The education system of pakistan is one of a kind in the entire planet. There is no unamity amoung provinces as the text books and language(s) of instrustions change as we move from khyber to karachi. Students in pubjab study core subjects in urdu. Pahsto is taught in north; sindi in south and witnin the federal capital fundamentals of islamiyat are eleborated in arabic. Let me remind you that we are living in the islamic republic ofpakistan. Our natinal language is urdu and our offical language is english but our curriculum is divided into regional languages and no effort are being made to address this paradox.
Apart from lingual issues, the other crucial problem of education in pakistan is its three different types of education systems. Elite english medium schools with hefty fees are reserved for the elite of this country. This system thrives on books written and published abroad and conveys westren thoughts to our younger lot. The result is that this highly qualified breed of youngerters flies aborad after their schooling here and never looks back to pakistan. Due to this brain drain, we end up with only one noble price winner in the entire history of the country.
The next in the line are urdu medium government owned schools. I won’t go into details but just imagin the sheer learning difficulties a student faces when he or she goes to the university after attending and urdu medium. The math and science studied in urdu are now useless. He used to write “takhte” with a reed pen on daily basis which made his writing look beautiful but since he doesn’t have the depth in enlglish grammer, he makes gramatical erros. Everything is new the world has changed, he realises !
Third system comprises of students who get their basic education from madrassas. This is the total opposite of the rest whre the students don’t have to pay anythign. Every thing is free of cost. Government recently has had contracts with various madrassas regarding the syllabus to be taught but again there is a big question mark that what will these madrassa students will do after completing their education? They can hardly adjust in formal colleges and universities.
The multiplicity of education systems gives rise to various questions. If only 1% of pakistan’s population goes to madrassas, then why are we ignoring remaining 99% by fighting a “War against terror”? government statistics show literacy rate is 56 %. Literacy rates of 63% men & 36% women celarly depict the gender imbalance in education. But the defination of being educated can again be challenged and if a “literate” person is defined according to international standards, the literacy rate would certainly sink to the ground.
We are living in a global world where every thing is very much advanced but we still are trapped into the pathetic education system. Why can’t we make one curriculum thoughout the country? I personally think that english should be compulsory and should be the sole mode of teaching. Every studnet should have uniform platform to excel in every walk of life. The government, apart from distributing free books should be make some ifrastructure development. The parha likha punjab should be transformed into parha likha pakistan.
In addition to the above recomendations, the awarness should be given to masses about the importance of education and sufficent job opppoutunities should be created to employ the educated lot constructively. Multiplicity of education system is a menace as it is widening the gap between people with different income levels. If this gap increases many other problems with come to surface and it would be difficicult to address them all. Though it is understandable that nothin can be done to unify the education systems, however hope lingers that efforts will be made in this regard so that our future generations do not dwell into the vicious income disparity gap and all may have equal opportunities to learn and work.
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