Pakistani Education at a Turning Point
EDUCATION IS INDEFINITELY THE ROYAL ROAD TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. A viable education system, as a dynamic force, helps a nation to fulfill its national goals. Pakistan, being a developing country, has faced serious issues in its education sector since its establishment. Perhaps this is why the educational system has failed to satisfy the nation’s expectations. This unfortunate situation has resulted from a variety of circumstances. The following article is a humble attempt to investigate some of the fundamental issues that have long plagued Pakistan’s education system.
Article 25-A of Pakistan’s Constitution requires that all children aged five to sixteen have free access to education. This constitutional provision, established as part of the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, makes a citizen’s entitlement to a ten-year education a fundamental right. This effectively means that the government must ensure that every youngster in the Land of the Pure receives at least a ten-year education. Unfortunately, despite the passing of almost thirteen years since the amendment, no government has made genuine efforts to execute it. And governments, particularly provincial governments—education is now a provincial concern because of the 18th Amendment—have yet to put it on the radar. The fact that Pakistan has the world’s second-largest population of out-of-school children demonstrates official indifference.
Pakistan, unfortunately, is one of the countries with a bad educational system. In this terrible condition of circumstances, motley factors emerge. However, no government has attended, even though providing basic education to its citizens is a fundamental duty of the state. To begin with, the lack of effective planning and policy formulation is at the top of the priority list. Weak governance, weak administration, and a lack of policy implementation, if any, have wreaked havoc on the education sector. Furthermore, successive regimes have lacked the political will to rigorously implement policies. Furthermore, teachers, who are undeniably the backbone of the education system, have been overlooked in overall policy creation. They are seen as inconsequential, which has resulted in alienation between teachers and the education system.
Another factor contributing to our education system’s dismal performance is a meager budget allocation—Pakistan spends about 2% of its GDP on education. Although successive governments have committed to raise this amount to at least 4%, a target first set in 1992, little progress has been made. Pakistan has spent an average of 2.34% of its GDP on education since 1971, while the global average for the same period is 4.4%, which is far higher than ours. True, Pakistan has the lowest education spending in the area.
To top it all off, around 89% of the budgeted sum is spent on administrative costs, such as teacher wages. The remaining 11% is spent on development. Aside from that, only 20-30% of the school money is used efficiently due to corruption, lack of accountability, and waste of resources. The majority of education expenditure is channeled to a few well-maintained higher education institutions, benefiting high-income people at the expense of basic and secondary education institutions, which are the most significant and crucial levels of education. Typically, 20-25% of the budget remains unspent; however, this amount varies by province.
Teachers bear some of the blame in this situation, despite being the backbone of our educational system. However, an insufficient number of trained teachers, combined with their absenteeism, has stifled any prospective changes in our education. According to UNESCO research, teacher quality in Pakistan is low. Typically, schools, particularly those in the public sector, do not have the permitted number of teaching staff, and positions remain empty for long periods. Furthermore, despite the passing of numerous laws prohibiting corporal punishment, it is still prevalent in educational institutions, contributing to the high dropout rate, particularly at the primary level.
Similarly, educational curricula do not encourage objectivity or critical thinking; instead, they emphasize rote learning and memorization of facts and figures. It favors cramming over innovative learning. Aside from that, kids are taught skewed versions of history texts, which instills them with narrow-mindedness and intolerance against others. Our textbooks place a greater emphasis on theoretical study than on practical labor. In short, because educational curricula are old and traditional, they do not fulfill the demands of today’s demanding times. Pakistan lags considerably behind other countries in terms of innovation. Because our educational system is less inventive, it generates unskilled labor for a decent job. Students are not taught how to apply theoretical work in practice. As a result, every year, an untrained and less inventive workforce floods the labor market. Instead of being a boon to our national economy, such labor is a drain on it. This is one of the reasons why education does not contribute enough to the national economy.
In the short term, the school system needs a comprehensive makeover from top to bottom. The requirement of the hour is proper tangible policy development and implementation in letter and spirit. The government should declare a school Emergency to improve the school system. The budget should be expanded to a minimum of 4% of GDP and spent efficiently. The curriculum should be made more inventive and examined regularly. Most crucially, the state must come to regard education as a right, rather than a favor, to which its citizens are entitled. Change will not occur overnight. It will undoubtedly be a slow process that will take time. Let us all hope for the best!