbalance::
The students from the elite class follow the "O" and "A" levels curriculum instead of Pakistan's
routine orthodox and stagnant curriculum. They have little or no awareness of their religion and
culture whereas those passing out from Urdu medium schools are usually destined to work in
clerical and lower level positions. Religious madrassas churn out yet another class that is usually
unaware of the world outside their own perception.
29. Mismanagement of System::
Teachers’ absenteeism, poor professional training, sub-standard materials and obsolete teaching
methods act as the major contributive factors towards the low enrolment in schools. Burki
(2005), opines that most of the public schools are either mismanaged or poorly managed. They
are found imparting education of second-rate quality through substandard textbooks and
curricula that do not cater the needs of the 21st century. The education should be based on
learning outcomes through suggesting multiple books rather than following a single book as an
obligation.
30. Infrastructure Problems::
The dropout rate of those lucky enough to be enrolled goes beyond 45% as has been divulged by
the several reports. Most of the public sector educational institutions stay in a status of poor
condition lacking even basic facilities, resultantly shaking the presupposed standards of
education. There are four areas that snivel for pressing concentration which are curriculum,
textbooks, examinations, and teacher training (Hoodbhoy, 2001). The textbooks need be made
more facilitating, student and learning friendly.

31. Private school system::

Private Schools in Pakistan enroll more students than in other countries of the region. They least
bother about the capacity and facilities available, they rather over burden the teaching staff. The
rapid mushroom growth of private schools and academies of teaching reflect the people's lack of
trust in the public sector schools coupled with a deficiency of sufficient educational institutions
to cater to the needs of the fast growing population. However, there are certain private schools
which are slightly better than the public ones. In the elite schools where the quality education is
offered, heavy fees is charged that continues to be a problem. These private sectors schools are
meant only for a special sector of the population and are out of the reach of general masses. The
private sector schools should be brought under the control of rules making these somewhat
accessible for the common population.
32. Lack of educational policies::
The National Education Policy (1998-2010) was developed prior to Dakar. It has a clear cut
vision and direction to support the education department. Since the 2001, the Ministry of
Education has developed a number of policy documents including that of National Education
policy (2009) but the endeavors remain focused on paper work more rather than the
operationalization, though the involvement of NGOs and international development agencies is
very much there. The simple reason is that the plans are vicious and not the ground reality based.
The policies should be environment friendly. .
33. Increase in population::
Literacy in Pakistan has risen from 45 to 54 percent within the span of 2002 to 2006,
simultaneously primary enrollment rates have also increased from 42 to 52 percent. The
population explosion could not enable to catch the targets. In spite of the increase in the certain
parameters, the participation rate in Pakistan remains the lowest in South Asia. Alongside it,
there are marked male-female, inter-regional and rural-urban disparities: Only 22 percent of
girls, compared to 47 percent boys, complete primary schooling. Female literacy in rural
Baluchistan is only 32 percent compared to high urban male literacy rates (and 80 percent among
the urban male in Sindh)
34. Lack of attention of the authorities::
Most of the criticisms leveled against the education procedures and practices may be rationalized
through improving governance and accountability. It would be tangible and workable if we could
go for considering the merit, enabling capacity building, increasing investments in education as
an industry and finally giving the heir and fire powers to the administrative heads. The private
sector and the banks should finance the educational milieu with confidence, as at the moment,
we are spending 2.3 percent of GDP which is the lowest in South Asia.
35. Lack of uniform educational system::
There is a crying need for quality which calls for homogeneity among the procedural formalities
like the observance of the curriculum. Had it been uniform the working for it, further extension
becomes easier and getting the intellect skimmed out of masses becomes possible. Currently, the
poor are deprived of education in the elite institutions which are causing the development of a
special class. This class doesn’t work for the nation; they work elsewhere but are fed through the
national resources.
36. Medium of Instruction::
We took a long period in deciding that what our medium of instruction would be, till now we
don’t have a clear picture before us. It is good to have the National language as the medium of
communication provided; we have a rich treasure of knowledge. In our case, we do not fail to
develop Urdu to cope with the intellectual needs nor do we translate the treasure of knowledge
available for our national use.
37. Education as a business::
Education has been pursued by some of the people as an industry but because of being illiterates,
they fail to cope up with the stipulated standards. The leader with vision spoils the mission as
well as the projects undertaken. Their only intent is money making that has caused the decay in
the standards, induction of sub-standard staff, and depriving the deserving to grow. They don’t
want to catch with the move of success but they try to be good entrepreneurs.
38. Delay in renewal of policies and syllabus/Political Interference::
There is a need to continuously update the curriculum because if it goes stale, it does not equip
the beneficiaries with the saleable skills and expertise. At the first place, the problems cited have
arisen due to lack of commitment and inefficient management on the part of state. The policies
lack long term vision and its implementation strategies are being affected by undue political
interference. In addition to it, the measures taken are not evidence based and geared by the
vested interests of the authorities. Whatever strategies have been applied failed to promote the
rational and critical thinking skills amongst the students.
At the second place, we find lack of resource commitment and realistic implementation
alongside poor allocated resource utilization. As relevant statistics are not available,
implementation of the education policy has not been successfully executed.
At the third place, we come across weak budgetary planning because of staggered data and least
coordination among the data maintaining units (USAID, 2006). The coordination, match with the
assessment, project design and implementation are not to the desired level within the government
and with the donor agencies. The harmonization is missing too between the federal and
provincial governments which cause drastic problems in the policy implementation.
The policy formulating, planning and implementing bodies work in isolation as the water tight
compartments. The government's consultation is very much restricted and does not go beyond its
specific quarters. It should have to be extended to non-state sectors to initiate and mobilize the
action. Teachers does not normally form the part of policy making process, hence the process of
sharing and consultation remains missing. It leads to implementation of educational policies
without consultation, thus the efforts go in vain (UNESCO, 2007).
Over the span of time, what we have learnt is to go for dialogue, and keeping the private and
public sector on board. The matter of access to education and challenges to quality remain at
stake as being unresolved despite much policy deliberation.
Recently, Minister of Education announced a new Education policy for that next 10 years
ignoring the fact that the previous educational policy span still persists that was from 1998 to
2010. The policy has projected new plans and promises to the nation pointing to the fact that all
the public schools will be raised to the level of private schools within the shortest period of time.
In the absence of a plan of action, the suggested plan of action would not work. The schools have
been put under obligation to use the national curriculum and encourage the students of 5th and
8th class to take board exams. This has disturbed the students of private sector also.
It is urged that the Universities should be the research centre’s and must not be allowed to act as
the examining bodies for graduate or post-graduate examinations. Allocations are supposed to be
made to the aspired levels as UNO suggests a country to allocate at least four percent of its GDP
towards education but here in Pakistan we are just allocating less than two percents of GDP.
Even that is not fully utilized because of procedural formalities.

Suggested Solutions for Educational System:

13. English should be medium of Instruction:

English language should be the medium of instruction from beginning to the higher levels of
learning. National language should be a supporting language for communication facilitation and
every day business. Efforts should be made to enhance the knowledge treasure in the national
language through translation of the research based information.

14. Talented and qualified Staff

Hiring should be made from amongst the highly qualified and the teachers should be paid not
according to the level of education but the qualification of the staff.

15. Fulfill the lack of teachers:

Efforts should be made to bring down the student-teacher ratio to 15:1 in lieu of current 40:1.
Consequently, the number of teachers will have to be enhanced, leading to the rise in number of
teachers and enabling the competent persons to be inducted to the system of education.

16. Primary education should be made compulsory:

Primary education should be made compulsory and free (it is already free of cost but not
compulsory). It should also be made appealing, impressive, interesting and utilitarian to attract
the general masses.

17. Increase in teachers incentives

Teachers should be offered more financial benefits by increasing their pays.

18. Translation of foreign research to local language

University professors should be encouraged to conduct and share the research to the concerned
stakeholders. They should also be asked to translate the foreign research into local languages for
sharing it with the lower formations of education enabling them to implement/take benefit out of
it.
19. Check on distinctive education:-
Government should strictly check all private educational institutions for keeping a balance of
standards and level of practices.

20. Scholarships and financial support to students:

Students should be offered more scholarships and government should support the intelligent and
outstanding students to prosper, develop and serve their local community rather than migrating to
the big cities.

21. Special Financial packages:

The dilemma here in Pakistan is that students are genius but they use their intelligence in
negative way, hence, contributing nothing towards the development of country. Another problem
with Pakistan is brain drain. Capable and outstanding professionals prefer foreign jobs instead of
serving in their own country. This is due to the low financial benefits and indifferent attitude of
government towards them. Recently Government should provide them facilities and special
financial packages to encourage them to stay in their own country.

22. Betterment of education policies and teachers workshop:

In the view of importance of education, the Government should take solid steps towards
implementation instead of projecting policies. In this regard, the allocations should be made easy
and timely from provinces to districts and then to educational institutes. Workshops must be
arranged for teachers as a continuous feature for learning.

23. Infused Technical Education:

Technical education should be infused into the regular system stream. The education board of
Punjab has projected a plan to give tech- education to the children of industrial workers.

24. Promotion of primary education:

Promotion of the primary education should be made possible by consulting teachers, professors
and educationists while devising any plan, syllabus or policy for it. There should be a balance in
reliance on public and private for enabling education to reach the general masses in its true
shape. Students’ outlook is to be broadened by taking them out of the books into the practical
realities. Education is the only cure of disability of the state and for bringing revolution through
evolution and by eradicating the social evils through education.

Conclusion
Education serves as the backbone for the development of nations. The countries with the
effective impressive need oriented, saleable and effective system of education comes out to be
the leaders of the world, both socially and economically. It is only education which can turn a
burden of population into productive human resource. Pakistan's current state demands that the
allocations for education be doubled to meet the challenges of EFI, gender disparity and
provision of teachers in the work places earlier than 2018 as per stipulated qualifications.
Millennium Development Goals are yet to be realized latest by 2015.
The natural calamities, political turbulence, provincialisms, and political motivations make the
best planned, fail. The allocations towards the sector of education could not be enhanced because
of the earlier. We have to revisit our priorities to keep the country on the track of progress.

Pakistan’s recently-introduced Single National Curriculum for schools across the country
promises uniform educational attainment for her children, but as Maryam Naqvi argues, there
are several impediments to equal outcomes for children via education in Pakistan and only a
multi-pronged, composite strategy can hope to overcome Pakistan’s complex problems in the
education sector. 

Singe National Curriculum

The Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr Imran Khan recently introduced the Single National
Curriculum (SNC) with an aim to unite the children of the country under the umbrella of a single
curriculum. However, there is little evidence of what exactly the execution of this curriculum, as
envisaged by the government, will achieve.

The curriculum is to be introduced in three phases: in the first phase, it will be implemented for
Grades 1-5 in the academic year 2021-22; in the second, it will be implemented for Grades 6-8 in
2022-23; and in its third phase, Grades 9-12 in 2023-24. For the first phase, the Federal
government has directed all provinces except Sindh to launch the SNC by ensuring its
implementation in all public and private schools as well as in religious madrasas. The question
is, will it be able to tackle the existing educational inequalities in Pakistan?

Educational Inequalities in Pakistan

Pakistan is marred by intricate problems which affect the education of her children. It is easier
said than achieved that one curriculum can address all these complex problems. Educational
inequality exists in Pakistan not just because students are studying different curricula, are
enrolled in private and state schools, are elite and poor, and (those who can afford) opt for higher
education abroad, compared to the local education; the reasons for educational inequality lie
beyond these aspects.

Poverty is one of the main factors that impedes parents from sending their children to school.
Limited income and spending capacity of parents along with unsafe transportation services puts
education, particularly of female children, at stake, with girls dropping out of school more than
boys. It would be interesting to know how exactly the SNC will result in more educated girls,
and reduce the existing gender gap within the education system of Pakistan? The issue of girls
dropping out from schools is not because of the nature of the curriculum; as such, it will not be
resolved if SNC is implemented in schools. There are cultural barriers, like early marriage for
girls, which again keeps them deprived of higher education. If girls continue to get married at an
early age, the curriculum at schools will not matter as long as they are not the beneficiaries of it.

The SNC attempts to bring religious neutrality by promoting intra-faith harmony and catering to
the needs of students from minority faiths by teaching them according to their religious beliefs.
However, gaps in implementation make it a daunting task for the government as not all private
and public schools in every province will be willing to opt for the SNC and hence, a strong
monitoring mechanism will need to be adopted by the government to ensure the implementation.
After the 18th Amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan, the Provinces were given an exclusive
right to design their curriculum, syllabus and define their education standards. By introducing the
SNC, the Federal Government seems to have breached this privilege of the Provinces and
violated the 18th Amendment. The Education Minister of Sindh, Mr Sardar Shah, held this view
while explaining why Sindh would not be introducing the SNC, clarifying that the Province has
its exclusive right to design and implement its education curriculum, and the SNC of the Federal
Government was an unacceptable imposition. The refusal to implement the SNC by the Sindh
provincial government also deprives the curriculum from being ‘national’ any longer.

The SNC also violates the right of parents to choose the kind of education they would like to
provide for their children. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
to which Pakistan is a signatory, provides freedom to parents to choose the religious and moral
education for their children in light of their own convictions. However, the introduction of the
SNC leaves parents with no choice than to let their children study what the government has
decided.

In Pakistan, almost 22.5 million children are out of school; to get them enrolled in schools, the
capacity of existing schools needs to be increased, more schools are needed, and of course more
funds should be allocated to the education sector. The government’s priority should be out-of-
school children, as their enrolment in schools is essential to resolve the persisting educational
disparities in Pakistan. Once children are enrolled in schools, only then would they be able to
benefit from the SNC. Focusing only on renewing a curriculum is not a sound policy, especially
when the teachers are not even sufficiently or properly trained to deliver quality education.
Teachers’ training is another related aspect the government needs to invest in and work on before
assuming that the implementation of SNC will improve the quality of education in Pakistan.

Conclusion

While a single curriculum is in principle a good step towards unifying the younger generation, it
is not enough as a strategy to bridge the existing inequalities within the education system of
Pakistan. There are several other important issues which need to be dealt with, and addressed by,
the government first as they are crucial for the success of SNC. As discussed above, the drop-out
rates of girls, out-of-school children, lack of trained teachers and unsafe transportation services
need to be resolved. For all this to be taken care of, the government needs to invest more in the
education sector and not rely only on a limited number of policies and strategies to overcome
educational disparities.

With education becoming a provincial subject under the 18th Amendment of the Constitution of
Pakistan, Provinces should be allowed to design and choose curricula of their own choice;
likewise, parents should be allowed to choose what type of education their children should
benefit from. Finally, reducing poverty itself is a challenge the  government needs to tackle,
since many parents cannot send their children to school due to lack of finances, and their
children remain deprived of education which gives rise to further educational disparities in
Pakistan.

Analyzing the Pros and Cons of

Single National Curriculum
Pakistan has a variety of educational systems which further class differences and seems to
be a big hurdle in bringing unity and harmony among the nation.
One of these systems is represented by high level English medium schools in private sector
whose fees on average ranges from 15 to 25K or even more.
Other major chunk of the children goes to low fee private and public sector schools and
finally a substantial amount of children studies in religious sanctuaries known as Madrassa.
All these educational institutes have different environments in terms of curriculum, way of
teaching, facilities and freedom. After spending 10 years, which is the average schooling
time, in these respective institutes, it is hard to imagine that these children would be able to
befriend each other or have an intimate and respectable working relationship whenever
future brings them close.

Therefore, any effort to eradicate these differences may be seen as an effort with a good
intention and in the right direction.
We have about 22.5 million out of school children in this country and all governments have
been doing efforts to bring these out of school children to schools. Incentives like total fee
wave off, giving monthly stipends, free books and copies are some notable measures taken
in this context. Single National Curriculum (SNC) is in fact a step ahead to this basic
problem which means that along with doing efforts to increase children enrollment,
government is now serious and taking concrete steps to increase the quality of education
being provided. Through SNC government has provided some minimum learning standards
for students of all grades and except for few books like Islamiyat and Urdu, private schools
are at great liberty to design and draft their own books keeping in consideration the
minimum learning standards. Regarding mode of education in these books’ government, at
present, intends to implement its scheme of teaching from one to three class in Urdu except
Math and Science subjects and later this will be implemented from grade 1 to 5.
There are people who have apprehensions about this SNC, the way it has been carved out,
about syllabus, about present faculty and about possible outcomes of SNC. However, most
of these apprehensions and concerns could be summarized under below main points.

1. Asking private schools to teach Islamiyat and Social Studies in Urdu will be a big
challenge for the children especially for children of 3 and 4 grades who have been studying
these subjects in English.

2. Along with making Islamiyat mandatory for all grades, SNC has introduced lot of
religious/Islamic stuff in Urdu, English, Social Studies and even in History books as well.

3. It is not the curriculum which lacked but the teaching capabilities of the teachers and
teaching environment, especially of the public sector schools, so this should have been the
focus of government.

4. Just focusing on the curriculum and not on testing/examination system will not render any
fruitful results.

5. The government instead of raising the standard of public sector schools is trying to lower
the private schools’ standard to bring all at one level.

6. Madrassas would not implement this SNC and will keep following their own agendas.
Now when we deeply scrutinize these concerns, we see that some are mere fears of doing
an extra effort, some mere negative opinions and some are really genuine grievances.
Though developed countries have been able to give a complete secular outlook to their
educational systems but Pakistan being formed on the basis of religion has its own
dynamics and limitations.

Therefore, honoring the sentiments of people regarding ideological basis of this country
there is no harm in mandating Islamiyat as a compulsory subject however increased
religious/Islamic content in other books should be a matter of concern for people at the
helm. Government has made arrangements for teaching Ethics to the Non-Muslim students
in place of Islamiyat, however, what other choice these non-Muslim students have when
they are forced to read Islamic content in other above-mentioned books. So, it is good that
government seriously address this concern and try to make these subject specific
books more secular that are equally acceptable to all citizens of the country.

Concern regarding capabilities of the teaching staff and teaching methodologies is a very
genuine concern and perhaps one which should be given the most importance. If we
observe our big cites, we see that most of the public sector schools have larger
infrastructure than private schools and also teaching staff here has permanent and secure
jobs with perks much better than private schools’ teachers. However, learning outcomes
and overall personality development of the students in thesepublic sector schools is far
behind than the average private schools in these areas. Further we see the trend very
dominant, at least in cities, that even the extremely poor people prefer to send their children
in private schools¹.

the “quality of education” is one of the major factors for parents for selecting a private
school over a public sector school . Therefore, government needs to take it very seriously
and should have more emphasis on teachers training, school environment and also efficient
use of technology by the teaching staff for imparting education in easy and interesting
manner for the students.

Regarding madrassas, these are approximately more than 30,000 in number that cater to
the educational needs of approximately three million children. However, education being
imparted in these madrassas have been a subject of great debate due to these madrassas’
affiliation and allegiance with particular religious sects. Now if we could have a curriculum
that along with fulfilling the religious needs of these madrassas may fulfill their secular
education needs as well then it would be a great step in the history of our country.
Moreover, having a single national curriculum which will have great commonality of sylla-
bus and contents will make these madrassa students not to feel alien about other children in
the country and will also open new career avenues for them. However, critics are right in
saying that mere introduction of the curriculum will not suffice the purpose and a strict
surveillance and monitoring mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure things are
actually happening on the ground.

Finally, if we do not have a right testing and examination system in place, we will never
know how well our students are doing and do our efforts are reaping the desired results.

If the examination system would be the same old which tested children memory rather any
cognitive or intellectual abilities then there will be no benefit of introducing a better
curriculum. Unfortu- nately, we do not see any substantive work and efforts done in this
regard against this SNC exercise. So, it is necessary that government look into this
important pillar of good education and try to revamp existing examination system to match
the claimed learning outcomes of SNC.