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Education in Pakistan

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Education in Pakistan 2020

AN OVERVIEW WITH A FOCUS ON THE POLICIES

OMAIR SHAFIQ

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cell 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Cell 2. History of Education In Pakistan ...............................................................................1
2.1 Indian Culture ............................................................................................................................. 1
2.2 Muslim Identity .......................................................................................................................... 1
2.3 British Legacy ............................................................................................................................. 1
Cell 3. Education after 1947; the Policies ............................................................................ 3
Cell 4. Different Sides of Education In Pakistan ............................................................ 3
4.1 Universal Primary Education.................................................................................................. 3
4.2 Higher Education ...................................................................................................................... 3
4.3 Female Education ..................................................................................................................... 4
4.4 The Language Issue ................................................................................................................. 4
4.5 Religious Education and Madrassas .................................................................................... 4
4.6 Teachers and Teacher Education .......................................................................................... 5
Cell 5. Challenges ...................................................................................................................... 5
5.1 Lack of Ownership .................................................................................................................... 5
5.2 Political Will ............................................................................................................................... 5
5.3 Imported Packages of Reforms ............................................................................................ 5
Cell 6. Recommendations ................................................................................................... 6
6.1 Consultative Process ................................................................................................................ 6
6.2 Consistent Availability of Resources ................................................................................... 6
6.3 Effective Monitoring System ................................................................................................. 6
Cell 7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 6
References ..................................................................................................................................... 6
 Education in Pakistan 1

Education in Pakistan: A look at the

Policies
Cell 1. INTRODUCTION
The unfortunate education sector in Pakistan has always been neglected like a minor department of no major
consequence. But it is not that none ever cared for education in the country, a thorough study of the education
policies of Pakistan from 1949 to 2009 would reveal a hopeful trend yet at the same time it would show political
manipulation and sabotage of national resources. Nonetheless, it is no less true that regardless of the progress
in the sector we still lag far behind our neighbors let alone the rest of the world. So, if Pakistan is to emerge as
an educated nation it must reform its education strategy with a complete political will. (Saddiqui, 2016)

Cell 2. HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

The role of history in shaping the education sector of a nation is as evident as the fact that the earth
revolves around the sun. History determines what the mode, atmosphere, and what medium of education shell
be, this is very well true for Pakistan that has a Muslim Identity with a British Colonial Past and more than three
millenniums old Indian culture. After Pakistan’s Independence, the architects of the nation too were bewildered
over how to open this Gordian knot without actually doing the same thing Alexander did (Brittanica, 1998). To
understand how three conflicting civilizations shaped our education system and what has become of it after
their merger, a short overview of history will be needed.

2.1 INDIAN CULTURE

The land where Pakistan came into being was part of the Western India that hosted the Hindu civilization.
The influence can still be seen from the way our people conduct their marriages and how we differ from
other Muslim societies in the world. The Indian or Hindu culture plays an extremely basic role in our
education by setting the norms of social conduct, interaction, and educational hierarchy. Therefore the
way our society educates its children is in more ways than one similar to how much of the Indian
Subcontinent does the same. This part of our education is not based on a curriculum per se, it is how we
teach manners to our children. Similar to how different civilizations do the same. The Muslims of India
differed from the Muslims of Iran or Arabia in more ways than one in this respect.

2.2 MUSLIM IDENTITY

However, it would be wrong to say that we are completely the same as the rest of India in the way we
educate our youth. We are Muslims and our history and social norms have at times diverged greatly from
their Indian counterparts. This is very much evident from our own madrassa system which was introduced
to educate our young in Islam and give them a base in worldly knowledge like Mathematics and
Jurisprudence. Compared to the Indian chaste education system the Muslims would allow anyone to
learn in their madrassas. Also the madrassas were unique in the sense that it was the easier for a
commoner to have access to higher arts and science which hitherto was a privilege set for Kings and
Princes.

2.3 BRITISH LEGACY

Unfortunately however, with the decline of flow of knowledge amongst the Muslims and the advent of
the European era. Education in India under the Muslim umbrella too became stagnant, allowing the
Education in Pakistan 2

English Secretary Thomas Babington Macaulay to call the education of India inferior to that of the English
in his famous Minutes. Where he states,

“I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their
value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. I have conversed, both here and at
home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the oriental
learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a
single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic
superiority of the Western literature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the
oriental plan of education” (Macauley, et al., 1935)

With this the British introduced their own system of education that was blended in Christianity to a great
extent. They did not intend to educate the Indians but only wanted to give birth to a class that would
assume their role after they had left India. According to Macaulay this would ensure that even if the
British power were to decline, her prestige as the seat of learning and elegance would not. For which he
advocated the use of English as a medium,

“In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is
impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our
best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, --a class of persons
Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it
to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the
Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the
population.” (Macauley, et al., 1935)

From the discussion we see the intent of introducing English in India. Nonetheless the British legacy
became an integral part of our education and English is an important language in the Indian subcontinent
to this day.

Figure 1- Thomas Babington Macaulay (Enc20)

 Education in Pakistan 3

Cell 3. EDUCATION AFTER 1947; THE POLICIES

As politics played an important part in shaping education in the subcontinent throughout history, it did
the same after 1947. After Pakistan came into being the different education Policies that followed through the
decades were representative of the prevailing problems and concerns of the time. The very first such policy of
the state was the Pakistan Educational Conference, 1947; wherein the aims were to provide a solid place for
Islam in the education system hitherto influenced by English standards. It was logical since the very reason
Pakistan came into being was to provide a land where the Muslims of India could practice Islam without any
hindrance, therefore it made sense to integrate Islam into the state Education. The second such state policy was
in 1959 under the Ayub Khan regime which sought to legitimize its rule via the religion card, reiterating the same
ideals as its predecessor, the 1959 stressed on Islamic ideology and national integration for a stronger central
government. This changed when in 1970 and 1972 the Bhutto regime sought to pursue socialist sentiment and
placed higher importance on technical and vocational education. Contrary to the Capitalist economic order,
Bhutto moved to implement a socialist order by Nationalization and the like. In 1979 with the advent of Zia-ul-
Haq, Islam gained a whole new meaning in the education policy of 1979. Zia-ul-Haq like his predecessor used
Islam as a means for legitimacy and stressed strongly on Islamic values going as far as to give Mosques the status
of schools, it was an important move no-doubt as the “Jihad” in Afghanistan needed volunteer Mujahedeen. The
next education Policy came in 1992 during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif, a democratically elected government
that too stressed on Islamic ideals – as it came in to power via religion, IJI – but also placed due importance on
Pakistani ideology.

Cell 4. DIFFERENT SIDES OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Aside from the Policies education is a very broad term encompassing a plethora of sub-fields and factors
that shape how a nations educated individual will turn out at the end of his/her education. An analysis of the
different sub-fields would show how the policies at time favored one over another. How quantity versus quality
became an issue. How an excellent policy with a poor implementation led to a blunder. How an imported idea
made things worse than better. How personality driven ideals were abandoned with loss of the persona.

4.1 UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

Universal Primary Education (UPE) was a Millennium Development Goal of the UN that was succeeded
by the “Quality Education” goal of the current SDGs. Nonetheless it is an important part of a nation’s
education where the nation in question provides at the least primary education to the entirety of its
population. Every education policy has focused on UPE as it appeals to the working class. Unfortunately
however, the implementation wasn’t as hard willed as the policy makers described it. Starting in 1947,
the target for achieving UPE was set to 1967 which was later moved to 1980, 1984, 2002, 2010, and 2015
for their numerous policies respectively. The reason was lack of political will by the numerous
governments, an example of which would be that the expenditure of primary education – instead of rising
– decreased from 41 percent in 1947-48 to 30 percent in 1967-68. The emphasis instead seemed to be
on increasing numbers no-matter the means, half-baked strategies that overlooked the consequences
led to higher drop-outs at later stages with waning level of understanding amongst the pupils, an example
of which would be the turning of mosques to Mohallah schools with near to zero-training of the teachers
(hitherto Maulanas). An example of the deteriorating quality of education showed that by the end of
class three, only 50 percent of the children had mastered the Mathematics curriculum for class one
(Andrabi, 2010).

4.2 HIGHER EDUCATION

Higher Education refers to specialized education dealing with research and technical know-how. In effect
it relates directly with the economic development and international standing of a country. Pakistan has
 Education in Pakistan 4

come a long way in this department and its gains are commendable, from 1947 when there were only
two universities in the present Pakistan i.e. University of Punjab and University of Sindh (Made only a few
months after independence) to today when there are 139 universities with an enrolment of 1.6 Million
(GoP, 2012). However, here too quality has often been compromised for quantity. Despite our efforts for
increasing available seats at universities and increases universities at national levels, the quality of
education at universities remains low still. As of 2018-19 QS Ranking only 6 Pakistani universities made it
to the top 1000 world ranking. None made it to the top 100 or even top 200 rankings. The reasons for
which are quite simple. Teaching is not per standards (Desk, 2015). Quality of research is sub-par as very
few of Pakistani Journals are internationally recognized.

4.3 FEMALE EDUCATION

Pakistan has a female population of 48.63 percent of its total (Statistics, 2016). If the country is to stand
amongst the developed nations with its head high, she will have to educate her daughters not only
because an educated mother will lead to educated families but because an un-educated 48 percent of
population is a huge burden on the country. The constitution of Pakistan provides for daughters of the
nation to participate in all spheres of national life under its article 34. The execution of this required
provision of adequate female education, which was an important part of every policy and it was handled
with utmost earnestness. Unfortunately, however, the solutions proposed were not representative of
the ground realities. Female education has been discouraged in Pakistan due to social, economic, moral,
and religious realities. The solutions proposed were separate schools, more female staff and awareness
campaigns. The result was not favorable as even if girls had different schools, parents at home did not
consider it necessary to educate their daughters, more female teachers did less to alleviate the problem
and more to create a problem in itself as the teachers seldom visited the school due to social restrictions
on working of females in Pakistani society, and hard core issues such as these could not be corrected
simply with awareness campaigns. Here we see a new problem, lack of understanding of the core issue.

4.4 THE LANGUAGE ISSUE

The English language was imported to India to be used by a privileged class that was meant to act as a
proxy between the rulers and subjects of India. After the independence of Pakistan however, the
architects of the nation were faced with a dilemma. The Pakistan movement required implementing Urdu
as the state language which would mean Urdu would act as the medium of education as well, while doing
so would imply abandoning English which was ill-placed given the Global advantage of having an
educated class with a strong base in the language. The different policies that followed tried to do away
with the issue through brute force by issuing decrees to change the mediums to Urdu from English which
could not be implemented because the approach taken was no solution at all. Not only did it not bring
any change but it also gave way to certain local and provincial policies where elementary school children
were trained in their mother languages leading them to be inferior to children form another area with
different policies who were relatively well versed in English. In addition the attitude of employers towards
graduates with a stronger command on English seemed to be a repeat of the colonial era where a
privileged class had control over state machinery.

4.5 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND MADRASSAS

Madrassa education is an important part of Muslim history in the subcontinent. Integrating the Madrassa
network and religious education was also an important part of Pakistan’s education policies and
problems. The madrassas were very well neglected until Zia-Ul-Haq when in the 1979 education policy
they were thoroughly integrated into the system. Their graduates were declared equivalent to Masters
and Bachelors in the English system. This was needed to gather positive sentiment for using the madrasas
as recruitment centers for the Mujahidin during the Afghan-Soviet war. Unfortunately, that was the very
well the only progress made in this regard to such an important part of Muslim heritage and identity.
 Education in Pakistan 5

4.6 TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATION

Teachers are a central part of the education system and play the role of an engine that drives the entire
machinery, without the teacher the system would be as good as dead. Unfortunately Pakistan faced a
teacher shortage problem as many teachers migrated to India in the already scarcely literate population
of Pakistan. The policy makers of education in Pakistan recognized the importance of teachers and
planned to solve the problem of teacher shortage. Unfortunately, however, the plan of action taken were
not representative of the issue at hand. Instead of training more teachers, the bar on recruitment was
lowered. It was lowered to as much as 10 th grade during the 1972 education policy. In the 1979 education
policy, Mohallah schools allowed previous Maulanas to become teachers that deteriorated the quality of
teaching greatly. It would be pertinent to point out an important example of how shortage of female
teachers at distant locations was handled in the 1979 policy, there was a focus to provide accommodation
to single teachers for which flats for constructed at selected locations. However as females in our society
are discouraged form living alone, the plan failed miserably. The crux of the matter here is how little
planning is actually done to tally the idea with the situation on the ground.

Cell 5. CHALLENGES
Summing up on the issues faced by the education sector in its different sub-fields, we see some
common problems because of which different policies failed to realize their goals. The first would very well be
political will and atmosphere in the country, we see the policies in a sense “made” for the political ambitions of
the ruling government with little or no regard for actual educational reforms in the country. The second would
be half-baked solutions that were either imported as is from abroad or made by the personality in power as an
out of the box solution. In either case the result was a fiasco that did more harm than good.

5.1 LACK OF OWNERSHIP

A simple glance of the policies reveals the rational of the ruling personality at the time. With their
personal gains in mind, the policies reflect their intended role for education in the country. A tool to be
used for legitimizing power at times and for shaping national opinion at others. We also see how the
successive policy abandons its predecessor and blames it for the ills in our education system, this again
reflects the ruling regimes animosity towards its antecedent. Such behaviors lead to inconsistency and
jeopardizing any well thought of plan of a policy.

5.2 POLITICAL WILL

Notwithstanding, assuming a policy was still applicable and was living in the tenure of its parent ruler. It
still did not enjoy the political will to back its implementation to the fullest extent. We see the Iqra tax
placed by the Zia-ul-Haw regime mysteriously vanishing when it should have provided for the multiple
schools and teacher training programs of the time.

5.3 IMPORTED PACKAGES OF REFORMS

Similarly we see imported reform packages, these reforms were funded by foreign donors that had inbuilt
consultancies unfamiliar with the subtleties of local culture. The example of construction of 320
residences in all four provinces of Pakistan for single female teachers, a project funded by the World
Bank. The apparent purpose of the project was to facilitate female teachers to cope with the problems
of accommodation while working away from their homes. The experiment, however, did not succeed as
most of the residences were either not occupied or were vacated son after occupation. Explaining the
failure of this project Warwick (Warwick, et al., 1992) notes,
 Education in Pakistan 6

“The main reason for the failure of this project was cultural. Single women in Pakistan usually do not live
alone. They stay with their families and if they must travel to outlying areas they do so in the company
of male relatives or other women”

Cell 6. RECOMMENDATIONS
The solutions to the problems our education system faces are quite straight forward. Simply making an unbiased
completely organic policy with utmost care would solve our problems. We observe that can be done as follows

6.1 CONSULTATIVE PROCESS

The education department should be spared of all political interference in its policy making. Education
experts from all over the country should be sought for to express their views over different problems, a
consultative process with a well thought of plan with no political strings attached should be made to
actually represent the ground conditions and with the spirit to reform our education system as it may be
required.

6.2 CONSISTENT AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES

Instead of relying on foreign funding, a plan should not be executed unless we have the required funds
in place to execute it. There should be absolutely zero reliance on donors that wish to implement their
own designs in our system. Pakistan is a sovereign state and it should protect its sovereignty to implement
its own policies by adhering to stricter funding structures.

6.3 EFFECTIVE MONITORING SYSTEM

Andrabi (Andrabi, 2010) notes that despite the fact that Public school teachers are paid better with
respect to private school teachers, their performance in class is very low compared to their private
employed colleagues. He attributes this to the non-existent monitoring and the zero incentive for
teachers to attend class in public schools. Only one of the millions of cases, this is the result of Pakistan’s
non-effective monitoring system. There needs to be an effective monitoring mechanism. The committee
should also identify problems and recommend solutions.

Cell 7. CONCLUSION
The education system in Pakistan has all the elements it needs for educating our youth for a better
future. The problem lies in political will to actually reform it to re-arrange its elements in a way that would
reinforce rather than hinder our progress. That will happen only when the education policies are made through
a consultative process hosting opinions from experts of our nation who have real understanding of our local
circumstances and the policies are implemented without political intervention and monitored for identifying
potential problems and their solutions.

REFERENCES
Andrabi. 2010. Education Policy in Pakistan: A Framework for Refrom. s.l. : Lahore International Growth Center, 2010.

Brittanica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. 1998. Gordian Knot. Encyclopaedia Brittanica. [Online] 1998.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gordian-knot.

Desk, Web. 2015. Here's how 6 Pakistani Universities ranked Worldwide. Tribune. [Online] September 16, 2015.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/957651/heres-how-6-pakistani-universities-ranked-
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Education in Pakistan 7

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GoP. 2012. Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12. Islamabad : Ministry of Finance, 2012.

Macauley, Thomas Babington and Young, George Malolm. 1935. Speeches by Lord Macaulay: With his Minute on Indian
education. London : Oxford University Press, 1935. 9780404153489.

Saddiqui, Shahid. 2016. Education Policies in Pakistan. Karachi : Oxford University Press, 2016. Politics, Projections and
Practices. ISBN 9780199402076.

Statistics. 2016. Pakistan- Population, female ( % of total). Trading Economics. [Online] 2016.
https://tradingeconomics.com/pakistan/population-female-percent-of-total-wb-data.html.

Warwick, et al. 1992. The Implementation of Educational Innovationas: Lessons from Pakistan. s.l. : International Journal of
Educational Development, 1992.