Flaws in Pakistan's Education System

A standard education system is imperative for the socio-economical development of a country. The prosperity of a State is linked with quality education. Countries with the worst or ineffective education system are always stuck in the quagmire of different kinds of crisis. Therefore, the country needs to have the best possible education system. Unfortunately, Pakistan is considered to be among those countries with the worst education system. According to the 2012-2013 survey the literacy rate of Pakistan was 55%. This is an alarming low literacy rate which contributes to economic, social, political and technological crisis.

Currently, Pakistan has three different systems of education i.e. private school, government schools and Madrassas. Our country is moving forward with three different education systems. Students in private schools have a completely different mindset compared to the government and Madrassas students. The structure and setup of all these institutions are different too. The government schools have failed to provide quality education to students due to lack of basic facilities in the school. The teaching staff is poorly trained in teaching skills. The teacher uses old teaching techniques which are obsolete in this modern age. Hence, students are unable to learn and rely on rote learning.

Political interference in the recruitment of government school teachers is another reason for the failure of government schools. A person with political affiliation to a certain political party is preferred over the qualified person. These teachers lack the required qualifications yet they are recruited as teachers. The teacher who teaches to primary schools student is just matriculated with zero teaching skills. This is the reason why government school student can't read and write in a way the private school students does. Consequently, government school student tends to fail in their practical life and cannot pursue higher studies.

 

In a recent report, it was found that the Sindh provincial government established 48,277 schools in 27 districts of the province out of this total 4,540 schools are non-operational and 2,181 schools were found as ghost schools. It means that the schools were only present in government files but there were no schools on the ground. This is due to corruption in the education department. There is no proper monitoring system in the country that can have a check on the schools and its staff.

 

Now, the main reason behind Pakistan's poor education system is lack of sufficient funds for education. Pakistan has poor relations with the neighboring India and Afghanistan due to which it spends heavily on its defense. Since a major chunk of the budget goes to defense, other sectors like health, infrastructure, and education starve for funds. Pakistan spends only 2% of its total budget on education which needs to be raised to at least 4%.

 

I think it is time for the government to take education seriously and formulate a policy that could help cut the roots of ignorance and illiteracy. Ministry of education should set a proper monitoring system which could monitor the schools and staff. The government should put an end to three different kinds of the education system and bring one most desirable system. The whole country should have one single syllabus for primary and secondary schools. Madrassas students must also be given modern education along with religious education. This will improve their chances of a better and prosperous life. Recruitment of teachers should be purely on merit rather than nepotism. The government should set teacher training programs throughout the country. In short, the government should do all it can to eliminate illiteracy from the country.