The learning crisis is the inability of students to decipher academic concepts in their curriculum

that children of their level and caliber could, elsewhere in the world. In Pakistan, this disparity
in educational knowledge and practical learning stems from various causes. One of the reasons
behind this is the lack of attention given to younger children at primary and secondary school
levels. As a child is growing up, he picks up habits and traits and these traits are imprinted on
the child’s intrinsic personality for the rest of his/her life. Therefore, at a tender age, it is easiest
to form and shape the personality and abilities of the child. One of the habits that a child can
pick on to and integrate in his or her personality is that of learning and acquiring knowledge.
Schools, and educational systems in general, therefore have a huge responsibility to encourage
children to get intellectually curious about different subjects that interest them. Unfortunately,
they fail to do this, as they encourage rote learning, and don’t give the child enough personal
attention to ever spark this curiosity.

Adding on to this, teachers don’t give personalized feedback to their students. There aren’t
enough teacher-student interactive sessions, therefore the teachers fail to engage their
students enough during classes. This leads to the students become uninterested in the subject,
and therefore developing dislike towards learning very early on in the school years. This dislike
slowly develops into the countless excuses and laziness and reasons to not gain further
knowledge.

Thirdly, parenting has a huge impact on the cognitive powers of a developing child and they
way he/she grasps challenging intellectual concepts. Indian parents and famous for muddling
their kids in mind-boggling riddles and mazes, from a very young age. The results of which are
very evident. Majority of the spelling bee competitions, and general knowledge contests
dominated by such Indian prodigies. However, such meticulous care and efforts to fan their
child’s flame of inquisitiveness is something Pakistani parents are unaware of.

The alarmingly high figures and statistics in the data that provide evidence for the learning crisis
in Pakistan reveal another saddening fact. The disparity between the educational systems
based on income levels, or the private vs government schools fiasco. With majority of the funds
and attention going towards private schools, where international rigorous curriculums are being
taught, government schools are left behind in this race inevitably on budget and educational
curriculum. The same old 40-50 year old books are being taught in government schools, so it is
no surprise that the child loses interest in such outdated and underdeveloped courses.

Last but not least, stemming from the above point, the rising trend in private tuitions is another
blaming factor. With private tutors promising to save children from academic burdens on every
corner of the street, children dump all their abilities to self-think about the subject and rather
completely start depending on the tutors. This dependence is a strong inhibitor of intellectual
curiosity as it slowly paralyses their ability to solve complex problems on their own, which could
have helped them become more interested in the subject or learning in general.
Carrying on to the above point, one solution could be to limit the number of private tuitions in
the country either by enforcing strict actions against private tutors or ensuring that all
educational teaching takes place within the school premises only.

Another suggestion is to allocate more funds for projects across schools that would foster
scientific, mathematical or academic inquisitiveness in younger children across schools.
Examples could be setting up labs where children can hands on experience, or introducing
programs like ‘’ScienceFuse’’, an NGO in Pakistan which has the same agenda.

Thirdly, teachers should be trained to abandon rote learning methods and thereby adapt more
practical, interesting and engaging methods of learning so that they could shape a child’s
interest towards learning a particular subject, and therefore increase his/her will to participate
in studies.